2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

Fizz2015 said:

 OH is accident prone, in the past week has pulled ligaments, had a fragment of metal removed from his eye and hit his nose with a screwdriver! 

Eek! I don't often say that before 'Nice to meet you' but that sounds as though you need to get him some bubble wrap.

I hope he's on the mend now?

I need to look in the loft, where my out of season clothes are stored, because at the moment I'm being tempted by summer colours in the shops. Most of my current stuff seems to be blue or green.

A quick question: I'm thinking of hiring clothes for a wedding this summer - presumably there's no coupon cost?

Fizz2015

Cherryfudge said:

Eek! I don't often say that before 'Nice to meet you' but that sounds as though you need to get him some bubble wrap.

I hope he's on the mend now?

Hello and thanks for asking. Yes he is on the mend for now 🤞. He also works in Construction. He needs a pass to A & E! 

Cherryfudge

Fizz2015 said:

Cherryfudge said:

Eek! I don't often say that before 'Nice to meet you' but that sounds as though you need to get him some bubble wrap.

I hope he's on the mend now?

Hello and thanks for asking. Yes he is on the mend for now 🤞. He also works in Construction. He needs a pass to A & E! 

Great that he's getting better! A bit worrying that he works in Construction, but that must be offset in part by practical skills.

A pass to A&E... now there's a thought!

Laura_Elsewhere

I may need to use some coupons in the next few months - I've just booked myself into going open-water swimming next Monday, and if I enjoy it as much as I used to til a decade or so ago then I shall need to replace my 30+ year old swimsuit...!  

maryb

Were there additional coupon allowances for household fabrics?  Or did you only get them if you were bombed out/getting married?  I've bought some upholstery fabric for recovering some seat cushions and it's heavy stuff which couldn't be used for clothes.  But I'm conscious of the need to conserve in all areas

PipneyJane

Fizz2015 said:

Cherryfudge said:

Eek! I don't often say that before 'Nice to meet you' but that sounds as though you need to get him some bubble wrap.

I hope he's on the mend now?

Hello and thanks for asking. Yes he is on the mend for now 🤞. He also works in Construction. He needs a pass to A & E! 

Hi @Fizz2015.  I hope your DH has fulfilled his accident quota for the decade.

Cherryfudge said:

Fizz2015 said:

 OH is accident prone, in the past week has pulled ligaments, had a fragment of metal removed from his eye and hit his nose with a screwdriver! 

Eek! I don't often say that before 'Nice to meet you' but that sounds as though you need to get him some bubble wrap.

I hope he's on the mend now?

I need to look in the loft, where my out of season clothes are stored, because at the moment I'm being tempted by summer colours in the shops. Most of my current stuff seems to be blue or green.

A quick question: I'm thinking of hiring clothes for a wedding this summer - presumably there's no coupon cost?

@Cherryfudge there’s no coupon cost for hiring clothes.  Please share photos of the wedding outfit.  You will look lovely.

maryb said:

Were there additional coupon allowances for household fabrics?  Or did you only get them if you were bombed out/getting married?  I've bought some upholstery fabric for recovering some seat cushions and it's heavy stuff which couldn't be used for clothes.  But I'm conscious of the need to conserve in all areas

Are they the cushions that were damaged when your window shattered during last month’s air raids, @maryb?  I’m sure we’ll be able to persuade the ARP Warden to sign off on some “bomb damage” coupons for you.

(There weren’t “household” coupons.  Unless you were bombed out or recently married you had to make do with what you had or sacrifice some clothing coupons.  I’m certain that women lived in fear of the bed linen wearing out.)

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane, fwiw when my Gran died in 1995 I snaffled her plain cotton everyday sheets which were pre-war, and had been used ever since, and I got another couple of decades' wear out of them. In fact they are still there, up in my parents' house, folded away until such time as I have use for them again, as our bedlinen is all brightly-coloured since hard water like this makes anything white go a nasty yellow-grey very rapidly unless you chlorine-bleach it, which destroys fabrics very very fast...

So tbh, there would have been a lot of bedlinen in use that lasted half a century, three-quarters of a century... and then when they finally did go, you would sides-to-middle them - or maybe sell or donate them to someone else who would sides-to-middle them and get another however-long out of them! 

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said: Cherryfudge there’s no coupon cost for hiring clothes.  Please share photos of the wedding outfit.  You will look lovely...

... I’m certain that women lived in fear of the bed linen wearing out.)

- Pip

Thank you. I haven't chosen yet but as I can't cope with traditional 'mother of the bride' type outfits, I won't be the one in The Hat. I saw a lovely vintage Laura Ashley, but think it might be a bit dark for a summer wedding. There are some very 'suitable' pale greens around this year, too, and I'm wondering if a two-piece that looks like a dress might be a line to investigate...

As for the bedding wearing thin, I think many of us will know about 'turning' sheets, collars and probably cuffs and pillowcases too. Sides to middle and a nice flat seam was the way to make sheets last longer.

Naturelover22

Hello  all,
May I join in please? 
I knit a fair bit and can contribute plums and apples from my fruit trees to share jam and cider for the village.

I have been wanting to buy less and have better quality for a while, having the shops close in the pandemic really helped me to think about what I had already as well as being disappointed with the quality and fashion of what is being sold.
I've had a bit of weight gain last year so most clothes I bought were to literally have a pair of jeans or a work skirt that fitted me!

Just thought about what I've bought this year and it is:
10 coupons on a 5pack of underware.
1/2 voucher on 2 pairs of tights.

maryb

Oh yes, I remember sides to middle sheets from my childhood.  But my mother didn’t do nice flat seams.  Big lumpy run and fell seams were her modus operandi.  Her own mother was a skilled dressmaker but she went to a girl’s grammar school in the 1930s when they were positively discouraged from anything domestic 

I looked at turning a shirt collar once on one of my husband’s favourite shirts.  But I’m not sure how you could get it looking good because the under collar was cut fractionally smaller so that the seams rolled to the underside.  And a lot of city shirts had sewn channels for collar stays on the underside .  But I remember you could buy a ready made plain white collar to replace the old one which looked quite good even on a patterned shirt