2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

TwibbleDee

Baileys_Babe said:

Thanks for the suggestion of a simple camisole top but I don't really think it ds' thing. I was planning on suggesting a simple drawstring bag as his very first thing (as we all feel our rummikub game would benefit) followed by a simple garment for his preschool-aged cousin as they adore each other and she won't even be aware of any slight flaws.

My elder brother was trained to sew making what we called "jams" - baggy shorts that could be used as pyjamas or to go to school in, in all kinds of crazy patterns.  

PollyWollyDoodle

I’ve mentioned this on last year’s thread, but I still have my grandmother’s Frister and Rossman handcrank machine. It made my mother’s baby clothes during World War I, and most of her clothes until she was an adult. She then used it to make clothes during World War II, and later she made clothes,  toys, fancy dress costumes and household things for five of us, and taught me and my sisters to sew on it. It will tackle everything from heavy duty canvas to fine fabric, and there is almost nothing you can’t make on it. It doesn’t have a zigzag, but I still remember my sisters making jersey dresses using a ballpoint needle. 

I was going to suggest a drawstring bag as an ideal first project, it’s how I got back into sewing a few years ago after many years. You could then advance to do things like lining the bag, doing a zippered bag; there are lots of YouTube tutorials. When I have taught friends’ children to sew I always start with a drawstring bag because it’s a quick project with a useful outcome. 

I’m another one who used to use the same needle until it broke!  I do understand that having a sharp needle makes for better sewing, but I don’t change it every time I start a new project.

Cherryfudge

Baileys_Babe said:

@Cherryfudge please would you post the UK quantities for the chocolate cake as I would like to give it a try and I am not confident cooking in cups. Or could somebody let me know the volume in millilitres of an American cup? Thanks

Eek - I came back to four pages of new posts! Sorry this is historic now.

I don't think the two recipes are identical: from memory mine uses milk instead of water but substantially the same and I'm fairly confident either, or a vegan substitute, would work. I also noticed mine is Imperial, so further translation may be needed.

I've given the original quantities followed by my adaptation for a family of five.

Egg-free chocolate cake

Grease and base-line two 6" sandwich tins or 1 x 8" tin. Preheat oven to 180C.

4 or 6 oz plain flour
4 or 6 oz white sugar
2 or 3 rounded tbsp cocoa
Large pinch or 1/4 tsp bicarb
1/2 or 3/4 level tsp baking powder
1/4 or 1/3 level tsp salt

Sieve and mix all the above.

4 or 6 fluid oz milk
1/2 or 3/4 tsp vinegar
2 fluid oz sunflower oil (or enough to bring the other liquids to 1/2 pint).
few drops vanilla essence

Whisk the wet ingredients together then mix into the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon and beat to make a smooth, slack mixture. Turn into prepared tins, smooth and bake until the top springs back when pressed lightly and the cake has just pulled away from the edge of the tin. Cool on a wire rack then sandwich if needed using buttercream or jam.

Based on 'East Cooking for one or two' Louise Davies, 1988 as far as I remember but I can't find my copy.

Cherryfudge

Baileys_Babe said:

Thank you @Laura_Elsewhere I like the look of the tala measuring cup, I am going to keep my eye open for one, initially in the charity shops when they reopen and if not successful I will add it to my wish list.

I hope I'm not repeating anyone else's advice but these are still available - from the original company by the look of it, an other retailers too. They cost around £6.50-£6.99.
I have to add I had one once and it got squashed out of shape. I don't think 1950s housewives had as overstuffed cupboards as yours truly.

Baileys_Babe

Thanks for taking the time to share the recipe and your adaptions @Cherryfudge  I am happy to cook using imperial or metric but until today I have never had the confidence to cook in cups. I am going to push myself to try some other recipes in cups so I become more comfortable.
I will follow your version of the recipe in the next couple of weeks and compare it to today's.

My kitchen storage is a bit cramped but I do think the measure looks good enough to be on display.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Baileys_Babe, sorry, my mistake - and what a giveaway about how society regards sewing - I misread/assumed it was your daughter learning to sew...! I'd encourage anyone to learn, but I'm extra-pleased to hear it's your son busting some stereotypes and gaining a lifelong useful skill! 
Drawstring bag sounds like an excellent plan... keep us posted and we'll cheer you both on!  

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

 I'm extra-pleased to hear it's your son busting some stereotypes and gaining a lifelong useful skill! 

I remember teaching my son to use a sewing machine by telling him the foot control was like the accelerator on a car. Twenty years later he's a very confident driver but I don't think he's touched a sewing machine since!

PipneyJane

TwibbleDee said:

PipneyJane said:

Ooohhhhhh...... I want one of those!  I remember them.  (I also want one of those hand-held, pint jug sized flour sifters, the ones where you squeeze the handle to release your sifted.  I've not seen one since the late 1970's...)

- Pip

...what type of sifters do they sell over there?  Those are the ones I see all the time here.

Hmmm.... I must ask the "Lost American" to bring me one, next time he visits from Florida.  (A very good friend, who was sent to the UK to work on a project for 3 months in 2000 and stayed nearly 3 years.)  Usually, he brings me yarn....

ETA:  Lakeland sell them!  They're currently unavailable, though.  < pout >  Must be a new product.  The website says "Coming soon!".

I haven't seen sifters of that style since I left Australia in 1989.  Mind you, I was here nearly a decade before I saw measuring spoons and cup measures in the supermarket.  I struggled to find them in John Lewis (a big department store), in those days.  I remember phoning Bloomingdales in New York and getting them to sell me a set of American cup measures, mail order.  When I've been home to Aus, I've taken a shopping list:  potato peelers, cup measures, measuring spoons, feature highly (as well as TimTams, Mint Slices, Twisties and Violet Crumbles).  The first decent potato peeler I bought here came from iKEA in April 2000. 

Who would think that decent basics would be so hard to find in a country of 65 million people?  I admit that things have improved considerably since the 1990's, but I was shocked that some basic kitchen equipment was so hard to find.

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

You see, I wouldn’t regard measuring cups as “basic” because I have always worked by weighing the ingredients, not measuring by volume, and that’s traditional here. I have got a set of cups but rarely use them. In fact I usually put the bowl or pan on the scales and weigh straight into it where possible. 

I have got a set of spoon measures, but before I would just use the appropriate item e.g. teaspoon, tablespoon. I think cutlery used to be much more standard shapes in earlier years. 

Baileys_Babe

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@Baileys_Babe, sorry, my mistake - and what a giveaway about how society regards sewing - I misread/assumed it was your daughter learning to sew...! I'd encourage anyone to learn, but I'm extra-pleased to hear it's your son busting some stereotypes and gaining a lifelong useful skill! 
Drawstring bag sounds like an excellent plan... keep us posted and we'll cheer you both on!  

Both ds & dd would like to learn to knit. Thankfully my sister and Mum are both experts and when we can be together again my Mum is promising to help us all. I too would like to finally manage to knit something a cleaning cloth would be fine. I tried numerous times in the past. My Nan spent many an hour patiently trying to teach me but I could never grasp how to coordinate to get everything in the right place.

Ds found an assortment of books about sewing on a bookshelf in the house (our children have always been home educated, you never know what will catch their interest or be a useful resource) early 2020, these included GCSE/O level books, basic books on sewing, making clothes, he regularly spends time reading them. Being given the machine will give him the opportunity to put some of his theory into practice. 

Before we can do any sewing the machine should be serviced and the motor checked out.