2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

CapricornLass

Yes, Gem-Gem, I do.  And plenty of clothes that almost fit - but not quite.  Too short in the crotch, slightly too short in the leg, shrunk a bit round the bust - that sort of thing.  I put up with it because I was never, ever a standard size!

thriftwizard

@Gem-gem, don't know whether this YouTube video would be any use?

Looking forward to the baked goodies! In the meantime, a couple of pics - the mad jacket:


And the saner version:


which I will actually wear! Slightly different patterns used: the first one was an adaptation of the "Hanten" jacket from Susan Briscoe's The Book Of Boro, which I got out of the library but loved so much I actually bought a copy. The second is an adaptation of a genuine Japanese pattern; I'm trying to find the link for it but it's being elusive! I needed the front to be wider, not being built to Japanese width although the height's about right. And pockets are just - a necessity!

ETA: the first one is made from 5 discarded shirts & some cut-off interlined curtain ends & pelmets found at the recycling warehouse. Total cost £3. The second from a pair of old curtains (£2 on the market) padded with a damaged M&S acrylic throw (50p, recycling warehouse) and lined with some of an old duvet cover that I'd also used to line DS3's curtains; I discovered his quilted roman blind had disintegrated, when he moved out. So basically £2.50. All thread was from my pre-existing stash.

Nonnadiluca

Wow, they're amazing! I would so wear the Japanese style jacket. 

Cherryfudge

I don't know about mad - those are fantastic! I can see that first one over black trousers with chic hair and maybe boots. You are so creative.

Laura_Elsewhere

I'm thirding those two! 

Totally not my style, but I can see people I know wearing them! Really nice bit of design work, imo... 

btw, I've just done some price-checking and it is now 75p per kilogram cheaper to buy double cream and make your own butter than it is to buy butter  

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I'm thirding those two! 

Totally not my style, but I can see people I know wearing them! Really nice bit of design work, imo... 

btw, I've just done some price-checking and it is now 75p per kilogram cheaper to buy double cream and make your own butter than it is to buy butter  

I'm amazed - for the first time ever, I was ahead of the trend! I didn't factor in fuel, but I used an electric whisk when I made butter the other day. The extra thick double cream was gratifyingly half price.  

Cherryfudge

I've a non-coupon spend to declare. I found a thick black velvet collar at a car boot sale for 50p today. Not antique, and sadly not cotton velvet, but it feels lovely and might be a slightly dressy touch for cold weather.

DH suddenly found a hole in the upper of some favourite summer shoes and was sad they would have to go but in the middle of looking for something unrelated on YouTube, this video of a very similar shoe came up with the perfect solution. When I have time, I have his permission to try to sew the shoes up. Make do and mend and keep a favourite item.  

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Thankyou all - I think I must have not mentioned the Lyme's before - there was about a week at the start of Sept when I pretty much just slept the whole time, then the following week I was just as tired but had fabulous insomnia (literally a total of 2-3 hours in 4 or 5 bits!), so ended up mildly deranged at all times - I just kept doing my usual daily things and gave up trying to actually feel anything or think anything... then over the last week or so I've slept a bit better and am now definitely starting to feel a bit more normal!

Be wary of those damn ticks and if you find one on you, or spot the classic bullseye skin change then get onto the antibiotics asap - the sooner the better, even by a few hours! 

And put word round any hikers or off-road people you know - I hadn't realised: that bullseye is not a sign of a tick-bite reaction, it is actual Lyme's, it means you ARE infected and need to get onto the antibiotics... Lyme's doesn't only make you very tired, it can go into your spinal fluid and into your brain, so it really is important to get onto the antibiotics as soon as you know you've been bitten... 

Thank you.  I didn’t know.  Hope you feel better soon @Laura_Elsewhere

(This explains a lot.  I never knew what bit me.  Sometime between 2008 and 2010, I was getting out of my car at the very rural hotel I used to stay in when visiting my construction site, and something bit me on the ankle, through my sock.  By the time I got to my room, there was a red ring around the bite, which didn’t settle.  My first thought was cellulitis.  I know that, when I got home, I went to my GP and was prescribed antibiotics, but can’t remember the timeline/delay.)

I went into London yesterday, to see the floral tributes in Green Park.  Wish I hadn’t gone on my own, but DH is away with work and the friend who was going to come with me is sick with cold. (Not COVID.). I cried.  Multiple times.

@Liverpool_Anne, you will appreciate this tribute:



It can only have come from the Club.

Afterwards, I walked up Bond Street to John Lewis, browsing the shop windows.  As far as I can tell, the fashion theme for 2022-23 is 1980’s-Club-Tropicana-Pop-Video-esq.  Oversized tops falling off your shoulders, with either Oxford bags or skin-tight bottom halves.  Stella McCartney is the only place I saw shoulder pads.  Check out the blue dress on the left:



In John Lewis, I fell victim to some pale grey yarn:  Manos Del Uruguay Fino, in the colourway “Silver Teaset”.   It’s 4-ply, 70% Merino wool, 30% silk, in a 100g (450m) hank.  Three hanks purchased, which will be enough for a jumper.  Not cheap (£70.50 in total) but I’ve saved money all year for a blow out like this.  6 coupons spent.

My reason for being there was to browse the pattern books for a suit pattern, so that I can make a suit from the wool fabric I picked up at that charity fabric sale in ?July. OMG was I disappointed!  The last time I did a serious browse for patterns was a decade ago.  Do you remember back then, when there were several different pattern books laid out on the counter, one for each pattern company?  Well, now, there is one book.  I always knew that Vogue and Butterick patterns were owned by the same publisher, apparently they also own Simplicity and McCalls.  No New Look pattern book.  No Burda, just that one pattern book to look through.

I flipped through it in growing disappointment.  Virtually no suit patterns - I can recall only one (didn’t appeal) - no capsule wardrobes, and only one picture per pattern to display the garments.  (How the hell am I going to know what the top of that dress looks like, if you only display it with the jacket on?).   Seriously, there was NOTHING suitable for the office and nothing I would want to make.  Did I miss the memo saying that nobody has to dress professionally for work anymore?

John Lewis Oxford Street also had virtually no fabric.  (No suiting.  What a surprise?)  Last time I was in there was pre-Pandemic.  The Haberdashery Department is only 1/3 of the size it was then, and about a tenth of the size it was in the 1990’s, when I worked around the corner.   The lady who rang up my yarn sale told me that “nobody makes a summer dress anymore”.

It looks like I’m going to have to find the bag of paper patterns I purchased in the 1990’s.  Hopefully, there will be a suitable suit pattern in there that I haven’t cut out - since I’m a totally different size now - which I can use/adapt to my current style.  There may be a possibility that I’ll find something at the Knit & Stitch Show at Ally Pally next month, but unlikely.  (I had my arm twisted by a friend to go to the show; the same friend who was too sick to come along yesterday.)

Anyway, the above yarn purchase brings my total spend to 69 coupons, leaving 7 for the rest of the year.  

Wish me luck.

- Pip

Gem-gem

thriftwizard said:

@Gem-gem, don't know whether this YouTube video would be any use?

Looking forward to the baked goodies! In the meantime, a couple of pics - the mad jacket:


And the saner version:


which I will actually wear! Slightly different patterns used: the first one was an adaptation of the "Hanten" jacket from Susan Briscoe's The Book Of Boro, which I got out of the library but loved so much I actually bought a copy. The second is an adaptation of a genuine Japanese pattern; I'm trying to find the link for it but it's being elusive! I needed the front to be wider, not being built to Japanese width although the height's about right. And pockets are just - a necessity!

ETA: the first one is made from 5 discarded shirts & some cut-off interlined curtain ends & pelmets found at the recycling warehouse. Total cost £3. The second from a pair of old curtains (£2 on the market) padded with a damaged M&S acrylic throw (50p, recycling warehouse) and lined with some of an old duvet cover that I'd also used to line DS3's curtains; I discovered his quilted roman blind had disintegrated, when he moved out. So basically £2.50. All thread was from my pre-existing stash.

Thank you thriftwizard, I can see that there is much more to fixing the holes and making it look good. I can see where I went wrong last time. 

Your jackets are amazing. True up-cycling of materials. Well done you. 👏⭐️

white-rabbit_2-2

I have been lurking in the background for many years but a combination of I’ll health and having more time on my hands has allowed me to lurk a little longer. I’ve love hearing all of your finds and redesigns 

I was a size 16 and am hovering around a 14 so I decided to do my first recycling project of a jumpsuit into a pair of trousers and a little crop wrap over.  I’m trying to get another few wards out of something I would normally have charity shopped. I’m trying minimise my spend on clothes and hence I have lurked on this board for years. 

I’m nowhere near as accomplished as @gem-gem but it’s a start…