2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

Just to add - this was a free pattern last time I used it, it's now only available to download if you pay for it which is disappointing.  I am hoping I have still got the pattern saved from last time and that I didn't just cut out one size.

joedenise

Thanks all for the site recommendations.  A few more designs to try and see which DH and I like most and which I find easiest/ quickest to make!

The link mentioned by Borscht for others if they want it https://www.bigcommunitysew.co.uk

CapricornLass

Erm... fession time....I've just bought not one, but two pairs of sandals in the sale.  Really pleased with them as they are so comfortable.  But 10 points spent. 

You've all been such busy bees sewing and knitting.  I find it a bit hot for knitting and the mask making has come to a halt as the sewing machine has died.  OH used to service the sewing machines every year at the school he worked, so he stripped it down and had a look,  but even he couldn't resurrect it.  It was second hand, and I've had it for at least 7 years, if not longer, and would not have been my choice anyway  So I've got to make up my mind whether to try and track down someone who can 'fix' it (not had much success with this in the past) or bite the bullet and get a new one.

Just as well that I don't need a lot of new clothes at present!

PipneyJane

CapricornLass said:

Erm... fession time....I've just bought not one, but two pairs of sandals in the sale.  Really pleased with them as they are so comfortable.  But 10 points spent. 

You've all been such busy bees sewing and knitting.  I find it a bit hot for knitting and the mask making has come to a halt as the sewing machine has died.  OH used to service the sewing machines every year at the school he worked, so he stripped it down and had a look,  but even he couldn't resurrect it.  It was second hand, and I've had it for at least 7 years, if not longer, and would not have been my choice anyway  So I've got to make up my mind whether to try and track down someone who can 'fix' it (not had much success with this in the past) or bite the bullet and get a new one.

Just as well that I don't need a lot of new clothes at present!

Speaking as someone who bought multiple pairs of jeans last year (because they were comfortable, fit well AND fitted my phone in the front pocket), I will say "Don't feel guilty".  You bought the sandals for a good reason.  Comfortable/decent fitting shoes are not to be sneered at.

On the sewing machine front, I can't remember what part of the country you live in or I'd recommend the people who serviced mine.  They look after industrial machines for a living.  (They're in Southall, West London.)

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

CapricornLass said:

Erm... fession time....I've just bought not one, but two pairs of sandals in the sale.  Really pleased with them as they are so comfortable.  But 10 points spent. 

You've all been such busy bees sewing and knitting.  I find it a bit hot for knitting and the mask making has come to a halt as the sewing machine has died.  OH used to service the sewing machines every year at the school he worked, so he stripped it down and had a look,  but even he couldn't resurrect it.  It was second hand, and I've had it for at least 7 years, if not longer, and would not have been my choice anyway  So I've got to make up my mind whether to try and track down someone who can 'fix' it (not had much success with this in the past) or bite the bullet and get a new one.

Just as well that I don't need a lot of new clothes at present!

If I could find comfortable sandals I'd buy more than one pair! I've just been glueing my current pair of "hiking sandals" back together again... 

I am lucky that I've only ever had my trusty 1902 Singer treadle, from when I was 12, and before that Gran's equivalent tabletop and her mother's as well. They just don't really break down, ever. I bought mine a new upper-tension spring last year for £10 inc postage, and that's the only new part any of the three have needed in over half a century. We did have Gran's and Great-Gran's serviced in the early 1990s when Singer were doing a deal but they only charged us for one as they said they needed nothing much done. 
Not much use if you're used to sewing stretchy fabrics or overlocking all your edges, mind you! Straight stitch only, and an attachment to do buttonholes... mind you, I've seen amazing freehand embroidery done with them! Not by me, though...  

joedenise

I used to love my mum's old Singer treadle machine.  Couldn't believe it when she got rid of it to get an electric machine!  I was still living at home then so wouldn't have had anywhere to keep it but I do wish I'd been a bit older and could have kept it.

PollyWollyDoodle

I have said before that you will prize my grandmother’s Frister & Rossman handcrank machine, circa 1910, from my cold dead hands ... It may not do fancy stitches but it is a real workhorse. As soon as it’s possible to do so I’m going to get my Janome electric machine serviced, it’s running okay but occasionally I get a little blip in the stitching. 

I’m very chuffed with this sun hat for my friend’s son.  I sent her pictures of some different fabrics and he chose this one, to my secret delight. It is made from a genuine 1970s remnant. My parents had a garden umbrella made of this, which I inherited. I was very upset a few years ago to discover that mice had eaten holes in it while it was in the garage over the winter. I stripped the remaining fabric off and washed it, and it’s perfect for this!  Lined with a remnant of brown fabric (the hat is reversible) this has not cost a penny, and is coupon free!

maddiemay

I meant to post earlier, but got diverted 1st June 1941 was the day that clothes rationing started, I gather that it ended March 1949, I wonder what my DM would have been wearing at that time before I was born in June '49, only photo I can remember seeing of mum as a young woman was a head and shoulders shot, she was wearing a plaid headscarf, if we both survive our respective lock-downs and get to see each other when (hopefully) this virus dies down enough I must ask her.

maddiemay

Polly I remember that fabric, not my colours so didn't own anything made in it. Great hat.

PipneyJane

maddiemay said:

I meant to post earlier, but got diverted 1st June 1941 was the day that clothes rationing started, I gather that it ended March 1949, I wonder what my DM would have been wearing at that time before I was born in June '49, only photo I can remember seeing of mum as a young woman was a head and shoulders shot, she was wearing a plaid headscarf, if we both survive our respective lock-downs and get to see each other when (hopefully) this virus dies down enough I must ask her.

Blimey.  Yes, it was.  I’d forgotten that 1st June 1941 was when rationing started.  Personally, I keep feeling like we’re living through a version of 1941/1942.  The world has been turned upside down again.  We’ve had the worst of the Blitz (in our case, Lockdown), taken shocks to our incomes and employment (for me, Working from Home) and are now settling in for the long term siege with our veggie patches, cooking from scratch, knitting and sewing.

Love the hat, @PollyWollyDoodle.  Like @maddiemay, I remember that fabric.  Very 1970’s.

- Pip (Did I just hear Carol say sleet and snow on the weather bulletin?  !!!!!!?  It’s June!)