2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

Well, I've failed to find any skirt fabric for my chap to buy me for Christmas on his points... so I'm dyeing some dupion silk I've had for years that's an unpleasant chalky-pale-grey-green (you kow in films when someone's swimming in an idyllic pond and then they find the body? Yeah, the colour they always show the corpse's hand, that colour!!).

I've tried a couple of samples and I've managed two colours I like so we'll make a decision on which ones, and then I shall start drafting the pattern - another coupon-free skirt!

I did say I wanted to use up fabric I already had! And if I had found fabric to buy in a good colour then I'd never have thought of trying to dye fabric at home...

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Well, I've failed to find any skirt fabric for my chap to buy me for Christmas on his points... so I'm dyeing some dupion silk I've had for years that's an unpleasant chalky-pale-grey-green (you kow in films when someone's swimming in an idyllic pond and then they find the body? Yeah, the colour they always show the corpse's hand, that colour!!).

I've tried a couple of samples and I've managed two colours I like so we'll make a decision on which ones, and then I shall start drafting the pattern - another coupon-free skirt!

I did say I wanted to use up fabric I already had! And if I had found fabric to buy in a good colour then I'd never have thought of trying to dye fabric at home...

Ooohhh..... Serendipity, Laura. It’s serendipity. You will make something beautiful out of that murky grey fabric.

- Pip

PipneyJane

PipneyJane wrote: »

That’s what I’m now dreading. It’s taken me years to find a pattern for this silk. I want the jumper, and I’m even prepared to put up with hand washing the damn thing. Forget about wasting money, after 14 years the £70 paid is already “lost”, I just don’t want my hard work to turn out to be a complete waste of effort.

- Pip (about to go wind skein 5.)

I think the silk is about to go back into time out. I've been avoiding it. It's been such a pain to wind, that I just don't want to touch it. When I knitted over the weekend, I worked on the sock that lives in my bag - I could have done my swatch, but I just didn't want to touch the damn stuff.

I have about half an hour's guaranteed knitting time tonight so will decide then whether I swatch it or start on the next thing in my queue instead, another "It Cannot Fail to Please", this time in pale blue.

- Pip

CapricornLass

Hi everyone, just spent some money on a rather dressy tunic for Christmasy evening events. Its 31inches long, so I think it will have to go into the dress category rather than a top, so 7 coupons spent. A total of 47 coupons for the year. I'm beginning to think that I might even manage to finish the year with some spare coupons.



Just out of nosiness (and, of course, it won't apply to us!) but during the war, were people allowed to carry their unused clothing across from one year to the next?

CapricornLass

P.S Sorry to hear about the silk. What a pain in the bottom that is.

Laura_Elsewhere

CapricornLass, I don't know about the coupons going into next year, but they were colour-coded for when they became valid, so people couldn't blow the lot, so I suspect you also couldn't hoard them. Presumably you jsut had to plan ahead in ways we simply don't nowadays!

Laura_Elsewhere

How many coupons would a pair of velvet leggings be, for wearing indoors like pyjama bottoms? I still have 16.5 coupons left ( how?!?) and I want something for cosy days in, worn with loose long jumpers, that feels and looks nicer than pyjama bottoms... and M&S has velvet leggings (high waist at that!) for £17.99, so I think I shall treat myself...

Edit, a few hours later: y'know something? A year or two ago I'd have bought those leggings, but when I looked at them properly, having only glanced in passing before, they weren't that nice; they were sort of fake-needlecord rather than soft velvet, the colours were a bit muted and dull.... so I didn't buy them. They weren't *just* what i wanted, and nowadays I will NOT waste my coupons getting clothes that make me feel wistfully rubbish!

Thankyou, Pip!

PipneyJane

CapricornLass wrote: »

Hi everyone, just spent some money on a rather dressy tunic for Christmasy evening events. Its 31inches long, so I think it will have to go into the dress category rather than a top, so 7 coupons spent. A total of 47 coupons for the year. I'm beginning to think that I might even manage to finish the year with some spare coupons.



Just out of nosiness (and, of course, it won't apply to us!) but during the war, were people allowed to carry their unused clothing across from one year to the next?

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

CapricornLass, I don't know about the coupons going into next year, but they were colour-coded for when they became valid, so people couldn't blow the lot, so I suspect you also couldn't hoard them. Presumably you jsut had to plan ahead in ways we simply don't nowadays!

While you couldn’t use a coupon before its valid period - hence the colour coding - I believe that you could save them up for use later on. There are many stories about women saving their coupons up for their wedding dress - our Queen included.

Laura, aren’t leggings 2 coupons?

I didn’t get to knit last night but I have decided to do a swatch with the silk and then decide whether to ditch it.

- Pip

thriftwizard

I've had fun playing with my new overlocker today; it just goes to show how the previous one really didn't suit me, somehow, as I'd do almost anything to avoid using it. Anyway, my UFO pile has started to diminish; I made new tab-top curtains for our bedroom with some heavy furnishing fabric - brocade, I think - that came in on a job-lot of vintage fabrics, plus a new net curtain. I chopped the blouse part off a fairly ghastly play-suit that cost me £1 in a charity shop, leaving the legs part as a pair of loose trews for dance practice (we have a sort of running contest for who has the loudest leggings/trews) then carved up an old gents stripey pure wool jumper, which is now a skirt, leg warmers and a pair of fingerless gloves! All very amateur stuff, but useful, and helping me get the measure of the machine. I can get another pair of fingerless gloves out of what's left, but haven't yet thought of a new use for the collar. It's too thick to make a scrunchie, even if I had long hair. I might just overlock round it & put it aside in case anything else is in need of a navy blue wool collar!

ETA: I just thought, it'd make a great rim for a beret - I could crochet into it...

I also got some more darning practice in, having found two small holes in the jumper (there's nothing alive in there, it's been in my freezer just in case) although I don't think it was quite as successful a repair as the Susan Duckworth cardi. I didn't quite have the right shades of tapestry wool, but you'd have to look quite closely to see the darns and I'm not likely to wear the skirt outside the house. Legwarmers, yes, on a very cold day, and the gloves will be in everyday use, but the skirt's a tad too short for comfort on a Lady of a Certain Age!

PollyWollyDoodle

That’s an impressive amount of sewing. I’m still not that confident with my overlocker although I went on a course to learn how to use it, a couple of years ago. My sewing mojo has totally deserted me in recent months but I’ve got a small alteration to do for a friend and I’ve been asked to make a Christmas stocking for another friend’s son so I’ll have to get going on it.
Laura, I’m exactly the same now, it’s not the money but the thought of spending coupons that stops me buying! Also, where I might have picked up a bargain before, thinking ‘well, it’s cheap’ now I’m the other way round. Do I want to spend my precious coupons on something that won’t last much more than a year? Nope.