2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

wit40iwtwan

Spend alert - 1 scarf (2 coupons) and 1 dress (7 coupons) spend total since 31st May when I joined is 17.

skogar

MaddieMay - Sorry to hear of the loss of your Mum and other relative. sending a hug.

Laura - Your sock knitting on the platform story is great

Wraith Lady - I haven't got as far as trying rosehip jelly but I remember the last time I piccked rosehips a friend I picked them with said that anything we made from them would not bee suitable for vegetarians as I' afraid the rosebushed were vicious. hope your hands are suitably intact.

I am having a clear out - due to my tendency to wear things until they drop to bits I'm afraid that there is quite a bit only fit for the rag bag. I don't know where i will be able to get replacement polo shirts like that though. Over 20 years of regular use - they came from the edinburgh wollen mill (men's ones to avoid the girly pastle colurs they did) most were 100% cotton although the last lot I got in 2001ish they had changed over to cotton polyester. I have bought a couple more recently from Greenwoods (must have been pre 2017) but the quality was dreadful - the fabric seemed nothing like as harwearing and they discoloured (dye changed colur in patches) really rapidly - it was very odd. So if anyone knows where to get good ones please let me know.

Liverpool_Anne

@skogar, the last polo shirts I got were from cotton traders and are still going strong but it was a good few years ago so I can't speak for the current quality.
@maddiemay so sorry to hear your sad news. As Pip said we would all like to hear some of your memories of them if you feel like sharing them , hugs. 
I am getting quite cross now about relatives not being able to visit people in care homes. The care workers can go where ever they want when not in work, pubs, clubs, football matches, music concerts etc but relatives can't visit and residents can't go out. This seems very wrong to me as the residents have all probably been double jabbed but the care workers may not have been. I have many friends with relatives in care homes and I know they are finding this very hard, as are the residents who have also to contend with all the usual activities being cancelled. It seems very unfair especially when many are paying a lot of money for their care. Rant over, sorry

PollyWollyDoodle

@skogar have you looked at Community Clothing?  it's the range developed by Patrick Grant of Sewing Bee fame (swoon) and it's all produced (as far as that's possible) in the UK and intended to last like your original shirts did.  I can only see rugby shirts on there at the moment but worth keeping an eye out in case they introduce polo shirts.

Liverpool_Anne

@PollyWollyDoodle, that's a good call, there are some nice things on there, closes website quickly before I am tempted

PipneyJane

@wraithlady and @Laura_Elsewhere, I make Rosehip Jelly every couple of years.  I use a good quality jelly bag for straining the liquid and never get those little hairy seeds in it.

ETA - Don’t, whatever you do, don’t squeeze the jelly bag!  Let it drip all night, if you have to.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

@wraithlady and @Laura_Elsewhere, I make Rosehip Jelly every couple of years.  I use a good quality jelly bag for straining the liquid and never get those little hairy seeds in it.

ETA - Don’t, whatever you do, don’t squeeze the jelly bag!  Let it drip all night, if you have to.

- Pip

Yes, that's the way to do it - I use several thickness of muslin (cheesecloth stuff) and leave it overnight.

And leave the rosehips whole!

It's just there are so many internet sites saying to whizz the rosehips in a food processor to chop them all up and then just put through a sieve - yikes!!!!!!

TwibbleDee

Currently fortifying myself for the day with coffee.  It is a bit on the pitiful side.  I might need to play with it to try to strengthen it up some.

I did buy 2 more tank tops yesterday - the ones with a shelf bra and just a bit of padding built in.  One is a lovely color they call dark jade and other is a pink.  Sadly, they were out of Peach in my size, but she does expect some red ones in next week, so I might be back.  Does anyone know what we counted my tops as last year?  I can’t remember if we counted them as bras, since that’s how I wear them, or corsets, or something else entirely!

By the way, if you’ve gone into an actual bra shop where they know what they’re doing, do it!  This lady is who everyone else sends the hard fits to.  She’s a gem, and basically laughed at the numbers other shops had given me and brought my proper size right in.

MrsCD

I have a spend to declare. 15 balls of Stylecraft acrylic yarn. It's for Attic24's Yuletide blanket, so as it's for the home, not just me, I'm going to suggest that my DH uses some of his coupons towards it. 
So, I will take 8 coupons from my total this time.

Laura_Elsewhere

I went to a proper bra shop in my early 30s in Paris when I worked in the Languedoc - a tiny spherical old woman who spoke not a word of English and rattled away so rapidly in Parisian French that my Sud-accustomed ears couldn't catch much of it, we got by with sign language mostly! 
She was absolutely correct, and I still have that bra, from 2006, and it is splendidly comfortable as well as being very lovely. I shall be wearing it to be married in, probably (no, no date yet! Still sorting out long-term paperwork to clear the decks first...).