2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

MoneysavingmadGem

I have always stalked the charity shops because a normal shop I can walk in the door scan and walk back out straight away... normally I don't like anything. But the same it's colour then size in a charity shop then see if I like the feel. 

MrsCatz

Evening all,

Been decorating the office room all day. It’s bright pink so will cheer me up no end whilst WFH.

I too have a savings pot for clothing/ materials, I set it up when I bought my first place and needed “business wear” for work. It’s remained with me ever since. I have found it really handy as I can let funds build up so I don’t have to worry if I need shoes/ tights or a warmer jumper.

Been thinking about the oldest items I regularly use. All the beds here have Whitney blankets from the 50s in the summer with sheets. I have my great aunts tablecloths and table from the 40s. It’s now my sewing table but she spent the blitz taking shelter underneath it. Clothing wise I inherited a gorgeous 50s blouse from my Grandmother, and I regularly wear suits/ dresses from the same era as they suit my body shape and are better quality than modern clothes.  I keep my money in my Nanny’s red leather 70s purse, makes me smile as she used to buy me sweets with the change she kept in there.

thriftwizard

Oldest item of clothing? Probably one of my kimonos... there's a little pink silk cherry-blossom "juban" (i.e. a round-the-house sort of garment) which may well have been cut down from an older full kimono, which is quite usual; the lining's also silk though the collar is cotton. I do wear this as a spring-autumn dressing gown & it's probably from the 50s or 60s in its current form. I've recently acquired a stunning blue silk padded & hand-embroidered in silver one which is probably much older, but I'm still working out how to date it, and will probably never dare wear it! Actually I also own some Edwardian bits - a velvet capelet, some aprons & petticoats - but again, I'd never wear them. In terms of objects, I've "inherited" my grandmother's sheets & she died soon after my mother was born, in 1926! They don't fit any of our beds, but the quality of the linen means I can't bear to just chuck them out. (Also her dance card holder & candle-snuffers...) My best sewing machine is older (1909) and the dining chairs I grew up with, sitting out in the garage, waiting for DD1 to have a home of her own to take them to, have been reliably dated to 1810 - but from the servant's hall! Older still is an ornately-carved fireside chair, also in the garage & waiting for DS1's house purchase to complete, but currently without upholstery, which is from the 1740s - that cost me £10 from a desperate antique trader; none of his customers could see the sheer quality of "that tatty old thing" which was trailing horsehair everywhere, & he needed the space back.

I also have two beautiful old hand-stitched whole-cloth quilts; I found an old chap standing at the top of the stairs of the household waste skip at the tip one day, unable to throw them over. They'd belonged to, possibly been made by, his deceased wife's grandmother; he was moving into sheltered accommodation and had no room or reason to keep them. Needless to say, I did the decent thing & offered to give them a good home. They are just fabulous, and I could never sell them. Ditto DD1's beautiful walnut bed - another story there, but enough! You can see I'm no minimalist...

ETA: craft budget - I have to have earned any money I spend on fabric, yarn or equipment, that month, over & above rent & pitch fees, re-investment money, fuel & my contributions to the family budget. No profit = no yarn or fabric, no new equipment! Having been unable to return to the workplace because of DD2's special needs, buying, selling & making were my only way of making, literally, "pin money" and I stick firmly to that now!

CapricornLass

The wool for my jumper has arrived - woo-hoo!  Unfortunately I have to invest in some fine needles and I'm now waiting impatiently for them to arrive.

Old stuff - yes I have a bit.  A diamond-shaped tea pot from my mother's great-aunt, which has probably survived as it is useless for pouring tea.  My mother's Prestige kitchen utensils and rack, sixty-five years young.  A cup and saucer from my grandmother's wedding china.  A corner chair that belonged to  my grandmother, which I think probably dates from the 1920s.  I found an early 1950s sundress and bolero too while I was sorting out my mother's clothes. I think I will probably have to sell that though.  I have two boys and they won't appreciate it in the least when they come to sort out my stuff, and I'd rather it went to someone who appreciated it than it eventually hit the bin.

PollyWollyDoodle

Not sure what my oldest item is, but I realised the other day when I put on my favourite hoodie that it's over 10 years old, as it was branded for an event in 2010.  I definitely still have some towels from when I got married in 1986! Nothing new bought so far but I scored a couple of new-to-me tops and a pair of trousers in a larger size (sadly needed since Christmas but I'm hoping to return them to the CS before long!). 

Went away for New Year to visit friends and was asked to please bring my sewing machine as 20-year old had left his at university and couldn't get on with my friend's very old one.  I have taught several teenagers to use a sewing machine, and he is the only one who has gone on to use the skill, and asked for a machine for his last birthday. 

He had cut one of his t-shirts off as a crop top and wanted to hem it,  I showed him how to do a zigzag stitch and he finished it off and then shortened another one rather more carefully and hemmed it, I'm so proud of him!  He wants to make some trousers and I gently explained that they are not the easiest thing to make and maybe some PJ trousers would be a good start, I can't fault his enthusiasm. 

Meanwhile I sat and sewed the spaghetti strap back on his 19-year old sister's dress - I honestly think she would have thrown it away otherwise, as neither she nor my friend has the first idea about sewing.  Then I ended up shortening a pair of trousers for her ... well, it's nice to feel useful!

Re budgeting, I use YNAB and have found it really useful.  I have a section for 'Wardrobe' which includes haircuts, and in fact they are my biggest expenditure as most of my clothes are bought from charity shops.  I have a separate section for 'Hobbies' which covers calligraphy supplies and yarn/fabric.  However I am on a yarn/fabric embargo until I've used up some of my stash. 

nannygladys

Hi everyone, I don't have any really old clothes at all and quite envious of all you that do
I was bought up by grandparents but they obviously didn't keep much. I do have one tablecloth that's never been used which I know is old, my Nanny used to work in a sanitorium for TB patients and they used to do embroidery for occupational therapy, and Nanny had a tablecloth that is beautiful open work all done in blanket stitch, it must have taken months and months to do and I have that now. I also have another one that I do use as its not as intricate. I have a small desk that was my grandfather's, it's not worth anything to anybody but me, but my mum had it after grandad died and now it's my turn, and a smoking box that belonged to my other grandad (who bought me up) that I keep one off docs in, but no clothes from anyone. 
So I haven't really got any old clothes in fact I don't have many clothes or shoes at all.

Right off to watch Inspector Montelbano, even though I've probably seen it several times before!!!
Nannyg

ChainikCrafts

nannygladys said:

Right off to watch Inspector Montelbano, even though I've probably seen it several times before!!!
Nannyg

Oooh, I love Montalbano. Though I have this opposite problem - between three language, the sea, and the food, they make me so relaxed I fall asleep every time! So have never seen any the whole way through!

I am far behind in terms of keeping things - a few jumpers that are probably in their twenties but most of my wardrobe is ten years old or less I reckon. I’ve been trying to tackle my mending pile this afternoon so that’ll keep a few things going a bit longer. I’m very new to mending/sewing in general and the pile is very large!

In terms of budget, I use a yearly spreadsheet from One Big Happy Life (they do finance videos on YouTube) and do include a crafting line. But I don’t have a savings pot for that money, though I might like to.

Gem-gem

 @Liverpool_Anne, I like touching / feeling the clothes too before buying them. 

Pip, I thought that I changed colour when I copied someone's @name plus a few words and then deleted their words and write my own. But it hasn't worked this time!!! 

florianatwobob

I think the oldest thing we have in the house is a copper warming pan that belong to my Great Grandma Lydia who was born in 1856 (the peril of being the youngest child of a string of youngest children/large families is that we cover large periods of time in relatively few generations). The warming pan was still in use to warm my mum’s bed when she was a little girl in the 1940s. As to the actual age of the warming pan I’m not sure beyond it being Victorian. 

Apart from that we have a cedar wood cigarette box of Great Uncle Fred’s (early 1900s at a guess) and an antimony trinket box from around the same date. I only found out this week that it’s made of antimony as I saw a similar one on the Repair Shop. 

Oh and I enjoyed Montalbano too this evening.

pixtotts

Hi all, 
I definitely fell off the band wagon big time last year >.<  so I'm going to sneak back in quietly and hide in the back corner a while... 

My clothing collection has got a little out of hand... I mean it's been out of hand for years, but I really would like to get it under control this year. 

of my 66 coupons I must confes to having already used 
5 - on some little flat shoes for everyday wear
7 - on a dress for my cousins babies christening, though that is next Saturday and I'm currently stuck in bed with a cold and covid so we'll see if I actually make that >.< 

If I'm feeling better before hand I may need a dress for my grandads funeral, but thats a week on Wednesday so we'll see how I feel, not sure what I'm going to wear if not!

I do need underwear and jeans but I would like to try and keep my coupon spending to just those...  

I saw some talk of tights in the early pages I am a huge huge huge Snag fan! I wore some Christas day, 4 jumpy scratchy for attention dogs, not one mark! They wear well, they wash well, I just wish I'd bought more black ones! I have lots of pretty colours but not many practical.


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