2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

flamingo747

@PipneyJane it sounds like a very productive trip though! 

Cherryfudge

weenancyinAmerica said:

@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.

thriftwizard said:

@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.

Thank you both! I will try to remember to have a look at it in person and get photos. It's a close-fitting dress with a  train, so there's a lot of fabric and a remake might be the answer. I'll warn her about not letting it get warm. I hadn't thought about the varnish melting onto other areas. A patch on the lining would have to be a good one, due to the fit, but would completely get rid of the problem.

I'll shelve the question for now as she's not in a hurry to do anything with it but after the rescue of the white top that went fuchsia pink, I believe in trying.

I have coupon spends to declare: a pair of socks for me and two as gifts. We were in a gift shop and these were only £1 each. The colours are good and there's wool in the mix. My excuse was it's so hard (impossible) to find sage green socks. These are partly light green, halfway to a win.

There's a design opportunity for someone in the highly specialised field of sage green sockery.

Cherryfudge

@PipneyJane, it sounds like a great day - you might as well spend up in a blaze of glory!

Elisheba

2 coupons to declare for tights. Utter waste of money. I needed them for a work thing the next day where I had to be very smart, so bought some from Tesco. Spend the second part of the next day constantly having to pull them up. So they have gone into the pile to be stuffed for door draught excluders. I must try Snag tights next time. 

thriftwizard

PipneyJane said:

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. 
- Pip

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear - I may have to buy that pattern too! Just delightful. In other news, one nightie is 90% constructed, just the neckline to finish, but I've reached the "making stupid mistakes" stage so that'll have to wait until tomorrow, as will cutting out the other one. But I'll also have to try to work out why my overlocker keeps breaking one particular needle thread; last time it was because I was threading them in the wrong order, which isn't the case this time. I've tried changing a) the thread, and b) the needle, but it's still happening. I must be missing something obvious but as I'm a relative newbie to overlockers, I don't really know where to start looking!

I have also bought two nighties online from M&S today, but as they're for my mother I don't feel the need to part with any coupons - she has her own! They're being sent straight to her. I can only hope she approves of them rather more than she did of the cotton dresses the carers insisted she should have, in the very hot weather - "I look like a mobile marquee! NOT wearing that..." - as all her clothes are polyester jersey, for easy laundry & easy to put on. But hot!

ETA: overlocker sorted with a good hoover-out & dabs of oil; nightie 1 finished, nightie 2 cut out & stitched! 

thriftwizard

Well, I think my 6 coupons were well-spent - two (very simple) nighties done, which would have been 6 coupons each, plus one vest-top finished & another under construction, and I'll still get 2 pairs of knickers from the rapidly-dwindling pile of offcuts! 

flamingo747

Wow @thriftwizard those are fab! So envious of your talent!

I was thinking earlier about how essential sewing would have been during rationing, the weight must have fallen off! I wonder what info there is on what happened to women's weights and calorie amounts during the war

PollyWollyDoodle

Ooh they look great, @thriftwizard. Can I ask, do you use a commercial knicker pattern?  It's still in my plans and I even have a bag of jersey off-cuts but somehow I can't get on with it.  

PollyWollyDoodle

@flamingo747 I think that generally far fewer women were overweight in those days anyway. The ration was carefully calculated to give sufficient calories, there just wasn't much choice of food. 

flamingo747

PollyWollyDoodle said:

@flamingo747 I think that generally far fewer women were overweight in those days anyway. The ration was carefully calculated to give sufficient calories, there just wasn't much choice of food. 

I've been doing some reading, it was apparently calculated by Cambridge Uni to be nutritionally sound and 3000 cals a day, to take into account the more physically demanding lifestyles they had. There have even been people living on rations to lose weight and save money