2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Topher

Years ago, (when I was slim enough to wear it) my Gran made me a skirt from a pattern from which you could "Make a skirt with 1 yard of fabric". When she died I inherited the pattern, she had the original, but apparently it was widely shared around so friends could make a newspaper copy. Then in subsequent house moves, and the coming and going of my hatred of sewing, I lost the pattern. I was delighted to find a copy of it again on e-bay, but I'm pretty sure that since my food intake doesn't reflect that of the 1940s, my waistline will not reflect those of the 1940s, and I'm pretty sure one yard (slightly less than my current circumference) won't hack it! It made a really neatly tailored tweed skirt, which I think would have been only 3 points ( not factoring in thread, a zip, & button).

PollyWollyDoodle

Topher wrote: »

I'm considering turning some old jeans into a rag rug. (My Grandma would be so proud). Does anyone know where I can get the hessian/sacking from? I don't mean the wider weave cotton backing for a cut-wool rug, (which I'd also like as I've finished my cut wool rug & have a wool cutter to turn my wool into another), but the stuf you use for a "proddy rug", or, as I say, a rag rug. If anyone has any comment on the advisability of using denim strips I'd welcome some advice.

A half finished rag rug is one of my UFOs hiding away upstairs. I seem to recall I bought the hessian online, upholstery shops sell it so if you do a search you should find it. My only comment is that denim is probably going to be quite hard work to pull through, although it would make a lovely rug. I really should either get this out and finish it, or accept that I'm never going to complete it. Maybe it could go for the textile recycling you mention above.

Laura_Elsewhere

Topher wrote: »

Years ago, (when I was slim enough to wear it) my Gran made me a skirt from a pattern from which you could "Make a skirt with 1 yard of fabric". When she died I inherited the pattern, she had the original, but apparently it was widely shared around so friends could make a newspaper copy. Then in subsequent house moves, and the coming and going of my hatred of sewing, I lost the pattern. I was delighted to find a copy of it again on e-bay, but I'm pretty sure that since my food intake doesn't reflect that of the 1940s, my waistline will not reflect those of the 1940s, and I'm pretty sure one yard (slightly less than my current circumference) won't hack it! It made a really neatly tailored tweed skirt, which I think would have been only 3 points ( not factoring in thread, a zip, & button).

I remember seeing those! I always wonder about the width - it's still not unusual nowadays for good skirt-weight wool fabric from a proper mill to be much wider than 36" so possibly that was a factor we forget about in our modern everything-112cm-wide days! Good tweed even now is often 60" wide which would make me a lovely skirt even with my more-than-a-yard waist measurement! My skirts are usually 31-33" at the front and +3" at the back, to allow for my, er, curves! Otherwise hey are all much shorter, visibly and obviously, at the back!

And thanks for the charity shop suggestion for recycling old worn-out clothes - unfortunately we don't have one near us that does that (they specify only good-quality, hardly-worn clothes, sadly...), but our good old local Council does do textile recycling, which is what I meant when I said "to the tip" - I should have specified, NOT going into landfill!!!! I believe they take out zips and the rivet-buttons and rivets and some of those go for metal recycling, and the fabric then goes for textile recycling.

PipneyJane

Topher wrote: »

I'm considering turning some old jeans into a rag rug. (My Grandma would be so proud). Does anyone know where I can get the hessian/sacking from? I don't mean the wider weave cotton backing for a cut-wool rug, (which I'd also like as I've finished my cut wool rug & have a wool cutter to turn my wool into another), but the stuf you use for a "proddy rug", or, as I say, a rag rug. If anyone has any comment on the advisability of using denim strips I'd welcome some advice.

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

A half finished rag rug is one of my UFOs hiding away upstairs. I seem to recall I bought the hessian online, upholstery shops sell it so if you do a search you should find it. My only comment is that denim is probably going to be quite hard work to pull through, although it would make a lovely rug. I really should either get this out and finish it, or accept that I'm never going to complete it. Maybe it could go for the textile recycling you mention above.

The technique you’re talking about is also called “Progging” and the tool is different to the latch-hook you’d use for a cut wool rug. Sadly, I can’t remember what the tool is called but it makes it considerably easier to pull the fabric through, since it is what makes the holes.

Years ago, I did a class at the Knit & Stitch Show at Ally Pally. From the right side of your hessian, you push the tool through and then back up again, making two holes. Grab one end of your length of fabric/tape/ribbon with the tool and drag it through both holes. The fabric should be about 1cm wide by 7-ish cm long. Cut on the bias so it doesn’t fray. Google found me these instructions on the Shipley Art Gallery website.

HTH

- Pip



PS: Greetings from the Loir valley in France. (We’re visiting family for 3 days.). I’ve not done any shopping beyond wine.

Topher

PipneyJane wrote: »

The technique you’re talking about is also called “Progging” and the tool is different to the latch-hook you’d use for a cut wool rug. Sadly, I can’t remember what the tool is called but it makes it considerably easier to pull the fabric through, since it is what makes the holes.

Years ago, I did a class at the Knit & Stitch Show at Ally Pally. From the right side of your hessian, you push the tool through and then back up again, making two holes. Grab one end of your length of fabric/tape/ribbon with the tool and drag it through both holes. The fabric should be about 1cm wide by 7-ish cm long. Cut on the bias so it doesn’t fray. Google found me these instructions on the Shipley Art Gallery website.

HTH

- Pip



PS: Greetings from the Loir valley in France. (We’re visiting family for 3 days.). I’ve not done any shopping beyond wine.

Thank you, I do have quite a few of those tools, thanks also for the "cut on the bias" advice, I used to find creating a point on the rag was useful for dragging it through the holes better, (I could fold it more and a point is easier to grab and thread through.
Thanks again.
T:D

thriftwizard

Is this the tool?

Cold sheep? You're a brave woman, Pipney-Jane!

PipneyJane

thriftwizard wrote: »

Is this the tool?

Cold sheep? You're a brave woman, Pipney-Jane!

Yes, that’s similar to the one I have.

Brave or stupid. I’m not sure which. I have had to invoke the rule that I can buy yarn to finish a project. You might remember the ruffle scarf.



With the original skein I purchased in May, I only managed 4.25 rows on it before the yarn ran out. The 5th row needs finishing, with possibly a 6th added for warmth. Since we stopped in Rochester on our way to the Channel Tunnel, I went to the same shop and bought another skein. It’s even the same dye lot. I hope to have the scarf properly finished by the end of the week. (My original plan was to work on the scarf once I’d finished the socks for my BIL but, while I had the hook, I forgot to take the scarf with me to France.). No other yarn or clothing purchased on this trip.

Here are the socks I made for BIL and finished while we were in France. (He’s gone back to Oz now.). I am NOT pleased with the yarn. The further I got into the skein, the more flaws I found. The yarn needed to be broken seven times on the second sock.



The yarn is James C Brett’s Funny Feetz, purchased from Hobbycraft with the £5 discount voucher they send you on your birthday each year. I am so disappointed with it.

- Pip

ETA: This takes my total coupon spend to 113. I won’t be standing on the winners’ podium this year.

Laura_Elsewhere

Pip, I think you should contact Hobbycraft explaining your disappointment and that it was your birthday treat as well as a present for a relative visiting from the other side of the world.

I bought some FQs of cotton and on first wash half the colour faded and there were big white crease-lines permanently across it, really ugly, so I contacted Hobbycraft and they kindly sent me a goft card as well as apologising...

Laura_Elsewhere

My plan to use up lots of laceweight silk and alpaca yarn I otherwise wouldn't use by dyeing it all has reached the stage where I've dyed everything!

Tomorrow it should be dried so I can start trying out how it looks knitted up 5 or 6 strands together, changing a couple of yarns every couple of rounds...

The very dark brown, the four darkest balls, is an alpaca-silk that used to be pale apple-green...! Lovely but I was never going to use it. It's now the colour of a black cat in sunlight, that really dark rich warm brown... the palest colour is the colour of a chipped Tudor brick, a sort of pale red, rather than a pink. They're all at the coppery-salmon end, not the pinky-plum end.

New jumper on no coupons!!

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Pip, I think you should contact Hobbycraft explaining your disappointment and that it was your birthday treat as well as a present for a relative visiting from the other side of the world.

I bought some FQs of cotton and on first wash half the colour faded and there were big white crease-lines permanently across it, really ugly, so I contacted Hobbycraft and they kindly sent me a gift card as well as apologising...

I'm going to complain to Brett's, first, then I'll email Hobbycraft. I'm also tempted to post a comment on the yarn on Ravelry....

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

My plan to use up lots of laceweight silk and alpaca yarn I otherwise wouldn't use by dyeing it all has reached the stage where I've dyed everything!

Tomorrow it should be dried so I can start trying out how it looks knitted up 5 or 6 strands together, changing a couple of yarns every couple of rounds...

The very dark brown, the four darkest balls, is an alpaca-silk that used to be pale apple-green...! Lovely but I was never going to use it. It's now the colour of a black cat in sunlight, that really dark rich warm brown... the palest colour is the colour of a chipped Tudor brick, a sort of pale red, rather than a pink. They're all at the coppery-salmon end, not the pinky-plum end.

New jumper on no coupons!!

Laura, those colours are lovely. What is the yarn that sparkles in the photo? A different ball, further down, looks like it's got white flecks.

- Pip