2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

Interesting point re tights/stockings. I hardly ever wear them, but for those who do (and perhaps need to for work etc) they are jolly expensive on coupons, and I think that’s why Pip introduced the special case. Given that ‘nylons’ are not long-lasting, as I recall some people found themselves spending nearly half their coupon allowance just on tights. And I think @maryb is right, most people would have had hard-wearing lisle or silk for special occasions - much less likely to ladder than modern tights and more practical to carry out repairs on them.

But I would also agree, it doesn’t sit with the MSE/thrifty aspect of this group to make it easier to buy short-lived nylons which will be thrown away. I think it’s an unintended consequence of trying to make the challenge viable for people who do need to wear tights. 

thriftwizard

"That is possibly how it worked in the WAAFS/WRENS/WRACS - you'd show your old pair being past mending and get issued a new pair. "

My aunt was a senior QARNN (Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nurse) who trained & served in WW2 & for many years thereafter, and a very frugal soul, who trained as a bricklayer when she left the Navy! She taught me how to "stop" a run in my tights with nail varnish, or just soap as a temporary measure. Also how to darn them, but her favourite trick was to snip off a leg that was damaged beyond repair and wear with another pair the same on the other leg. The snipped-off legs (and any other textiles that had gone beyond reasonable use) were scrunched up & went into draught-stoppers in the shape of dachshunds, which were sold at many a church fete. But I suspect she never wore tights on a building site - in fact I'm not sure she ever actually worked as a brickie, but she did build her own kitchen extension and garden room.

Wraithlady

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I have a bit of a conundrum...

I want to buy a few more pairs of fine-wool stockings, which last me many years, and so I only buy perhaps 1-2 pairs a year, some years none at all. 
I don't buy nylons at all, ever. 

BUT...

"Stockings/tights. At 2 coupons a pair, stockings are really expensive in coupon-terms. Because of your connection to the armed forces, you have been given 6 special vouchers for those 4-pair value packs, which will not require coupons to redeem."

So... if I choose instead to buy single-use plastics, I get a staggering 24 pairs a year coupon-free????

By the way it was written, I assumed that you got a one-off issue of 6 coupons which would be exchanged for 1 pack of 4 nylons (I could well be wrong).

Seeing as I can ladder a pair of those just by looking at them and hence don't buy them, I've never actually clarified this.

florianatwobob

@Laura_Elsewhere

I think, whatever the reason, I definitely use oats a bit differently from most - occasionally I make oat milk to add to something (mostly for the soluble fibre, eg in soups or stews to smuggle more fibre to My Intended!), I make oatcakes (hurrah, no palm oil esp as it's just been found to make a primary cancer far more likely to metastasise to secondaries...!), I use it, blitzed in a little food processor, for crumble topping (ie no wheat flour, just oats and a small amount of butter, the rest water, and a tiny sprinkle of sugar on top)... Mum makes cranachan which is oats and cream and whisky and raspberries, and I have made Atholl Brose which is oats and whisky and honey and water, and is delicious and lethal  

So many non porridge uses for oats especially your mum’s cranachan and your Atholl Brose recipes 😋 

florianatwobob

Re the tights/stockings issue I suspect the scarcity/fragility of a pair of nylons is why they were saved for high days and holidays. I’ve a faint memory of my mum
mentioning invisible mending services for nylons on our high street in the 1950s. 

We’ve got a picture of one of my dad’s previous girlfriends’Knocker’ White (no idea what her first name was) who was a Wren post 1947 and she’s wearing lisle type stockings in her picture. Probably similar to 70 denier tights now. 

PipneyJane

@Laura_Elsewhere very good points re stockings and acrylic yarns. On the whole, I agree with you.  I only invented the special vouchers for nylons because some of us have to wear them for work and, given they ladder so easily, a two-coupon cost could use up your entire annual allowance, without you buying anything else.

If everyone agrees, on one condition, I’m happy to allow the swapping of a voucher for 4-pack of nylons for one pair of fine wool stockings/tights, so you’d get 6 pairs “free”.  (My condition is that you share your source.)

Re acrylic yarns, the cheaper coupon cost applied to all non-wool yarns but we could drop it if everyone agrees.

Can we insert a poll in the new forum, to put these to the vote?  I haven’t a clue how.

- Pip

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, I am happy to go with whatever everyone thinks re tights / stockings.  I do agree if you have to wear them for work they would easily use all your coupons in a year.
@Wraithlady I thought the same as you but as I never buy them hadn't thought to clarify it.
Take care everyone

PipneyJane

prepareathome said:

We are not a military family - parents on both sides were too young in WW2 and their fathers were in reserved occupations so not allowed to be called up.  Mums older brother was only one that went into army and served mainly in Africa and came home.   Her sister was a land girl (mum was a surprise born when her mum was nearly 50) Dad did do his service once he turned 18 but war was over by then, as did his brothers.  They all went into RAF but none stayed although dad actually wanted to but being oldest son, he was not allowed his parents wanted him to run the family business.  As family on both sides came from Russia early 20th Century there was no other family here in UK all the rest had gone to Netherlands and on mums' side, they begged her parents to send her there when London Bombings started (mum lived in Bethnal Green and was bombed out twice so they moved to Kent eventually) as Netherlands seemed so safe then.  Mums, mum could not let her baby go and refused to go with her leaving her husband behind.  It turned out for us the best decision as every member of the family were taken to camps and died, only two survived, an aunt and uncle of mums and they were unable to have children due to being experimented on, over 100 men, woman and children from both sides of family gone. So, I wear the poppy not just to remember the military that fell but all the people killed, my family and others.  The military could not save my family but I give thanks they stopped other families being almost totally wiped out. 

To bring this around to fashion I have made my dogs coats (a few years ago now) that are made from poppy fabric and when we take them out on during run up to 11th and Remembrance Sunday, they wear them in memory of all the animals lost during wars. 

@prepareathome - Apologies for not responding to this post earlier.  You and I share a religious and ethnic heritage.  In my case, my great grandparents didn’t stay in the East End for long before emigrating to Australia, having previously tried emigrating to America.  (My great uncle was born in Glasgow, great aunt in London and Nanna was born in Hartford, Connecticut.) 

Australia took in a lot of refugees after the War, so I grew up knowing survivors of the camps, people of my parents generation mainly.  (I was a late baby.).  I remember whispered remarks “She was in the camps...” and knowing never to ask about the tattooed numbers on their arms. 

- Pip

thriftwizard

Re the wool/acrylic/nylon issue: there's a world of difference between cheap & cheerful acrylic yarn, and, say, a posh hand-dyed silk/cotton blend! I can see that it'd be a nightmare to set a "cost" for each potential type, not to mention the everlasting debate as to whether it's actually "wool" if it didn't come off a sheep, (think alpaca, yak, camel, qiviut for example) but surely we need some way of differentiating the easily available fibres from the luxury ones in terms of coupons? Perhaps based on actual cost?

CAFCGirl

Weighing in on the tights/stockings - I don't wear them so I am happy with whatever saves coupons for others or the general consensus as to this