2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

vintagegal

Hello
If you'll have me I'd love to try again this year - I think I spent about a million coupons last year :sad:
I've been tracking my clothes wearing every day since July, and am determined to get more wear out of things I have. It has been an eye-opener.
Vintagegal

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

I'm definitely in again. I can carry 19 coupons over this year from last which might be useful as I am planning on buying some decent footwear and maybe some new bras. I have recently discovered that I really cannot wear heals anymore. It seems that whenever I do I end up with a very sore ball of my right foot which ends up causing me to limp. I do wear flats most of the time anyway but I'm thinking I may have to just get rid of my heeled shoes anyway.


This morning I was also hit by a revelation. I have been off work over Christmas which has been a lovely break and I felt fine about going into work until I actually put my work clothes on. It somehow felt like I had been drained of enthusiasm. I don't really need to wear "smart office clothes" (no-one else really does unless we have a client visit) so I am thinking that I should just wear clothes I love instead of work clothes. I have, therefore, made a definite decision that I will not be buying "work" clothes any more. Once these are worn out that is it.


I had fun last year with this challenge especially as it made me start working through my fabric stash. The garments I made I absolutely fell in love with and I got a dressmakers dummy for Christmas which will make my life a lot easier when making these. Perhaps I shall start working on doing an outfit a month instead of just a garment a month.


Anyway, I better get back to work. Happy New Year to you all and good luck with this challenge.




PS. I finished my pyjamas and they are the most cosiest pair of pyjamas I have ever worn.

PipneyJane

Welcome Wishful01, JuliaP, GMAT, Supersaver1000, Vintagegal and everyone-else who’s new. Please take a seat by the fire. Laura, if you pass around the cake, I’ll get more glasses from the Kitchen for the wine. Polly, please do the pouring. Thriftmonster, do we have enough chairs?

Advance planning of your wardrobe is a good idea, Supersaver1000. I know that I’ll need a new trench coat (14 coupons) at some point - my old summer coat is getting shabby - and I’d like a new tweed suit (skirt, jacket and trousers = 24 coupons) but it just means I’ll have to shop carefully for everything else. A good 50% of my wardrobe is from charity shops anyway, so maybe I’ll get lucky this winter. (In 2012, I scored 4 suits from charity shops. Fingers crossed. Wishful01 and Thriftwizard, can I go shopping with you?)

JuliaP, please share with us the details of the pattern you’re knitting. Are you on Ravelry? I’m PipneyJane over there, too. The fashions of the 1930’s/1940’s suit me best, so I knit a lot of vintage jumpers. Like CAFCgirl, I spent most of my coupons on yarn last year. Yarn dieters, please assemble on the right, behind me... :rotfl:

- Pip

lykkelig

I would like to join in this year. I think I would thrive with having some discipline. Mostly I would like to make what I need but I also would like to be a more considered second hand shopper.

66 coupons then.

PollyWollyDoodle

Right, I’ve poured the wine - home-made, of course as it’s wartime!

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that my aim for this year is to tackle UFOs, some knitting, some sewing, some other crafts - and quite a few of these are clothing. I’m fine if I see a project through to completion, but I’m absolutely terrible at stopping something and then restarting it. I’m really going to try to overcome this.

First step, I’m going to get all the UFOs out (a bit like the Marie Kondo method) and decide which of them I love enough to complete. Any that I don’t think I will use or wear even if they were finished, will have to go.

Next step is to take the ones I’m keeping, and log what is left to be done, whether I need any more materials, and what actions are needed. After that, I’m going to try and allocate one project a month. If I finish one, I’m allowed to start something new (that needlecord I bought last year has already had coupons accounted for, and was intended to make a skirt that I badly need in my wardrobe).

I really want to end this year without lots of guilt-inducing failures stuffed in my wardrobe. And with a slightly smaller stash of yarn and fabric ...

Laura_Elsewhere

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Right, I’ve poured the wine - home-made, of course as it’s wartime!

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that my aim for this year is to tackle UFOs, some knitting, some sewing, some other crafts - and quite a few of these are clothing. I’m fine if I see a project through to completion, but I’m absolutely terrible at stopping something and then restarting it. I’m really going to try to overcome this.

First step, I’m going to get all the UFOs out (a bit like the Marie Kondo method) and decide which of them I love enough to complete. Any that I don’t think I will use or wear even if they were finished, will have to go.

Next step is to take the ones I’m keeping, and log what is left to be done, whether I need any more materials, and what actions are needed. After that, I’m going to try and allocate one project a month. If I finish one, I’m allowed to start something new (that needlecord I bought last year has already had coupons accounted for, and was intended to make a skirt that I badly need in my wardrobe).

I really want to end this year without lots of guilt-inducing failures stuffed in my wardrobe. And with a slightly smaller stash of yarn and fabric ...

Oooh.

Are we the same person?!

Has anyone ever seen us both in the same room at the same time, after all?

Me as well...

Who's for cake? Mince pies? *::passes plate round::*

diminua

*shuffles in the door late* Ooh, is that cake?

I'm in again for this year please, with 7 coupons or possibly 10 to carry forward. I'm debating whether to return one item.

I wonder what the returns policy was like at the time? Presumably if the retailer had already sent your coupons on to wherever they went (the wholesaler? The board of trade?) they were non-recoverable, and although that probably wasn't something they did that same day I can imagine deep sighs if they had to dig yours out again for you.

Laura_Elsewhere

diminua wrote: »

*shuffles in the door late* Ooh, is that cake?

I'm in again for this year please, with 7 coupons or possibly 10 to carry forward. I'm debating whether to return one item.

I wonder what the returns policy was like at the time? Presumably if the retailer had already sent your coupons on to wherever they went (the wholesaler? The board of trade?) they were non-recoverable, and although that probably wasn't something they did that same day I can imagine deep sighs if they had to dig yours out again for you.

Yep, plenty of cake - I think everyone baked! Help yourself...

About returns - I can just about remember when shops made it really difficult to return things. I think when I was a teenager in the 80s, the law said you had the right to return an item unused, but I can also remember it had to be with receipt, and with labels intact, still in packaging, basically unopened - and iirc within a very short time after purchase, 14 days maybe?
And lots of places just staunchly refused to accept a return unless you could show it was clearly faulty.

I have no idea what the legal situation was during the war but I suspect you tried things on in the shop before buying and then couldn't change your mind!

thriftwizard

I have no idea what the legal situation was during the war but I suspect you tried things on in the shop before buying and then couldn't change your mind!

I'm not too sure about that; my mother tells the tale of her first independent purchase, with her first wage packet - which would have been in 1944 or 5 - when she bought a drop-dead glamorous red wool suit. Her grandmother, who'd brought her up, took one look at it, announced she wasn't having a "scarlet woman" in the house, and made her take it back & exchange it for a baggy grey number instead, more suitable for a small-town solicitor's secretary. So there must have been some way of returning/exchanging things back then.

Laura_Elsewhere

thriftwizard wrote: »

I'm not too sure about that; my mother tells the tale of her first independent purchase, with her first wage packet - which would have been in 1944 or 5 - when she bought a drop-dead glamorous red wool suit. Her grandmother, who'd brought her up, took one look at it, announced she wasn't having a "scarlet woman" in the house, and made her take it back & exchange it for a baggy grey number instead, more suitable for a small-town solicitor's secretary. So there must have been some way of returning/exchanging things back then.

Oh yes, I remember you mentioning that last year sometime - your poor glamorous mother! I do hope she was able to have some wonderful outfit later in life to make up for it a little...

But that could still fit in with my recollections of the 1980s - to return an item you needed to be very determined and strong-minded, like your grandmother sounds to have been!