2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - to be honest, I think any repair is going to show on the fine machine-knit of a t-shirt... 

The best I've managed in the past is to run a spiral of tiny running stitches round the hole, only picking up one thread each time, starting about 1/4" out from the hole and getting tighter; then gradually ease the thread, just gently pull on the needle-end and it will 'snug up' the hole. It won't repair it, but it will stop it getting bigger and will make it less visible.

But realistically, I think I'd do something obvious like embroidery over it - pop a tiny patch on the back (spare wundwaweb is useful with a bit of tissue-paper or greaseproof paper, just enough to cover the hole and stabilise it while you sew over and round it - and then it will disintegrate in the washing after) and make little stars or flowers or suns or whatever  

Laura_Elsewhere

I'm giggling at @TwibbleDee's welcome from you all - I did say you were a friendly bunch! 

Although... ummm... I think maybe her horse has strayed a bit, over on the cricket pitch. Isn't that what they call "a sticky wicket" now?!  

I really really really must sort out my coupon-spend this year which is not none as my signature says.

I'm happily sewing my new skirt, although why did I choose stripes for a "quick and easy" skirt??? I am matching them, of course, because I'm me, but I'm going a bit cross-eyed and I think it's taking about four times as long as it would with a random floral print  
Centre-back seam, the stripes are angled 


But at each side-seam they are vertical, which turned out to be much more tricky to get precisely right:


And of course, a face-covering to match  

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Laura_Elsewhere, can you point me in the direction of the face mask pattern. Thank you so much.

Laura_Elsewhere

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said:

Laura_Elsewhere, can you point me in the direction of the face mask pattern. Thank you so much.

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger - this si the one I use: 
https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/#face-mask-pattern

I use the 'adult - man' size though; they are a bit small, I find, probably because the originals were designed by a Malaysian woman for herself and her family and people in that part of the world have more gracile features than us big-faced Europeans! Just check early on that it will fit, as if it's too small you'll endlessly be fiddling to get ti to stay put. 
I use t-shirt ties through the side-channels, as elastic doesn't like being washed every wear, plus the ear-loop ones hurt my ears and make my specs sit wonky. I sewed the drawstring in situ at the top of the side-channel so when you tie them, it gathers up the side of the mask without pulling on the nose painfully! And I just use a 12" pipe cleaner from a craft-store, folded in half, for the nose-strip, which definitely is worth including as it really improves the fit. I use my specs as a guide to fit - are they steaming up or not, and with the nose-strip fitted, they don't steam up  

PipneyJane

@Laura_Elsewhere - I am in awe of your seams.  I cannot see the side seam at all.  If she were still alive, my mum would want to adopt you for matching the stripes so beautifully.  (It was one of her bugbears, “professionally” made garments where the stripes didn’t match up.  Mum was a trained dressmaker.)

@Cherryfudge, unless you are incredibly lucky, any darn/mend will show on a tee shirt.  The yarn used is extremely fine.  Might as well do as Laura suggests and make a feature of it.

@TwibbleDee - I’ve been meaning to ask: which sock yarn did you buy?  

Also, I tend to think of us as a Wartime sewing circle or branch of the Women’s Institute, hence the Virtual Village Hall, etc.  It occurs to me that our “village” doesn’t actually have a name.  Any suggestions?   I’m pretty sure the black-and-white cat on the windowsill answers to Jess but the dog is currently nameless.

In real life, I went for a Test yesterday and got the results this morning.  Apparently I do not currently have COVID-19.  Still don’t know why I felt so tired last week - or why my tonsils are making their presence felt today - but at least we’ve eliminated the elephant in the room. 

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

I wouldn’t know where to start with matching stripes like that, that is really impressive Laura!  Also, I love your engagement ring.  It’s beautiful. 

Hmm, I like the idea of a virtual village name.  Inspiration fails me at the moment (too long on the computer today). 

I’m glad to hear you don’t have Covid, Pip, although it’s frustrating to still be ill and not know what it is.

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I wouldn’t know where to start with matching stripes like that, that is really impressive Laura!  Also, I love your engagement ring.  It’s beautiful. 

Hmm, I like the idea of a virtual village name.  Inspiration fails me at the moment (too long on the computer today). 

I’m glad to hear you don’t have Covid, Pip, although it’s frustrating to still be ill and not know what it is.

Thanks Polly.  There are days when I feel perfectly normal and days when my tonsils make their presence felt.  (The cheeky imp inside me suggests that maybe I’m allergic to my current job?  Can’t be the workplace - I live here.)

Yes, I agree, Laura has a beautiful ring.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Thankyou both @PollyWollyDoodle and @PipneyJane - it was Gran's engagement ring in the 1930s, and I often wonder how Grandaddy afforded it, how many years he saved up - it was another two years before they could afford to marry, this railway clerk and his cafe-waitress girl...  I wonder if he skipped lunch or only had a penny bun, or maybe got up an hour earlier to walk to work in central London to save the Tube fare, how much he went without so that he and Gran could be engaged and then wed... 
We are awfully fortunate, me and My Intended... 

I don't think I've ever bothered so much with stripe-matching (the side seams took three attempts each!) - I suspect it's a control thing about My Intended's surgery on Monday. 

But it's good practice, being precise, because on Monday when he goes off to the hospital for several days, I am dismantling this late-1940s suit, partially-made in the 1990s, further bodged in the early 2000s, never completed... ironically, the pattern was Gran's! 
The fabric is a beautiful very fine British-wool flannel in a nice mid-grey, and for lining it, I'm scrapping the previous rather cheap and nasty typical slithery cheap lining material in pale pink, and instead I'm using some incredibly good lining material that really feels like silk, in a glorious deep-pistachio green! I wanted something that didn't limit what I could wear with the suit, and somehow the green will work with a huge range of colours, so long as they are strong rich colours - cornflower-blue, imperial purple, true-pink, plain cream, geranium-orange...! 

So to keep me busy next week while My Intended is being saved by our wonderful, fabulous, amazing NHS for several days, I shall label every piece with labels sewn on, before dismantling the lot and pressing every piece under a damp cloth; going through the pattern and marking every piece with tailors' tacks (no notches in those days!), cutting the lining pieces and labelling and marking them too, and then assembling it, only this time: properly. 

It won't help that the instructions give a total of three steps for making the skirt and eight steps for making the jacket. A bit different from today when there would be page after page of instructions!  

So... we're doing a meal plan before he goes, and I'll go to the shops and get fresh food, and then I shall sew and eat sensibly and go to sleep and get up and sew... til he comes home to me. 

Laura_Elsewhere

How about a village name that keeps the MSE? Although maybe not in that order... 

East Snoozing Magna...?

Saint Er Mmmm... 

No, nothing is coming to mind... 

St Make-Do-&-Mend  

Little Mending on the Borrow

Little Lending on the Scrounge...

I quite like "Little Mending on the Borrow" really...  

Make-Do-under-Mend... 

PipneyJane

I like “Little Mending on the Borrow”.  The River Borrow can flow at the bottom of the sports fields, down the hill from our village hall and the ancient stone church, half-timbered pub and market square.

Big hugs to you both, Laura, for next week.  Don’t be surprised if you can’t focus on Monday and end up prowling around the flat like a caged lion.  The waiting for news is the worst part.

- Pip