2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

My Gran had those shiny quilts, with the Art Deco sub-rays stitching pattern - but she always took it off at bedtime, along with the down-to-the-floor candlewick bedspread on my little single bed in the spare room, and actual sleeping was done under sheets and blankets. The pretty things were for covering the bed in daytime!  

thriftwizard

We had sheets, blankets, then an eiderdown, and an Indian cotton bedspread on top, my parents just having returned from several years in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) when they had me. I can remember picking the ice off the inside of the bedroom window when I was small, but I don't remember ever feeling cold at night under that lot! But I used to drag my clothes under the bedding to warm them up before venturing out of bed in the morning, and also remember wearing (scratchy!) hand-knitted bed-socks when the snow was really deep outside.

When we cleared Mum & my step-father's house, we found a number of the shiny quilts. I did try selling them at a vintage rally, but even my most die-hard customers, who really live the 1940s/50s life in most respects, weren't that keen, though they do love a good paisley-pattern eiderdown. I'm afraid they went to the local animal shelter in the end.

I still own some of my great-grandmother's linen sheets; sadly they're too small for most modern beds, but the quality shines out of them. One day perhaps I'll use them to back a quilt.

ETA: forgot to say, 3 pairs of knickers done & dusted! Sadly the elastic from the Proper Fabric Shop turned out to be more like stretch lace, just not strong enough by half for the job, but luckily the stuff I'd bought online did turn up today & is excellent. More has been ordered, because there are 3 pairs still to go! I found a scrap of old t-shirting in one of my auction buys; it's not nearly as good quality as the stuff I bought Down West, but it'll do, and cost zero coupons and pennies in real-life currency - even less than a t-shirt from the recycling centre! I cut out 3 pairs from it; the new "pattern" is working well, but needs refining as the edges don't quite line up. I assume the elderly pair I cut it from had stretched unevenly. I hadn't intended to sew today, but the weather stopped play at the allotment - cold, grey & soggy = a sewing day, not a garlic-planting day!

PipneyJane

Well done with the nickers and the nighties, @thriftwizard.

Today has to be another “mending day”.  I have two pairs of trousers to take up and two more pockets to fix.  (I have two pairs of Oxford Bags from Hobbs, both parts of suits bought prior to Lockdown. One pair, I’d already taken up but decided they were still too long, when I went to put them on, on Tuesday.  I do not want them dragging on the ground.)

- Pip

diminua

Another six coupons taken off because I bought the black trousers more or less identical to the brown ones I just bought. I did get Chelsea boots as well but they feel a little tight so I'm not taking the coupons off yet. I'll wear them around the flat for a bit and if they still feel tight they'll go back next week. 

thriftwizard

Another rainy day, so after my stint at our Repair Café 3 more pairs of knickers got finished. (Anything but housework!) One more & I'll have a pair for every day of the week, and I should get one more, along with the nightie & t-shirt, from that last piece of jersey. These 3 were made from the vintage off-cut (the green) and a pretty but damaged tunic (the red) from the recycling warehouse. One pair is hysterically "wrong" where I stitched the gusset inside out, and the picot elastic upside down - never stitch with a large & wildly affectionate cat trampling up & down on your lap! - but they'll still work.

PollyWollyDoodle

They look brilliant @thriftwizard!  My life is currently turned upside down by the longest kitchen refit in recorded history, but once it's finished I'm hoping to get back in the sewing room. And I have one of those cats too - why are they so fascinated by the sewing machine?

Gem-gem

Yes, Thriftwizard they look superb. I would never had known that they weren't shop bought. 

I popped into M&$ and bought FOUR new pairs of jeans!!! I had a 15% discount voucher and I was down to my last pair. I am hoping that they will last me for quite sometime. My old pair I am going to offer to  someone who I know that upcycles clothes. 

24 coupon declared. 

Total 125/66 coupons!!!
(48 coupons was used on wool)

2Scratters

@thriftwizard I am in awe of your knickers. My DH gets me M&S ones each xmas but they are getting skinny with the quality of fabric used. I just might have to get him to make a different purchase instead 

PipneyJane

Gem-gem said:

Yes, Thriftwizard they look superb. I would never had known that they weren't shop bought. 

I popped into M&$ and bought FOUR new pairs of jeans!!! I had a 15% discount voucher and I was down to my last pair. I am hoping that they will last me for quite sometime. My old pair I am going to offer to  someone who I know that upcycles clothes. 

24 coupon declared. 

Total 125/66 coupons!!!
(48 coupons was used on wool)

Are you sure you aren’t my Twin, separated at birth, @Gem-gem?  Good wool gets me, every time.
 
Those jeans are a perfectly good use of your coupons.  Once you find a style that fits well and suits your “look”, there’s nothing wrong with stocking up for future years.  (I did this with jeans in ?2018, when I bought four pairs.)

- Pip

Wraithlady

Must be said, the pair of jeans I inherited from MIL when she died (NYDJ iirc) are the only pair I've ever had that fit me properly. Had a look online as OH remembers her describing them as 'quite expensive' - she wasn't kidding !

£140 a pair! Maybe if I win the lottery