2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

TwibbleDee

PipneyJane said:

TwibbleDee said:

Planning ahead.
21 coupons remaining.

• I may need a new dress at Christmas - 7 coupons there, leaving 14.
  
• Maybe a new pair of boots at 5 coupons, leaving 9.  I have my cowboy boots and hiking boots, but would like a pair of wellies or something for when it's actually wet.  I could get the wax and seal my cowboy boots...

How many coupons would a full-length bathrobe run?

In the original list, a man's bathrobe is 8 coupons and a boy's is 6.  It doesn't list one for a woman, so I reckon we go with the boy's size of 6 coupons.

Oh!  Right, a dressing gown would be other word for it.  Thanks!  I'm probably much closer to men's size than boy's , so I'll stick with the 8.  Which would mean I could buy a pair of socks or 2 handkerchiefs with what I would have left if I do get a dress, boots, and a bathrobe!

TwibbleDee

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Ooh that bag is lovely!  With things as they are, I don’t feel I need a new bag. I’m hardly ever going anywhere that requires me to take more than a purse (and hand sanitiser, mask, water bottle and wipes, of course). Going through my wardrobe today I realised how few clothes I have worn over the last six months, apart from my smart work clothes which get put on for a few hours and taken off as soon as I get home, I have lived in jeans, T-shirts, cardigans and fleeces. I foresee winter being mostly the same, with more emphasis on the fleeces. There doesn’t seem much point in buying anything new. I’m thinking about a new jacket as I am going out for brunch on my birthday (if it’s still permitted) but it will probably be second-hand if I do. 

To be honest, our area is getting pretty close to back to normal.  We're up to 75% capacity for restaurants and stores and such.  Everybody still has to wear masks when they're in places, unless they're seated at a table eating or drinking.  The kids are doing virtual school online, but my husband and I have been working throughout the duration due to our jobs (he does oilfield rentals and I work at a church).  I think I've been busier than I normally was!

That being said...I'm working on uncluttering the house, my office, and life in general.  There's just too much stuff everywhere, including clothes.  

Laura_Elsewhere

@TwibbleDee, as of today most of the UK is going back into a lot more restrictions, bars and restaurants all closed by 10pm, and in Scotland nobody may visit another home socially for now - reviewing that one every three weeks, but it has already started working in the spiking Glasgow area to bring infection rates down, so my family in S.E.Scotland are all happy it's being done... 

My Intended was working from home, and can easily once he goes back but we reckon he has about another month off sick, til sometime in October, making about 3 months off... he's a lot recovered but still very easily tired, so I'm making him come for longer and longer walks to increase his stamina and I've told him that he's not going back til he can do a 5-mile hike each day for 5 days... then he can go back to work... but he has to be fitter than before the op!

And I'm down to my lowest weight in years, albeit tiresomely slowly... trying to lose more so that in the event of catching the virus, I'm at least giving my body a fighting chance of not developing the worst illness... 

maddiemay

TwibbleDee - good news about your area.
Laura - so pleased about Intended's recovery and well done on the weight loss.
I met up with my bestie (circa 50 years since we first met), we normally meet every 3/4 weeks for a girlie brunch and mooch around the shops. She is a bad influence LOL, I bought a Navy Blue dress, long sleeve shift style with a detachable slip inside which has a knife pleated chiffon hem, longer than the top layer. I will wear it with coloured opaque tights and ankle or knee length boots, reduced from £60 to £25, I am now left with only 14 points (Laura I got it from MW, the dress shop on the same side as Ippikins, I did, however, resist going into Ippikins (yarn shop).

PipneyJane

@maddiemay, your dress sounds lovely.  Well worth the points.

@Laura_Elsewhere.  Good to hear news of your intended.  I’m glad he’s healing up well.  Love your fitness regime for him.  (And for you.  It sounds like its working.)

@TwibbleDee, hope the dry desert air is a good deterrent for the virus.  (It should be.). I know a little about Texas oilfields - I’ve worked with a few engineers from there.  (We had people working at Texas City at the time of the fire in ? 2005?)

- Pip

TwibbleDee

PipneyJane said:

@TwibbleDee, hope the dry desert air is a good deterrent for the virus.  (It should be.). I know a little about Texas oilfields - I’ve worked with a few engineers from there.  (We had people working at Texas City at the time of the fire in ? 2005?)

- Pip

Our county has about 15-20 new cases a day right now.  It peaked around 80.  Our population is around 150,000, I believe.  Texas City is on the opposite side of the state.  I remember watching the US Chemical Safety Board's YouTube videos about it.  I worked for an engineer who was an expert witness for industrial accidents, so I'd have their playlist going in the background while I was working sometimes.  They did an updated one 4 months ago for the 15th anniversary. If you like knowing why things go boom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goSEyGNfiPM

I don't think Dad ever worked at that plant, but he did work for Amoco down there (BP bought them out later on) and BP out here, so you never know.

PollyWollyDoodle

I have just been re-reading Helen Forrester’s books Twopence to Cross the Mersey and so on.  For anyone who’s never read them, they’re autobiographical novels about growing up in extreme poverty in Liverpool in the 1930s, and while I’m not a fan of the ‘mis lit’ genre they are very well-written. Anyway, this time I read the fourth volume ‘Lime Street at Two‘ about her life during wartime. She had taught herself to sew, and she earned money making dresses for other girls, many of whom had never learned to sew, and hadn’t had the money to buy material before the war. Her own  clothes often came second hand from the pawnshop. 

She wrote that many young women suddenly found themselves earning good money in munitions factories after having struggled to get employment during the 1930s, and they were able to buy clothes for the first time, and she says that dress lengths were readily available on the black market so she was kept busy making and altering things. She also says that if she and her colleagues had not gone bare legged, almost all her coupons would have been needed to buy stockings because even with careful darning they could not be made to last. The trousers which would have been much more practical were banned at her office. She also used to buy second-hand knitted garments and unravel them to knit gloves.  A sobering thought; I am definitely going to try and recycle more of my clothes (as in remake or alter them).  I’m very relieved that I hardly ever wear tights! 

maddiemay

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I have just been re-reading Helen Forrester’s books Twopence to Cross the Mersey and so on.  For anyone who’s never read them, they’re autobiographical novels about growing up in extreme poverty in Liverpool in the 1930s, and while I’m not a fan of the ‘mis lit’ genre they are very well-written. Anyway, this time I read the fourth volume ‘Lime Street at Two‘ about her life during wartime. She had taught herself to sew, and she earned money making dresses for other girls, many of whom had never learned to sew, and hadn’t had the money to buy material before the war. Her own  clothes often came second hand from the pawnshop. 

She wrote that many young women suddenly found themselves earning good money in munitions factories after having struggled to get employment during the 1930s, and they were able to buy clothes for the first time, and she says that dress lengths were readily available on the black market so she was kept busy making and altering things. She also says that if she and her colleagues had not gone bare legged, almost all her coupons would have been needed to buy stockings because even with careful darning they could not be made to last. The trousers which would have been much more practical were banned at her office. She also used to buy second-hand knitted garments and unravel them to knit gloves.  A sobering thought; I am definitely going to try and recycle more of my clothes (as in remake or alter them).  I’m very relieved that I hardly ever wear tights! 

Polly thanks for the review, sounds interesting and just found the Kindle edition for 99p and it has winged it's way into my Kindle Library. 

Cherryfudge

I've been googling unsuccessfully to find whether bedding was rationed during the war - does anyone know please? I'm assuming it must have been or everyone would have bought sheets off the ration to make clothing. I did find that towels were rationed at some point.
I'm assuming that when I chose a new duvet, it's going to be equivalent to two sheets? Or is it an eiderdown (minus the middle)?

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I have just been re-reading Helen Forrester’s books Twopence to Cross the Mersey and so on.  For anyone who’s never read them, they’re autobiographical novels about growing up in extreme poverty in Liverpool in the 1930s, and while I’m not a fan of the ‘mis lit’ genre they are very well-written. Anyway, this time I read the fourth volume ‘Lime Street at Two‘ about her life during wartime. She had taught herself to sew, and she earned money making dresses for other girls, many of whom had never learned to sew, and hadn’t had the money to buy material before the war. Her own  clothes often came second hand from the pawnshop. 

She wrote that many young women suddenly found themselves earning good money in munitions factories after having struggled to get employment during the 1930s, and they were able to buy clothes for the first time, and she says that dress lengths were readily available on the black market so she was kept busy making and altering things. She also says that if she and her colleagues had not gone bare legged, almost all her coupons would have been needed to buy stockings because even with careful darning they could not be made to last. The trousers which would have been much more practical were banned at her office. She also used to buy second-hand knitted garments and unravel them to knit gloves.  A sobering thought; I am definitely going to try and recycle more of my clothes (as in remake or alter them).  I’m very relieved that I hardly ever wear tights! 

Thanks for the review, Polly.  I have heard extracts read before - in the audiobook version of Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson - but didn't know which one of the Helen Forrester books they came from.

We'd never keep ourselves in stockings and tights, if the original ration was still in place.  I can ladder a pair just by opening the packet.  That's why, this year, we've each got a "stockings allowance". To be sure, it's for Tesco's cheapest multi-pack but that's better than nothing.  Not that I can remember wearing stockings this year... (I'm sure my mum used to get a couple of pairs a month in her WAAAF pay packet, together with razor blades.  She'd trade the razor blades with her male colleagues to get more stockings.)

Cherryfudge said:

I've been googling unsuccessfully to find whether bedding was rationed during the war - does anyone know please? I'm assuming it must have been or everyone would have bought sheets off the ration to make clothing. I did find that towels were rationed at some point.
I'm assuming that when I chose a new duvet, it's going to be equivalent to two sheets? Or is it an eiderdown (minus the middle)?

Bedding and household goods were rationed in the UK, but I can't remember for how much.  (In Australia, blankets weren't rationed so my mum bought one and made it into a dressing gown for herself.)  

Let's just assume you had a bit of bomb damage so were granted extra coupons for specific items to help with your recovery.  That means, one set of bedding is "coupon free" (duvet, sheet and matching pillowslips).

- Pip