2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

A decent mend there, @florianatwobob! I love it when I can achieve a good match, but even with a whole box of tapestry wool & embroidery threads to choose from, it's a rare thing. 

6 coupons added to my signature for 3 metres of cotton jersey, acquired yesterday on a visit to the proper fabric shop Down West, to make myself a couple of pairs of t-shirt style nighties. My old ones are so raggedy it's hard to tell what colour they once were and holes are beginning to appear!  I have plenty of thread & bias binding to do necklines etc. so will keep them very simple, and hope to have enough left over for more knickers. Something odd happened with the last batch; I cut them out using the pattern I used before, but somehow they turned out half the size! I suspect the jersey just wasn't as stretchy. So they are now adorning DD2's knicker drawer; she's a size 8 & I'm a 14, and my weight hasn't gone up, so the difference was very real! I'll use a different pattern - probably from chopping up one of my nearly-defunct ones - next time.

white-rabbit_2-2

@CapricornLass @thriftwizard @Laura_Elsewhere good advice which I’ve been thinking about and chatting to my husband about. Thanks for taking the time to post. I’m going to try and go back for a little while to build up a bit of a pot of money. As you say bills are so volatile at the minute.

stopped today to look at a magazine “package” which had two simplicity patterns for £9.99. This seemed really reasonable given the prices I’ve seen for some patterns. Has anyone signed up for these? I too have dusted off the sewing machine which I need to learn how to use more!

Laura_Elsewhere

@white-rabbit_2-2 re the patterns- would you actually have to buy both patterns otherwise? Because if the choice is between spending a tenner on two patterns or a tenner-plus on two patterns then it’s a bargain; but if it’s between spending a tenner on two patterns ir spending nothing, or spending 8 quid on the better pattern you really need, then the tenner is not a bargain and if you don’t fall for it then the difference between just buying one pattern and buying the two might pay for nicer buttons to improve the thing you actually need to see…

CapricornLass

I ordered a book about crochet from your favourite shop, Laura, and it has arrived, complete with a tea-bag for me to have a cup of tea while I was reading it, and a note to assure me that I would love the book and would learn a lot from it.  I haven't the heart to tell her that its actually a present for my sister's birthday......
But there was some really interesting yarn on her website, so once I have finished my alpaca jumper, then I might well save up and buy some of it!

Laura_Elsewhere

I love their little notes! You always recognise a bag of squishiness from Ewe&Ply...

Remember that green cardigan I knitted with 63 quids' worth of Rowan? The one that not only shrank on first (cold) washing, despite the sample piece being fine, but pills like nothing on earth, great ropes of fibre hanging under the arms each and every time I wear it - I think it will actually be threadbare after this winter, tbh, it\'s already visibly thinner there after only a short while. I've now got plenty of 'Shropshire Ply' in a glorious "Lady's Mantle" green to knit myself another one that *won't ruddy shrink or pill* and I know that because I've got quite a few pairs of socks knitted from that Shropshire Ply and I know I can cold-wash it in the machine and spin it at 1400rpm and wear and wash and wear and wash and wear and it behaves itself!! 

They only sell yarn they think is good, and they both knit and crochet, so they are quite choosy - their own stuff is all iirc from flocks within 20 miles of their original Oswestry shop, and they send it to be carded and cleaned by small one-man-band businesses in Cornwall, Wales or Yorkshire I think, and then I think it's sent to New Lanark or Yorkshire for spinning, and then the two of them dye it themselves... so it's all small businesses, traditional methods, and they have control over the quality from visiting the sheep before shearing (at one time they kept their own flock!) right through to selling it... and no, they don't give me a discount for publicity work  

Cherryfudge

Welcome, new folk and @florianatwobob, good to see someone else mending knitteds!  It's almost impossible to get a match but you've come extremely close.

Just a quick mention of a problem my daughter's come up with, and I wondered if anyone has any good ideas please? She got married over the summer and is, I think, undecided about whether to keep her wedding dress. Recently she dared to wash it but while drying it, draped it over furniture. Now there are marks on the lining caused by varnish off the backs of their dining chairs!

I might be able to get to handle it and give more details eventually, but they don't live locally. She says it's an artificial fibre, and I'm guessing the varnish - which parted company with the chair and so caused two lots of damage for the price of one - has probably come off in flakes more than soaked in. So far, the only advice I've come up with is that if she tries to resell it, she should leave the lining in and see if a dress maker could use that as a pattern to reline it.

weenancyinAmerica

@Cherryfudge - depending on the design and the fabric, it might be possible to make a flower girl's dress, or child's dress out of it, or make christening gowns. One of the people online mentioned old gowns being used to make burial gowns for stillborn children. So if she can't sell it as a wedding dress, it might have recycle opportunities.

diminua

Just dropping in to record that I've bought one pair of dark brown trousers, and they didn't even have to be taken up because ankle-grazers are back in fashion - which seems an odd fashion choice for winter, but good news for us short people. Anyway another 6 coupons gone. I also want some black Chelsea boots for work (probably kid's ones as I want grip, not heels), and perhaps some black trousers as well (three pairs of my trousers are wearing out at once, and it make sense to buy what fits me while it's there). Then I think that's it for the year.  

thriftwizard

@Cherryfudge, a pic of the damage would give us all the best idea of how to limit the damage, but without seeing it & knowing how crisp or otherwise the fabric is, and how closely it sits under the dress, and how fitted the dress is, my best idea is that the damage will have to be cut out (in case it spreads, if it gets warm) & the lining patched.

I'm also 'fessing up to a purchase of 2 comfortable bras from M&S - I know my limits and constructing GG-cup bras is definitely one of them! - as the old ones are fairly close to total disintegration now. The ones I got last year from Brav!ss!m0 simply aren't comfortable for me; they must be intended for people taller & broader-shouldered than me as the straps sit far too wide on my shoulders (which aren't by any means narrow!) so fall down my arms, and if I move them inwards, they cut in quite savagely. Sigh. Anyway, 3 more coupons added. And in the meantime, my everyday walking Skechers now have daylight visible through the soles... eek!

PipneyJane

white-rabbit_2-2 said:

@CapricornLass @thriftwizard @Laura_Elsewhere good advice which I’ve been thinking about and chatting to my husband about. Thanks for taking the time to post. I’m going to try and go back for a little while to build up a bit of a pot of money. As you say bills are so volatile at the minute.

@white-rabbit_2-2 remember that just because the current job is toxic, it doesn’t mean you won’t be happy working in your field elsewhere.  You may have to downgrade or change your career trajectory, but you can find somewhere that is nice to work.  

(If you work in a practice, try looking for allied roles in the corporate world.  I can think of multiple lawyers, accountants and tax specialists who have made the transition and wouldn’t go back.  When I worked in a cosmetic surgery practice, one of our doctors was  a former GP, who worked part-time for us doing collagen injections and prescribing Regain.  For him, it was virtually stress free.)

On a different subject, I’ve blown all my coupons!  Went to the Knit & Stitch Show at AllyPally yesterday, with a friend.  (It was her idea.  Honest.). Spent 4 coupons on yarn and 8 on 4 metres of 100% cotton poplin.  The yarn includes an “emergency ball” of Caithness Yarns’ DK Sedge, to go with the six balls DH gave me for my birthday, bought from them at Unravel earlier this year.  It is destined for an Aran-style sweater and I’ve been worrying that six balls weren’t going to be enough.  The owner, Graeme, and I chatted about his yarns, his sheep, his plans for the future.  It might be a while before Graeme comes south again for a show, because the farm is now too much for his elderly dad to handle on his own and Graeme’s got to find/train up a stand-in for when he’s away.

The other yarn was two balls of laceweight, steel-grey alpaca from Toft, which is destined to become a hat, (when they email me the pattern).

There were several vendors selling their own patterns but no representatives from the big pattern companies.  Nowhere were patterns for ladies suits/co-ordinates.  (I know I am not fashionable, but really??). I had a lovely chat with the owner/designer of Trend Patterns, who sold me this pattern for a beautiful summer dress.  One of the samples she showed me had a very busy patterned fabric, which hid the diagonal seam, while still draping beautifully. 

That’s why I bought the poplin, which is cream covered in a busy blue pattern of outlined, tiny flowers. I forgot that non-wool fabric is 2 coupons a metre.  That spiv, Roy, assured me that cotton was 1 coupon a metre.  He had a lovely collection of British-made, pure wool tweed and flannel on his stall, too.  Really good stuff.  If I can find a decent suit pattern, I think a day trip to his shop in Leicester will be on the cards early next year.  That should give me enough time to save up too.

My other spends yesterday were cross stitch kits.  I bought three:  two from Blacksheep, while the third was a “pug of tea” from Crafty Smith.

Anyway, as I said, I am bust.  Yesterday’s spend was 12 coupons, while I only had 7 left.   My total spend is now 81 coupons, so I am 5 over.

- Pip