2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

CAFCGirl

CSP's for me all the way.

I actually find them much cleaner feeling, less odour (let's be honest bits smell) and they have done wonders for my cycle (regularity,flow and symptoms). I honestly think all the chemicals and toxins in disposable stuff sends the body haywire and within one cycle there was a marked improvement.

I find they for a lot better too as they mould to shape more freely being fabric, and no rustling packet sounds in bathrooms at
I wouldn't be without them now.

As for washing, I rinse them out and then they go in a bag in the washing machine, I time my laundry to a load a day over my cycle - so clothes, bedding, towels, sofa throws etc so they're not sitting for long.

I see it as a semi protest as a woman that I should not feel I have to hide my womanhood to make a man feel more comfortable - even when that man is the love of my life LOL

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

I have a new total now. I have used 23 coupons this year now. I had to buy some new dance trainers as the ones I was using were starting to hurt my feet. I got them in a sale for quite a reasonable price so I was very please about that. I have also started using the fabric I bought to make my costume for the dance show and I only used 2 metres of the fabric rather than the full amount so, again, I was pleased about that. I calculate that I have 43 coupons left. I am confident I will make that last the rest of the year. I have plenty of clothes to use and I shouldn't need any more footwear.

ScarletRibbons

Monnagran, I was born in 1948, and in the fifties had an egg exactly as you've described - I remember being fascinated by it. I can't remember what happened to it, was it eaten, did it break - and there's no one left to ask.

PipneyJane

monnagran wrote: »

I can help you out with Easter during the war having lived through it. There certainly was no chocolate or sweets, much less Easter eggs. No fuss was made about Easter at all in my neck of the woods. In fact I was 10 before I had my first Easter egg and it wasn't chocolate but a beautiful white sugar egg with a sort of peephole in one end. When you looked through you could see a tiny diorama, I think it was a scene from Cinderella if memory serves me right. I've never seen one like it again. Where it came from I have no idea.

Monnagran, that egg sounds beautiful.

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Not clothes-rationing, but I can't think of another group who'd understand so easily - I was just thinking of Easter, and how different it must have been during rationing!

Maybe those new undies were an awful lot easier to get than chocolate, so more of a 'thing' was made about them? My parents were children during the war, so maybe that's why they are so clear that "this is the tradition" - perhaps it was rejuvenated or even brought back after absence, and hence why only some people remember it now?

But imagine trying to 'do' Easter for a family of several youngsters nowadays with almost no chocolate or sweets to speak of?! Impossible...!

Laura, I “get” where you’re coming from. I’m sure that, once upon a time, Easter was more about sharing a leg of lamb, eating Hot Cross Buns, going to church - the drama of “Stripping the Chapel” - and less about chocolate. What I don’t know, is when Easter got so commercialised. Does anyone have an idea? It’s almost as bad as Christmas.

Years ago, my DH and I agreed to not give Easter Eggs. Instead, I make a double or triple batch of Coconut Rough and we give tubs of that to our friends and family (as well as having a tub each for ourselves). One batch costs about the same as a large Easter egg, but you get considerably more chocolate.

I’m feeling a bit sad tonight. Thanks to Facebook, I’ve learned that not only did one of the boys from my primary school class die last week, but that my best friend from early childhood has terminal cancer. Two separate posts in a community group I belong to. The perils of living 13,000 miles from home. These are people I haven’t seen since I was a teenager, but I still feel sad.

- Pip

monnagran

Scarletribbons, thank you for that! I have often described that egg to anyone who would listen, but no one knew what I was talking about. You must be about 10 years younger than me so you must have been quite small when those eggs were around. They were beautiful, weren't they?

Pipney, I feel sad for you. It is hard when your contempories start disappearing and succumbing to illnesses. I go to a reunion that our school year has. Every year now there are faces missing and it brings it home to you how short life is and how important it is to make the most of every single day.

keepcalmandcraft

I haven't posted for ages but have been enjoying reading all the posts.
I made a resolution this year to try not to buy any clothes (other than underwear) as I have so many already and I want to sew more myself. Well, so far it has been going well and I haven't bought any. This has mainly been achieved by not going shopping and deleting any email adverts so I am not tempted!
I have needed to buy some knickers and socks so I think that is:
3 pairs socks @ 1 coupon each = 3
3 pairs knickers @ 2 coupons each = 6
I've also bought a metre of beautiful cotton to make a blouse, so that's 2 coupons.
So I've used 11 coupons and have 55 left (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Laura_Elsewhere

Alright, you lot - what have you done to me???

I had an hour to kill this morning, in an area with a choice of CarpetRite, Harveys for Beds, Tapi carpets and Oak Furniture Land.... and Hobbycraft... and I had a 20% off voucher for Hobbycraft...!

I bought a small tube of food colouring for dyeing wool in the microwave, and a notebook.

No yarn.
No fabric.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

CAFCGirl

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Alright, you lot - what have you done to me???

I had an hour to kill this morning, in an area with a choice of CarpetRite, Harveys for Beds, Tapi carpets and Oak Furniture Land.... and Hobbycraft... and I had a 20% off voucher for Hobbycraft...!

I bought a small tube of food colouring for dyeing wool in the microwave, and a notebook.

No yarn.
No fabric.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Tell me more about this dyeing PLEASE!!!!!!! :j :j

Laura_Elsewhere

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Tell me more about this dyeing PLEASE!!!!!!! :j :j

I only do basic stuff but it's very easy and totally colour-fast if you do it right, hurrah!

Only works on animal fibres, so wool and silk, but NOT cotton or synthetics. No idea about the hairier sorts like mohair or alpaca, etc.

But wool and silk, really good - if it's a blend, it won't dye the non-wool/silk fibres.

I use a lidded pyrex dish, but you could just use a bowl and keep on putting clingfilm over. The dye will stain plastic, of course.

Start with loosely-wound wool, or hanks of it tied not too tightly. Soak the wool for at least 30 minutes in white vinegar (Tesco is cheapest per 100ml - "distilled vinegar" they call it). Take the wool out and put it on a plate temporarily. Add food colouring to the vinegar left in the dish - this is the tricky bit. You can always re-dye the yarn if it's too pal so definitely start with less and work up to more! And a little goes a very very long way. I use the Pro-Gel concentrate from Hobbycraft. Mix it really well as tiny blobs left will give patchy results.Add a bit of water if you want, to get enough liquid to cover the yarn, or you can keep it all vinegar. Put the yarn back in and squodge it about with a couple of forks, turn it over, get it well soaked.

Now you want to heat it BUT not boil it. If you boil the liquid then a) you'll shrink the yarn to a felted mess and b) you'll be wiping brightly coloured drips out of your microwave forever. Ask me how I know this...

I ping it for 1-2 minutes and leave it for 5-10 minutes in between. Take the lid off and turn the yarn over once in a while. You want it to be the kind of temp where if you dip your finger in, you take it out again quickly - too hot for washing-up, basically!

Gradually you'll see the liquid turn clear, which means the yarn has taken up all of the colour. If the yarn is still too pale for your liking, then lift the yarn out and add more food colouring to the liquid, and repeat.

Once it's the colour you want, pour off the liquid (I actually keep it and re-use it, so long as it's totally clear. It's purpose is as an acid, and as I use neat vinegar, I can't see why not re-use).

This is the bit where you make the dye washable and fast: rinsing.

I put the pyrex dish in the sink and add hand-hot water. Gradually over 10 minutes or so I add a bit of cold water at a time, so the water *gradually* changes temperature. If you put hot wool into cold water, it'll shrink, and vice versa. So just add a bit of cold repeatedly til you have cold water. Squidge the yarn gently and then tip the water away and re-fill the dish with clean water. Keep doing this til no more colour comes out. I usually then do cold water and a squirt of Ecover washing-up liquid, and let it soak 20 minutes and a load more dye comes out, and then rinse some more.

You then have washable, dye-fast yarn Let it dry and then use it.

Sometimes it feels a bit coarser after dyeing - you can use a 1/2tsp of glycerine in the final rinse if you like.

I only do bright cheerful primary colours - if you're more adventurous than me, you can do gradient yarns, or you could mix your own shades from 2 or 3 food colourings. But I enjoy the bright leaf-green and deep rich orange and vivid blue colours, so I haven't gone into the more complicated things.

Basically, only wool or silk will take up the dye; pre-soak in vinegar; don't boil it, just keep it good and hot; don't temp-shock it, always change temperature gradually; rinse and rinse and rinse.

Experiment!

Definitely experiment prior to using any really irreplaceable or fancy yarn!

PipneyJane

monnagran wrote: »

Scarletribbons, thank you for that! I have often described that egg to anyone who would listen, but no one knew what I was talking about. You must be about 10 years younger than me so you must have been quite small when those eggs were around. They were beautiful, weren't they?

Pipney, I feel sad for you. It is hard when your contempories start disappearing and succumbing to illnesses. I go to a reunion that our school year has. Every year now there are faces missing and it brings it home to you how short life is and how important it is to make the most of every single day.

Thanks Monnaghan. I agree. I also think it’s important to let people know that they’re important to you, even if it’s just “thanks for being my friend at school. We had so much fun together.”

keepcalmandcraft wrote: »

I haven't posted for ages but have been enjoying reading all the posts.
I made a resolution this year to try not to buy any clothes (other than underwear) as I have so many already and I want to sew more myself. Well, so far it has been going well and I haven't bought any. This has mainly been achieved by not going shopping and deleting any email adverts so I am not tempted!
I have needed to buy some knickers and socks so I think that is:
3 pairs socks @ 1 coupon each = 3
3 pairs knickers @ 2 coupons each = 6
I've also bought a metre of beautiful cotton to make a blouse, so that's 2 coupons.
So I've used 11 coupons and have 55 left (please correct me if I'm wrong).

HI Keepcalmandcraft. Welcome to the thread. Yes, your total sounds correct to me.

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Alright, you lot - what have you done to me???

I had an hour to kill this morning, in an area with a choice of CarpetRite, Harveys for Beds, Tapi carpets and Oak Furniture Land.... and Hobbycraft... and I had a 20% off voucher for Hobbycraft...!

I bought a small tube of food colouring for dyeing wool in the microwave, and a notebook.

No yarn.
No fabric.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

We are the Borg. We will assimilate you. :rotfl:

I went to the Anzac Day commemorations today at the Cenotaph and Westminster Abbey. It was the perfect day for people/clothes watching - the representative of the Queensland Government wore a lovely, flattering, but rather plain hat - and for counting blessings. Both world wars were brutal and violent, but the world I live in and the freedom I have is the direct result of the bravery of millions of young men and women, who fought for democracy and stood up to tyranny.

I have two great uncles buried at Gallipoli. It’s time I went and laid flowers on their graves.

- Pip