2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

Retiredinfrance, you might do better selling them than I did! My stall is generally like a very colourful jumble sale, full of bizarre hats, vintage aprons, silk kimonos & saris & all sorts of odds & sods; the ties probably just melted into the background!

PollyWollyDoodle

Ah, I was wondering if the ties had belonged to someone you were close to, hence the idea of a memory bear. I am relieved to know that’s not the case! 

retiredinfrance

Thriftwizard, I was going to take the good ones to a vintage shop, as yet u known in the U K along with my collection of silk scarves and fifties vintage stuff in a suitcase which I could use to fill up with UK stuff, books probably and cards, and hopefully having made enough for a nice dinner. Or i might have a stall at our local fair. I think more money is to be made in the U K but I wonder how many vintage shops will get through Covid. It's a bit like being bombed out for them.
It's raining this afternoon so I am going to get them all out and consider them. That is actually as much fun as doing something with them. 
Keep safe everyone.

retiredinfrance

Lovely idea, Pollywollydoodle, no memory ties. A pity as a tie would be a nice keepsake. My DH wore out his dad's ones and my mum threw all my dad's ones out.Pity.
Keep safe everyone.

CapricornLass

Well, thinking about some of the ties my husband and dad had, it was an act of mercy to consign them to the bin, and not inflict them on the wider world!

CraftyLittleLisa

Well its been a while since I last posted although I have been keeping up to date with the comings and goings of everyone else.  You are all still being very resourceful with everything.  I haven't really had anything much to report on the clothes side of things.  I was given a t-shirt by my Mum because she didn't want it anymore so that was handy.  I have been thinking my jeans are getting to look well used now.  I work from home so there is no real need to dress up.  They have life left now but they are starting to look a little faded.  On the crafting side I am still knitting a lace shawl with some lace wool I found in my stash.  I am quite a slow knitter as I don't do it all the time but I am trying to limit myself to one knitting project at a time.  I will make sure this is finished before I start another one.  On the sewing side I have been making curtains, for my upcycled dollshouse, from my stash.  I have also made some rugs and mats for it also from my stash.  At least it keeps me busy doing something without spending new funds.

I have recently reviewed my budgets as I am coming to the end of the year and although Covid has meant I haven't spent on some things I have exceeded my budgets on my gardening and crafting hobbies.  I really need to reign that in in 2021.

I hope everyone is staying well and safe in this horrible weather.  Take care all.

Laura_Elsewhere

Hi @CraftyLittleLisa  

Just so you know.... from experience! - the later rows of a lace shawl take about thirty-five years each, so you might want to consider starting something very different once you're about three-quarters of the way through the shawl, and then simply make yourself do half an hour every day after lunch or before bedtime or whenever, but have something very different to give you a break. I once got 3/4 of the way through a lace shawl and then paused it to make another for a friend whose baby arrived sooner than I expected (it wasn't premature, I just got my dates wrong!), so I had the loooong slog of the last quarter on her shawl and then returned to my mum's and had *another* last quarter to do, and I really thought I was going to go stark staring mad...! Ever since then I've made sure I do the final stages in shorter but frequent stints, and have something that uses my hands, eyes and brain very differently to give me a change in between! 

I'm two long rows away from the final, sixth section on my Wedlothia wedding shawl and it's taking a very very very very long time to do them now...! 

I really MUST sort out my coupons. I have bought two pairs of long fine-wool stockings from one historical supplier (pale grey, speckled green) and then from a different one I've bought a pair each of heavyweight (charcoal), medium ('bokhara' - basically Turkey red) and lightweight (cream) wool stockings. I also have bought 2 metres of ACW-grey medium-fine woollen fabric, 60" wide, to make myself an everyday colder-weather skirt - I have a heavy wool skirt in black, but I'd like a slightly lighter one in both fabric and colour which I can wear in autumn and spring as well. Same style as always, of course, mid-calf and 3/4-circle, huge pockets - probably this one I shall make with just a kind of front-fly opening, as I never unbutton my green linen one beyond the top 3 buttons, so I think I'll find a way to make that look nice. And I'll line them in the soft black viscose I like to use for most lining. 

@PipneyJane, can I claim any of my 5 new pairs of wool stockings on he nylons coupons at all, or is that solely for the nylons I never wear? 

I rather think when I do tot up all his year's spending I shall have to smile sweetly at my parents and My Intended But who cares if I end up begging their coupons - it is my trousseau, after all, and it's not only the only trousseau I shall ever have but a trousseau is something I never expected or hoped to have, so all in all...!  

PollyWollyDoodle

I think it was normal for brides to beg and borrow coupons, and  I remember stories of nightdresses and petticoats made from parachute silk. My mum got married in 1946 in a blue wool dress that she had made. The day before the wedding the dressmaker pressed it and accidentally left the iron on the fabric too long, leaving a mark. Luckily it was on the back, not the front - nothing could be done about it. I don’t know where she got the material, I wish I had thought to ask. And I don’t know what colour blue it was as all the photos of course are black-and-white. But as her own mother had died two years earlier, I expect some of her trousseau was altered or cut down from her clothes. 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Hi @CraftyLittleLisa  

Just so you know.... from experience! - the later rows of a lace shawl take about thirty-five years each, so you might want to consider starting something very different once you're about three-quarters of the way through the shawl, and then simply make yourself do half an hour every day after lunch or before bedtime or whenever, but have something very different to give you a break. I once got 3/4 of the way through a lace shawl and then paused it to make another for a friend whose baby arrived sooner than I expected (it wasn't premature, I just got my dates wrong!), so I had the loooong slog of the last quarter on her shawl and then returned to my mum's and had *another* last quarter to do, and I really thought I was going to go stark staring mad...! Ever since then I've made sure I do the final stages in shorter but frequent stints, and have something that uses my hands, eyes and brain very differently to give me a change in between! 

I'm two long rows away from the final, sixth section on my Wedlothia wedding shawl and it's taking a very very very very long time to do them now...! 

I really MUST sort out my coupons. I have bought two pairs of long fine-wool stockings from one historical supplier (pale grey, speckled green) and then from a different one I've bought a pair each of heavyweight (charcoal), medium ('bokhara' - basically Turkey red) and lightweight (cream) wool stockings. I also have bought 2 metres of ACW-grey medium-fine woollen fabric, 60" wide, to make myself an everyday colder-weather skirt - I have a heavy wool skirt in black, but I'd like a slightly lighter one in both fabric and colour which I can wear in autumn and spring as well. Same style as always, of course, mid-calf and 3/4-circle, huge pockets - probably this one I shall make with just a kind of front-fly opening, as I never unbutton my green linen one beyond the top 3 buttons, so I think I'll find a way to make that look nice. And I'll line them in the soft black viscose I like to use for most lining. 

@PipneyJane, can I claim any of my 5 new pairs of wool stockings on he nylons coupons at all, or is that solely for the nylons I never wear? 

I rather think when I do tot up all his year's spending I shall have to smile sweetly at my parents and My Intended But who cares if I end up begging their coupons - it is my trousseau, after all, and it's not only the only trousseau I shall ever have but a trousseau is something I never expected or hoped to have, so all in all...!  

Sadly not, Laura.  The only reason we’re getting (probably blackmarket) nylons is because you can snag them just by looking at them.

Sorry.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Ah well, at least my knitted stockings will last me years and years! 

5 pairs at 2 coupons a pair is 10 coupons; and 2 metres of wool cloth at 3 coupons a metre is another 6, so whatever I tot up, it's got 16 coupons as well!