2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

Liverpool_Anne, some confusion can be caused by people calling rayon "garden silk" which the search bots can't differentiate from proper silk.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Liverpool_Anne I used two silks, both bought second-hand from Ravelry's stash search!

Muted: is a company named 'Oliver Twists' and is a cobweb, Copperfield Yarns Spun Silk 60/2, 100% pure silk, which the previous owner had triple-plied which was handy for me. 
Brights: is a better-known company, 'Posh Yarn' and is a Laceweight, Robynn Lace, 100% Grade A mulberry silk.

And I agree about the wording! eBay is particularly poor - they have entries that say "WOOL - 100% acrylic", sigh... that British thing again of all yarn being "wool" until someone forcibly sits you down and hammers it into you like happened to me and @PollyWollyDoodle But yes, many searches will pick up small amounts of silk blended with large amounts of other stuff! 
try adding double quotation marks around "100%" as that forces the search only to give results that include that. Of course, some are listed as "pure silk" so you'll need to search again for that! 

Oh and while we're at it, a useful tip My Intended taught me - for a google search, if you want it only to give you sites based in the UK, put site:UK with no spaces  

dolly84

A few years ago there was a programme on tv about a girl being given a Yorkshire farm to run for a year, she had to learn everything from scratch (it was on local tv) and when they sheared the sheep she said they only got 50p for each fleece, I remember being totally horrified.  I also remember being horrified when M&S were selling 100% Lambswool jumpers for £20 as I always considered it a high end product which should be looked after carefully.  I don't know how you get people out of the mindset of buying cheap, they would never buy a £200 pair of repariable shoes but will happily buy 10 pairs of £20 shoes which all end up in the bin.

Near to where I live we have a mill called Abraham Moon, they do everything in one mill with each process moving up a floor, they do some gorgeous products, I have one of their Bronte by Moon National Trust throws which I absolutely love.

Liverpool_Anne

Revelry, yes, that's the place to look it would be coupon free then as well. Thank you Laura and Thriftwizard for the explanations

Laura_Elsewhere

dolly84 said:

 I don't know how you get people out of the mindset of buying cheap, they would never buy a £200 pair of repariable shoes but will happily buy 10 pairs of £20 shoes which all end up in the bin.

Well, ironically, the current political foul-up may do that - most of the very cheap clothing is cheap because so much of it is imported, and it isn't even as simple as just importing it - lots of things travel alarmingly, maybe raw materials go from A to B internationally and are processed to some extent, then exported to C where it's perhaps spun, sent on to D where it's woven, then to B again where it's dyed, before going to E where it's cut and basically assembled, and then to A where it's finished by hand, then off to F where it's packaged, and finally to GB where it's sold for tuppence. Some of those countries the UK can still trade directly wth but an enormous amount of this idiotic trade actually doesn't go from eg Bangladesh to UK, but goes in a huge bulk shipment from Bangladesh to Romania, where it's then unpacked and shipped out in all directions to many many countries inc the UK - THAT kind of shipment will be affected, and I think it's highly likely that our very cheap clothing and footwear is about to change significantly. 

Not quite what was touted as the "great advantages" but ironically one that I would welcome, as a principle at any rate although of course it's worrying to think of the unemployment in all those other countries which now have economies so dependent on our cheap clothing fetish,,, 

Liverpool_Anne

Dolly, it seems to me the way to go is to learn to spin and dye if you can get a fleece for 50p, Another thing to put on my list of things to learn

dolly84

Liverpool_Anne said:

Dolly, it seems to me the way to go is to learn to spin and dye if you can get a fleece for 50p, Another thing to put on my list of things to learn

Wouldn't that be fantastic, highly unlikely though, for me at any rate.

Laura - I hope you are right, time will tell I suppose.

TwibbleDee

I think there is definitely a movement that's shifting towards buying better things that last longer - I mean, seriously, I have NEVER spent that kind of money on a dress before, but I've been hanging out with the minimalists in some of my groups, and a lot of my clothes I wear a lot are getting very worn and/or dingy as they weren't made to be worn and washed weekly for 3 years running.

By the way, I wore that dress all day long yesterday and never had a bit of an issue.  Definitely keeping it.  And buying more as I can.

Laura_Elsewhere

@TwibbleDee, great news about the dress being even better than you hoped, by he sounds of it!

Our grandmothers would never have washed a wool dress, so you could experiment with washing it much less often - opera companies hang their costumes up inside-out to air, as soon as they are taken off, and they spritz the underarms, neckline, etc., with vodka that has a few drops of essential oil in it, shaken well and misted on in a very fine spray, not enough to soak the fabric (and always on the inside!) but enough to kill the bacteria that can cause smells... 
Maybe experiment with putting it on a coathanger inside-out in an airy place overnight and see if you can wash it fortnightly instead of weekly? 

Works for pretty well any garment, of course!  

TwibbleDee

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@TwibbleDee, great news about the dress being even better than you hoped, by he sounds of it!

Our grandmothers would never have washed a wool dress, so you could experiment with washing it much less often - opera companies hang their costumes up inside-out to air, as soon as they are taken off, and they spritz the underarms, neckline, etc., with vodka that has a few drops of essential oil in it, shaken well and misted on in a very fine spray, not enough to soak the fabric (and always on the inside!) but enough to kill the bacteria that can cause smells... 
Maybe experiment with putting it on a coathanger inside-out in an airy place overnight and see if you can wash it fortnightly instead of weekly? 

Works for pretty well any garment, of course!  

In the info from people who did the 100 day challenge, it sounds like some of them only washed the dress 5 times in there!

Honestly, I had absolutely zero issues with temperature regulation yesterday, which is highly unusual for me - even with setting up for people and doing a bit of cooking, I never even broke a sweat.  The only time I got chilled at all was when we were out on the front porch, and we'd be surprised if I didn't out there.  

I think this is going to be the next dress: https://wooland.com/products/sierra-tank-dress-long?variant=32237784367174

Canyon Red, then a Navy or Black one (I'm being indecisive).

I do need to find a source for leggings that will fit me - they don't have a long length in them, so any leggings from there would probably end up looking more like capris!