2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Wraithlady

Cherryfudge said:

Wraithlady said:

Just bought a dress from a friend who was clearing out her wardrobe - second-hand so no coupons, and only £5 for post & packing. Should come in handy when/if we go abroad next year.

I wonder if the UK is peculiar in its tendency to buy clothes specially for holidays (on the precept that 'Climate is Different There' and 'This Will Be Useful For Holiday Activities')? 

Interesting point - but, my reasoning was 'This is a light and strappy dress. The British summer is fickle, to say the least, so the chances are fairly even that the weather will not be hot enough to make it pleasant to wear. Abroad, the weather is more reliable, and a lot hotter, so the chances are very high that I will be able to wear it whilst abroad on holiday.'

PipneyJane

Wraithlady said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Years ago I worked in a war-zone and took with me a splendidly useful overskirt - simply 4 yards or so of black polyester pleated onto a buttoning waistband - I was working in an area with strong religious/cultural rules about women, and as the sole woman in the team it was very useful to be able to slip this long skirt on over my working gear in an instant - it folded up to nothing, dried in ten minutes, etc. 

On a holiday to Greece, a day trip included a trip to a monastery -  the write-up advised that women had to cover up their legs (to below knee-level iirc) and head and no bare shoulders, this was repeated when you signed up, and again on the bus (and notices all round the entrance.

Being sensible, I took along my beach kaftan, silk so folded to very little, not very see-through and generally comfortable in the baking heat, my straw hat (with chin strap) was a given anyway as I'm a redhead. I assumed that other women would be similarly prepared - oh, how wrong I was!

Of the 20 or so women, there was me, the tour guide and (?) 3 other women - all the rest had to hire the skirt and shawl combo from the ticket booth and quite a few complained loudly about this (the skirts looked like they were made from 1970's curtains, to be fair) but, as the tour guide pointed out, no skirt, no entry.

It’s amazing how many people wander around in a little bubble, thinking that dress codes don’t apply to them.  I spent my honeymoon cruising down the Nile.  There was another set of newlyweds in our group.  The wife couldn’t understand why she was being hassled when, in Aswan, they wandered off the boat to visit a night market.  She was wearing short-shorts and a strappy top!  There was another occasion where we visited a Coptic church and were advised to cover up.  The tour guide found a shirt for her to wear, in the church office, because she’d ignored the briefing and had a scrappy top.

(Personally, I wandered around Egypt in a pair of chinos and wearing my pink linen shirt as a jacket.)

- Pip. 

Laura_Elsewhere

I think a lot of people genuinely don't comprehend dress requirements because for so many people in Britain there simply are none, at all, ever. Some people have work dress codes, but those are often very laid-back, and a lot of people have no dress codes in their lives. 

When My Intended's son was 20, his boss got him to sit-in on some interviews for a large supermarket, for various levels of job from management to shelf-stacker, and his son was astonished at how many people turned up for all levels of job having visibly not washed, wearing dirty shoes, with grubby fingernails, unshaven, hair clearly needing washed/combed... and these weren't people attending because they had to attend X number of job interviews or lose benefits, these were people who seemed genuinely to want the jobs. 

Incidentally, Timpson are wonderful in many ways, such as providing training and employment for people leaving the prison system, but they also offer free dry-cleaning if youhave a job interview. Bless them. 

TwibbleDee

It is definitely amazing to me how many people will show up to a job interview wearing clothes more appropriate for clubbing.  Even worse: That's at a conservative church!  Why would I hire someone who obviously has no understanding of proper business etiquette, much less respect for religion?

MrsCD

Laura_Elsewhere said:

MrsCD said:

@Laura_Elsewhere, please could you show how you made your waterproof over skirt again? I can't find it! I thought I might try a practice one with a cheap plastic poncho. 

I used 3m of ripstop nylon and had about half a metre over.... I used one big long rectangle that was the width I wanted the length to be, iyswim, and a good twice or 2.5x my wast measurement.  Then I made a waistband that was my waist plus 12" for overlap at the front, and then one end very long so it went right round the back of my waist to the front again, and the other just long enough, so when I put it on, I held the skirt behind me, wrapped the short-tie across my front, the long-tie side across on top overlapping it, and then the long tie round the back to tie in front. I pleated the very long wide rectangle onto the waistband (ie waist +12").

Does that make sense? 
You can do it any length - I did mine about 30" long because it was mostly to wear when going on overgrown footpaths through woodland, so I wanted to keep most of my skirt dry. If you wear shorter skirts or just want to keep your legs dryish on pavements or open paths then just knee-length would do fine. And the amount of fabric I needed does reflect my waist being on the large side!  

Thanks Laura, that's a good help. I have a couple of cheap plastic ponchos that I thought I might cut up and have a go with. They've been in my 'holiday' shopping bag for years and never been used because I have a couple of proper ponchos that I do use in Keswick in July. 😁😉 I'll glue the joins together, just to see how it works out, and I have lots of ribbons/cords I can thread through a casing on the top. I'll have to make a slot in the waistband to make it a wrapover, I think. I'll let you know how it turns out!

CAFCGirl

Hello to all!
Quick update, I have now moved to the North of the village, chillier on this side of the river for sure   
Took a meander this morning past a charity shop set off from the main street. Already spotted two things through the window I may go back for, coupon free will make me very happy indeed.

Laura_Elsewhere

@CAFCGirl - oooh, hope the move went well, and none of your furniture got bombed en route? Good to know the Red Cross can provide you with some essentials from their shop  

PipneyJane

CAFCGirl said:

Hello to all!
Quick update, I have now moved to the North of the village, chillier on this side of the river for sure   
Took a meander this morning past a charity shop set off from the main street. Already spotted two things through the window I may go back for, coupon free will make me very happy indeed.

You just reminded me, there is an excellent yarn shop in Northallerton.  On Friarage Street.  Can't remember the name but they had a great range of good quality yarns.  (Google tells me it's called "Natural knitter".)  I think there's another shop in one of the arcades off the High Street, but the one on Friarage Street has better yarns.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

I seem to have dramatically improved my sewing, courtesy of my very good counsellor's encouragement more generally to write down my decisions AND my reasons for each... she suggested it for the big decisions in my life, but Iam finding that it actually helps in lots of other ways...

I started making that green linen skirt, unpicked and re-sewed the waistband - think I sewed it three, possibly four, times in all, and even so I am aware that on one of the occasions I trimmed it slightly shorter than is ideal... 
After that, I wrote down each element (seam edges, pockets, fastenings, hem, etc.) and wrote WHAT the plan was for each, in detail, as well as WHY. 
As a result, although I've been slower than I had expected, I have done it really steadily, to a much higher standard than my usual slapdash cobbling-together, without having to un-do or re-do or adjust or re-think *anything*. The pockets are ready to be positioned and hand-sewn on, and then it's only the hem to do. 

Then I can wear it (if it ever warms up a bit) and start making the next thing. I am hoping I can really get on with things, this way! 
And for all that I'm saying I've been slower, actually I haven't been slower than my REALLY typical method which involves the whole thing being shelved for months... it's taken about 12 hours so far, inc designing and cutting. And I've hand-sewn organza ribbon to every one of the raw edges of the ten seam-edges on five seams, and lined the pockets with a handy cotton FQ and all sorts... 

Here are the pockets, one inside-out and one right way round (ie green side out!); the cotton print won't be visible unless you peer down inside the pocket, but I have now run out of green linen, so...
I know someone will suggest putting the pocket on, cotton print out, but a) that would limit he colours I can wear it with, and b) I actually really dislike this print although I love the colours. In another skirt I would enjoy making the pockets perhaps with piping along the lower edge of the pocket-top. 

PipneyJane

Those pockets are impressive, @Laura_Elsewhere.  Personally, I think the cotton print clashes horribly against the check of the skirt and the plain green is much better.  (I don't like the print at all.)

- Pip