2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Welcome back @pixtotts.  Sorry to hear you are poorly.  And sorry to hear about your Grandad.  I hope he lived to ripe old age.

- Pip

Wraithlady

Just trying to work out the oldest item of clothing I have - thought it was OH's father's dinner jacket from c1950's (too small for him, but fits me fine) - and then I remember the sparkly kaftanesque thing I bought from a trader in the Corn Exchange in Manchester in the 90's (pre-bomb and therefore pre-soulless corporate conformity). Seem to remember I paid about £8-10 for it, sold as a 'ball dress' from the 1930's, with some minor damage.

I wore it once, for about 10 minutes and if it was a ball dress, the woman would have had to be over 7' tall!

 I saw a picture of something similar, with wrist bands so you could hold the thing up (on mine, one wrist band was missing, torn from the chiffon), c1920's Erte-style, but can't find the picture now.

Meant to have it appraised when the Antiques Roadshow was in town, but I was away that weekend and they've not been back since. Not cos I think it's valuable, I would just like to know what it is!

Cherryfudge

DH has a Bible from 1573 and my grandfather clock is c.1765. I think the clock's been in the family since the early C20th, maybe longer but that's what I have provenance for. Oh, and the dining table is about 200, DH bought it at auction a few years ago.

However any bit of gravel that comes in on your shoe will be older than those!

PollyWollyDoodle

Ha - I love that thought @Cherryfudge!  

I am slightly ashamed to say that I’d never considered it but of course that is true!  Puts everything in perspective somehow. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Ah, but the average bit of gravel has no direct link to a person, whereas something made, even if it's a bit of stone chipped into a flint hand-axe - that links me to a person long, long ago... it's the knowledge that a person made or shaped this thing which makes me go wow, that someone else held or used or wore it and they lived and loved and laughed just as we do... 

I'm starting my year with a bit of second-hand clothes-shopping with that auction-house, E.Bay & Co - a nice jumper I have my eye on. I could knit one, but it's very good quality Shetland wool and I'm hoping to edit my jumpers down to ones in colours I actually wear and this would fill a "colour-gap" for me. I have an annoying number of woollies made in my earlier making-years in whatever I had to hand or could buy cheaply or was given, so they are a) not terrifically well-made and b) in colours I very rarely wear. I have a really heavy thick jumper which is a) in colours I never wear and b) so thick it;'s actually not terribly wearable, so I want to do something about that, whether it's unravel and use the wool for something else, or unravel and dye the least-me-colour wool, or maybe just cut it up the front to make a jacket... but it's silly to keep a jumper I wear once every two or three years - but I love two of its three colours, so...  

Attempting to be more organised with clothing, at any rate... 

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Ah, but the average bit of gravel has no direct link to a person, whereas something made, even if it's a bit of stone chipped into a flint hand-axe - that links me to a person long, long ago... it's the knowledge that a person made or shaped this thing which makes me go wow, that someone else held or used or wore it and they lived and loved and laughed just as we do... 

I'm with you there: even if it's just polishing a surface that's been polished by someone a hundred years ago, there's a massive feeling of continuity that gives me a buzz.

Would your jumper - the old one - be re-knittable with two of the three colours and maybe a more open stitch? I have a similar issue with regard to a knitted skirt I found in my Mum's things. It seems hardly worn and I can see why: not pretty, very chunky... I'm sure that somewhere I will find the inspiration to remake it.

florianatwobob

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Ah, but the average bit of gravel has no direct link to a person, whereas something made, even if it's a bit of stone chipped into a flint hand-axe - that links me to a person long, long ago... it's the knowledge that a person made or shaped this thing which makes me go wow, that someone else held or used or wore it and they lived and loved and laughed just as we do... 

I know that ‘wow’ feeling. Knowig you're
connect to people that went before. I think it also links into the presence some
buildings have. I remember walking alongside Hadrian’s Wall running my hand over the stones and feeling a similar connection. 

diminua

The oldest thing I have is a book from 1880 about Cleopatra's Needle. Some of the things in it have been debunked now, but the golden obelisk on the front is very pretty. 

But I actually dropped in to report Sunday's clothes shop - five pairs of socks and six pairs of knickers from TKM as all my underwear seems to be developing holes at the same time. 17 coupons to take off. I'll update my signature now. 

retiredinfrance

Pipney-Jane- would it be OK if I went ahead this year with no coupons carried over from last year? My reasons are that I am trying to declutter clothes by using up what I have, buying only essentials, really essential, using up my yarn stash, buying no more this year  and also trying to control CS buying. To that end I am going to count secondhand as coming out of rations as I have found that cheaper is not always better. Of course , if top of the range cashmere comes my way, that will be more of an investment. (LOL)
Talking of cashmere I really enjoyed Laura's expert explanation of why cheap cashmere doesn't last. This may explain recent "holes" in two jumpers, one cashmere and the other a fine wool. When looked at carefully they were just like a thread had broken and not like moth damage. I now think the fibres are coming to the end of their life. Anyway I mended them and will continue to wear my mended jumpers. After all , there's a war on....
My Ruth Goodman's Domestic Revolution came today and I am about to start into it this evening, so thanks again for the recommendation.
And as I'm sure they all said in 1942, let's  hope for a better year next year as we try to make everything stretch a bit more.
Stay safe, everyone. 

nannygladys

I have been through my wardrobe and drawers and its really summer clothes that I will be needing, so come February I will start visiting the local charity shops for either outsize garments/duvet covers for the material or actual clothes, I can't wait, exciting

I've also looked at my material and think I have enough for a couple of little tops and either a pair of trousers or skirt. Most of my material is for quilting and not n big enough pieces for clothes.

The Ruth Goodman book sounds interesting.
Nannyg