2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

dolly84

Laura - those red knickers are the exact style I like best, I think the lace is so flattering rather than really high cut knickers.

PipneyJane

Happy VE Day, Ladies!  75 years ago, you would have seen out the worst of the War and be dancing in the street in joy.  Those of us from the eastern Empire were still facing another three months of War, but the nothing can take away the relief and joy that the war in Africa and Europe was over.

Does anyone know when clothing rationing was ended?  I know food rationing continued until 1953 - we had a devastated Europe to feed - and that the Queen used clothing coupons to purchase her wedding dress.  (As an aside, on the food rationing front, Mary Stewart’s novel, Madam Will You Talk? has a wonderful scene in which the heroine, Charity Selborne, and her best friend, Louise, fantasise about eating steak while on holiday in France.  It’s set in - I think - 1947, and the echos of rationing are very apparent.)

- Pip

ETA - I love the fact that the Germans describe VE Day as the day they were liberated from the Nazis and celebrate it as Liberation Day.

PS:  Today, I took the momentous step and soaked my white jumper in 3 litres of milk for 3 hours.  (Dried full-cream milk, reconstituted.). No, the jumper did not dissolve.  It has had an effect on the stain but there is still a residual 4 stitches that remain affected.  Once it is dry, I will reassess and may end up soaking it again.

Bigjenny

Clothes Rationing ended on 15th March 1949

Laura_Elsewhere

My parents were thrifty today - Dad emailed yesterday to ask if I knew where Gran's old Union flags were, so I gave directions to the old cabin trunk in the dining room, and now Gran's great big bed-sized Union Flag is suspended over the stairs from a bamboo cane, last flown in the front garden on England's heavily-bombed south coast on the original VE Day, 75 years ago... 

But no need to use any coupons to go buying a flag when you can just unfold one after three-quarters of a century, eh now?!  

And I'm being thrifty here too - I ordered new non-metal segs online (rented flat with laminate floors) and I managed to get three tiny nails into each to position them but my chap is nailing in the other 4 nails per seg, in my lovely properly-made leather lace-ups which are the WW2 replica ones! I'll give them a bit of a polish-up tomorrow and get back to wearing them for our walks. They are SO comfortable! I wore the last lot of segs paper-thin in only 4 months, but it's worth 3-4 quid, 2-3 times a year and never needing them re-heeled! 

PollyWollyDoodle

A big thank you to whoever recommended the Kindle version of “Dressed for War” about Audrey Withers the editor of Vogue. It’s a really interesting book and it felt particularly appropriate to be reading it in the sunshine today!

Laura_Elsewhere

I'm using bought-second-hand silk yarn, so no coupons, to crochet myself yet another lace shawl - the trusty, reliable and very mistake-friendly free pattern is called 'Edlothia' (it's on Rav) so as I probably shall wear this for my wedding, I've called it my 'Wedlothia' It's much richer colours in real life with that gorgeous heaviness of silk whilst weighing virtually nothing. 

I have a grey wool fine-flannel skirt and jacket I started making in the 1990s - it's a reprinted late-1940s Vogue suit, and I made the skirt (not very well) and got partway through the jacket, my mum "helping" at one point by putting the sleeves on the wrong armholes so the curved elbow bends backwards... I recently got some gorgeous rich-deep pistachio-green lining, very very nice stuff, and so I've decided to dismantle the entire project, badly-made skirt and half-made jacket, press every piece under a damp cloth, and assess whether any pieces need to be re-cut from the spare fabric. Then I shall put it all together, only this time with an extra 25 years of experience and attention to detail, bound seams, serious structural tailoring in the jacket, welted buttonholes, and adding welted pockets to the skirt as well as moving the panels round to remove the CF seam, thus requiring an inserted concealed zip at the side but improving the look considerably. 
 If it's nice enough when completed I may wear it as my wedding suit, with the Fair Isle beneath, but if it's not then I shall know just how to make a better one for marrying  
The lining might sound like it won't go with the autumnal colours but I think it will as it's a very rich kind of green - if you've ever seen any of the gorgeous silk stuff made by Shanghai Tang then you'll know the kind of green i mean! 

catherinekate

Bravissimo, I love Bravissimo, the first time I got properly fitted in one of their shops I cried with relief/joy on the poor shop assistant. I think it's the sort of thing they are quite used to. At some point this year I need to replace all of my nursing bras with ordinary ones, and I fully expect this to be a one-stop Bravissimo trip. That's my only planned coupon spend for the year.

I have a lovely 1940s white dress (probably someone's wedding dress) so wore that for a few hours on Friday to mark the occasion. It is so beautifully made. I have sadly put on a few pounds since I last wore it! I also put out knitted bunting (pattern is on the Hobbycraft website) using scraps of old red white and blue wool.

maddiemay

PollyWollyDoodle said:

A big thank you to whoever recommended the Kindle version of “Dressed for War” about Audrey Withers the editor of Vogue. It’s a really interesting book and it felt particularly appropriate to be reading it in the sunshine today!

Thank you from me too, I started reading it yesterday and it is great.

supersaver1000

I'm planning a trip to Bravissimo too, as soon as we are out of lockdown (and maybe after a trip to the hairdressers).  In the meantime I'd also like to buy a pair of light control knickers.  Nothing to make me uncomfortable though.  I had some lovely control tights at one time, until DD borrowed them and they ended up with numerous ladders in.  They were great though, just held my tummy in a little and stopped the wobble.  I've found some on M&S for £10, but wondering if anyone had recommendations.  

Laura_Elsewhere

I've just acquired a new-second-hand copy of this - it's an entire book made up of a short well-written foreward and then just all the rest of it is full reproductions of the original Ministry leaflets from the war, on Make Do & Mend and also on Fuel Sense - including a whole section on the clothing coupons, in detail - running shoes were specified at only 4 coupons, compared to 5 for ordinary shoes! Slightly bizarrely, slippers were 5, but heelless slippers were 4... I suppose less labour involved, as well as a tiny bit less in materials. 
And we have been spot-on in reckoning modern knickers to be 2 coupons a pair - this specifies "non-woollen briefs (no legs)" as 2 coupons a pair! Those trying to make their nylons last, it seems what we call pop-socks - "pair of non-woollen half-hose" - were only 1 coupon a pair, compared to 2 coupons for other stockings. 

Anyway, I really recommend finding a copy - I jsut got mine online second-hand, after finding a copy of the companion volume of Eating for Victory, same Jill Norman intro, and again, reproductions of the original leaflets - although I do know it isn't 100% complete as I have the original posted to Gran during the war on making jam, and on Christmas recipes, and neither of those is in the book, so I'm guessing they just chose some out of the many, many, leaflets sent. 

https://jillnorman.com/index.php/book/make-do-and-mend/