2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane · 2 January 2021 at 9:55AM

Cherryfudge said:

I have gained weight just looking so I will give in and say 'yes please' - the baking round here is certainly benefitting from the presence of our friends on the American Base! Who needs nylons when they can have chocolate?

I went up in the loft to track down some old roll necked tops that I used to wear under woolly pulleys and came down with two bin bags of winter stuff. Why on earth do I have such a thing about scarves? I did find some cords that I'd utterly forgotten and was thinking of sending them to charity, but that's before I found they are a perfect fit. So my first new item of the year is second hand from myself and therefore costs no coupons. I also found a fleecy pyjama top from long ago but with a lot of life still in it. I honestly have far too much but there's rarely an item I want to let go. I'm wishing for car boot sales again as I used to get oddments of wool there and a bit of me says I'll get some to finish my net bag project if only I can go to a car boot... not one thing in my yarn stash will do as well!

I've been Drawn In, haven't I?

My final total for 2020 was 26 and a half tokens spent, thirty nine and a half remaining so I start 2021 with a rather awe-inspiring/startling/illegal 105 and a half.

By the way, how do others keep track of coupons spent? I'm going to try a page in my bullet journal, and hope I don't lose it again.

I keep track of the total in my MSE signature. I also keep a list of my spends in the sidebar of my blog. Polly’s idea - keeping a note on your phone - gets my vote, too. (I do that for other things.)

Cherryfudge said:

PipneyJane said:

I am currently trying to persuade myself that I don’t want to spend £150 on a pair of pure merino ski leggings and matching thermal top. On the one hand, they will be warm, will get worn a lot and should last as long as the pure silk ones I bought 20 years ago. On the other hand, that’s a lot of money, equivalent to spending nearly 4 months clothing allowance. (What can I say? I microbudget.). Coupon-wise, I can afford it; I’m starting the year with 72, having brought 6 forward from last year. The leggings would be 2 coupons and the top 3.

What did you decide, @PipneyJane? you were putting up a good argument for buying earlier today, and wasn't buying better quality a feature of wartime clothing?

@Cherryfudge, I bought them this morning, so have a 5 coupon spend to declare.

You are right, of course, buying better quality is important. Did you grow up with fashion magazine articles talking endlessly about fabulously elegant French women? I did. It took me years to work out that the reasons for this elegance was a) these mythical women didn’t chase fashion but, instead, invested in quality, co-ordinated clothing that last for years, and b) they planned their wardrobes so that everything worked with everything else. (Also, I know these stories were based on lies. I’ve spent enough time in France to know that the French dress just as badly as the rest of us.)

Couldsavemore said:

Hi..
Can I joiin?.. So thats 66 coupons for me.
Question.. If its already in my stash do I use up coupons?
Am busy making a skirt from material in my stash... Also half way through knitting a hat.. again wool from stash.
I'm another who needs to loose some lockdown weight as quiet a few items are not fitting due to flabby belly syndrome!

Hi @Couldsavemore. Welcome to the Challenge. Please grab a cuppa, pull up a chair and join us around the fire.

Existing stash doesn’t cost coupons but stash enhancement does, if bought new. If you buy it secondhand from eBay, a charity shop or a car boot sale, then it’s coupon free.

- Pip

Couldsavemore · 2 January 2021 at 11:21AM

Ohh a cuppa would be great.
Its been snowing here to was a rather fun run with the dog! He fell off the curb twice and ran over some thin ice so fell in a puddle! He's not given up and is currently doung laps in the garden.
My skirt material was bought last year so coupon free! Am also using buttons from a stash my mam gave me! Am aiming to get tge waist band on but my son is putting up a good argument for sledging..
Is anyone currently making anything?

Shropshirelass · 2 January 2021 at 11:32AM

I'm starting for first time so I have 66 points. I have to admit I bought a short wool mix jacket last week (M&S sale, it's 'rose pink', I will need to change the buttons which are dark brown). Reason for buying this is my old coat has become baggy and scruffy, DH called it 'that old thing' last winter, and I have been surreptitiously searching for a new one since then. also bought black canvas lace ups to use as house shoes, I will need to give them elastic laces, so they can become slipons.

I need to stick to 'one in one out', and also check wardrobe and Make a Plan.

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 January 2021 at 11:37AM

@PollyWollyDoodle - if you don't fancy replacing the whole elastic, or it isn't so easy on your leggings, what I do on mine is to sew several small folds along the back waist, symmetrically either side of the centre-back seam. I just fold 1/2" over, the fold going outwards, and just stitch the same stitch repeatedly through all thicknesses at the top and bottom of the waistband, on each edge of the fold. Very easy to do, and works surprisingly well ime...

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 January 2021 at 11:42AM

@VickyV and @Couldsavemore - welcome! Do pull up a couple of chairs, the stove is lit but it takes a while to warm the hall up properly on a cold winter's morning like this!

Vicky, hurrah for enjoying your clothes - part of what this group is about is sustainability so perhaps you can use us to help you towards buying fewer-but-better clothes. They don't have to cost more, if you're canny with sales or BNWT on eBay, etc., but even if you do spend more, they typically last many times longer, so you spend less in real terms... and after all, now you feel so much more confident about your appearance, you don't want to go shoving any old cheap tat on, now do you?

couldsavemore (and which of us couldn't?!) - don't worry; if you laid in supplies of fabric or yarn before rationing came in then those are already yours and don't count, as they don't need coupons (one or two people do use coupons for their existing textiles but that's because they're deliberately trying to use up stuff).

I'm about to cut out my new everyday grey-wool skirt, but I've been about to cut it out since early December, so...

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 January 2021 at 11:50AM

@Shropshirelass - if you bought the jacket and shoes last week then those were from your 2020 coupons. You can't spend the 2021 coupons before Jan 1st 2021! So you haven't yet spent any

PollyWollyDoodle · 2 January 2021 at 12:47PM

Thank you @Cherryfudge and @Laura_Elsewhere for the suggestions to fix my leggings- I can’t believe that it hadn’t occurred to me that I might be able to sort them out! They are brand-new so I don’t really want to replace them, I will try one of those solutions. I am not making anything in terms of clothes at the moment, I have fabric in stash for a skirt and a pattern, but I can’t be bothered because I don’t know when I will be wearing it. It was intended as part of my “smart casual” wardrobe for seeing clients, but since all I’m doing is Zoom meetings at the moment, I only need to look smart from the waist up! I don’t make New Years resolutions, but one thing I would like to do more of this year is sewing.

thriftwizard · 2 January 2021 at 1:49PM

I've got a couple of sewing projects in hand for this weekend; I made DD2 some PJ bottoms last week from the pattern I used for OH's PJs, suitably re-sized down, but that pattern's matching top calls for acres of fabric, which I don't have (2m+, there's just 1.5m left) so another, simpler pattern has been invested in & will be picked up from our local W8rose later. There's a cot quilt top to be "sandwiched" & quilted for a young friend's baby, due at the end of the month. Plus I'm going to make myself a sensible winter skirt from some of the browny-green corduroy, with plenty of striding-room & nice deep pockets! (Never got round to listing it online... but will sooner or later, along with acres of vintage Laura Ashley stuff)

So, my leg- & wrist-warmers will be getting some more exercise, as it's mostly straight-stitch stuff, best done in the (slightly-warmer, but still freezing) conservatory. After that - maybe the knickers, at long last?! BUT I can't find that marvellous post pointing me at all those wonderful free patterns; please might someone with superior mastery of the search function point me in the right direction again?