2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

prepareathome

Err how many coupons for 6m of fabric - I was tempted and I fell.  My excuse although I made myself a wool winter coat two years ago it's not that heavy and casual style and I do need a heavier dressier one as old one which I have had about 30 years is looking a tad worn in places.  It was £4.25m for a heavy - 475gsm mix of wool 40% / Viscose 60% and 55ins width - usually boiled wool is either pure wool or mix with poly and I try to avoid using poly so between this having viscose instead and the reduced price well it would have been rude not to buy it.  Only one colour choice a bright royal blue but that is fine for a coat.  No idea how coupons work for fabric.  

PipneyJane

prepareathome said:

Err how many coupons for 6m of fabric - I was tempted and I fell.  My excuse although I made myself a wool winter coat two years ago it's not that heavy and casual style and I do need a heavier dressier one as old one which I have had about 30 years is looking a tad worn in places.  It was £4.25m for a heavy - 475gsm mix of wool 40% / Viscose 60% and 55ins width - usually boiled wool is either pure wool or mix with poly and I try to avoid using poly so between this having viscose instead and the reduced price well it would have been rude not to buy it.  Only one colour choice a bright royal blue but that is fine for a coat.  No idea how coupons work for fabric.  

Woollen fabric is 3 coupons a metre, so that's 18 coupons spent @prepareathome.  The colour sounds lovely, perfect for a coat.  What pattern do you have in mind?  Are you going to need to line it?

- Pip

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I wonder how Armistice Day felt in 1942... 

So much that I take for granted about growing up in, and living in, Britain came out of that terrible 1914-1918 conflict - from school dinners and the NHS to my right to vote and to assume certain protection at work, and a thousand other rights alongside... 

I wear my great-great-uncle's 1914-18 Campaign Medal every Armistice Day, on a ribbon round my neck, tucked inside my cardigan, and I think of that day in 1918 when the guns stopped. On the south coast of England it was sometimes possible to hear the war, across 30 miles or so of the Channel, and I hope there was birdsong that November day. All over Britain there would have been people for whom it came too late, who must have wept bitterly at their losses, knowing that when the troops came home, so many millions would stay in the war cemeteries, and even now half a million or so still in the mud of the battlefields, periodically emerging as a field is ploughed or foundations dug for a new house... 

I wonder how they felt as the sirens sounded for yet more raiders overhead in 1942, sitting in their shelters and wondering when this one would end, if it ever would end... 

I think we'd have been scared in 1942, Laura.  Scared and sad that the huge loss of life we'd witnessed in WW1 turned out to be all for nothing.  What a waste.

I lost two great uncles at Gallipoli; another on the western front.  They're "my boys" and I feel close to them every Armistice Day and ANZAC Day.  I must find out where Uncle Mark is buried in France/Belgium; hopefully I can find my family history asignment from year 9 and it'll have his service number in.

- Pip

prepareathome

Thanks Pip.  No idea what pattern yet, will need to go through my patterns (I have rather a lot as I do fabric - yes am a hoarder and DP will groan and say but what about all the other fabric you have but none this heavy in wool mix suitable for a heavy coat- he will tell me I always have excuses but after 40+ years he is used to me LOL).
Lining, yes most likely unless it really does feel smooth - some boiled wool can feel rough.  My previous coat is unlined as its pure wool and so soft but as mentioned a lighter weight  but I made it loose, no closings, except at neck, so warm layers can be worn underneath, plus I put big patch pockets on it so although lovely to wear is not exactly dressy - did wear it to theatre other night as went to put on good coat and noticed how it was looking worn in places and even though in cream I could see them even though DH said he could not and no-one was likely to notice, but I knew so quickly gave my me-made one a press and wore it - luckily I did make it with a built in scarf so that gives it a slightly better look even with the big patch pockets. 

Right off to amend my signature.

skogar

Pip - Your wool is a lovely colour - I would be unable to resist the owls. I haven't tried cabling yet but keep saying I should try so I could try doing owls. Not a jumper though as it would be legendary by the time it was eventually finished.

skogar

Prepare at Home - I'm sure your new coat will be great - would love to see a picture when it is done.

MrsCD

The lad who lived opposite us when our girls were growing up was killed by an IED in Afghanistan in 2010. He was a sapper in the engineers. This is reason enough for all our village to remember the fallen of all wars. 

PipneyJane

MrsCD said:

The lad who lived opposite us when our girls were growing up was killed by an IED in Afghanistan in 2010. He was a sapper in the engineers. This is reason enough for all our village to remember the fallen of all wars. 

Agreed, @MrsCD.  Big hugs to you.

Lest we forget.

thriftwizard

One of my middle son's best friends also fell to an IED in Afghanistan; he was cavalry/tanks. I've been thinking of him a lot today. 

PollyWollyDoodle

For @PipneyJane and anyone else who would like to trace someone who died in one of the World Wars, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at www.cwgc.org is a brilliant resource. Be prepared to be disappointed though; I looked up my great uncle who died at Ypres, only to find that there is no grave, instead I was directed to an entry on the Tyne Cot Memorial 😢. He was one of the thousands ‘missing, presumed killed’. Or perhaps he rests in state in Westminster Abbey, who knows.