2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

CapricornLass

Morning, everyone.  Hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy at least a bit of the sunshine!

Got a spend to declare: 5 coupons on a pair of walking shoes.  The old ones came apart when we were walking on the beach last week.  OH offered to mend them, but the fabric part of them had holes in so it didn't seem worth it.

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

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.

That's what it's called!  I had brain failure yesterday, couldn't remember and decided that describing turning sheets would be too cumbersome to read.  However, even with turning, there comes a point where the fabric goes....

Naturelover22 said:

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.

Welcome @Naturelover22.  Please come in and take a seat by the woodfire stove.  It's not "on" today because of the lovely, sunny weather.  Cup of tea?  Piece of cake?  There's MSE's fabled "Jam Crumblies" in the tin. (Baked at 180c for 20 minutes.)  It's very kind of you to offer fruit for jam and cider.  I'm fairly certain there's a cider press in the Hall basement, unless the scouts have repurposed it.

What are you currently knitting?

- Pip

Cherryfudge

Hi and welcome, @Naturelover22. Are you okay with the dog creeping under your chair? Ever-hopeful of crumbs, I think!

PipneyJane, those biscuits look yummy - shall I stick the recipe on the board as you've been kind enough to share it? I think I'll be trying it out

Cherryfudge

maryb said:

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

I've wondered about turning collars, too. The underside is always a bit wrinkly! I suppose removing the old one  and sewing the opening up was the origin of 'Grandad' collars.

Laura_Elsewhere

Gran taught me to turn Dad's shirt collars - the short answer is that shirts used to be better-made and so they weren't wrinkled on the underside because they were stiffened with a bit of heavy-fine linen instead of the iron-on fusible synthetic stuff used now which is what wrinkles  

And @Cherryfudge, it's the other way round! All shirts used only to have the narrow little band like a grandad shirt, and the collar was attached with collar-studs in recent centuries, by tying it on with linen tapes or ties in older eras - the little narrow collar was called a "standing band" and then the bit that turns over and falls downwards was called a "falling band". Some shirts had removable cuffs, although that was more a late-C19th thing I think. by the very late C19th and early C20th you could buy celluloid cuffs and collars which were wipe-clean to save on laundering, but they were renowned for digging in...

So the Grandad shirt was really what your Grandad wore because he'd retired and din't have to go out to work any more so didn't have to put his collar on and could sit around the house lazily in his shirt, with your Nana tutting at him  

Also, blue collar jobs and white collar jobs derive directly from the collars too.... and HGWells writes very clearly in 'Kipps' about being so poor that you pawned your shirt and just wore your collar and cuffs under your waistcoat to look as if you had a shirt... 

PipneyJane

Yes, please, post up the recipe, @Cherryfudge.  You know I have terrible handwriting, so I'd appreciate you rewriting it.

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Gran taught me to turn Dad's shirt collars - the short answer is that shirts used to be better-made and so they weren't wrinkled on the underside because they were stiffened with a bit of heavy-fine linen instead of the iron-on fusible synthetic stuff used now which is what wrinkles  

And @Cherryfudge, it's the other way round! All shirts used only to have the narrow little band like a grandad shirt, and the collar was attached with collar-studs in recent centuries, by tying it on with linen tapes or ties in older eras - the little narrow collar was called a "standing band" and then the bit that turns over and falls downwards was called a "falling band". Some shirts had removable cuffs, although that was more a late-C19th thing I think. by the very late C19th and early C20th you could buy celluloid cuffs and collars which were wipe-clean to save on laundering, but they were renowned for digging in...

So the Grandad shirt was really what your Grandad wore because he'd retired and didn't have to go out to work any more so didn't have to put his collar on and could sit around the house lazily in his shirt, with your Nana tutting at him  

Also, blue collar jobs and white collar jobs derive directly from the collars too.... and HGWells writes very clearly in 'Kipps' about being so poor that you pawned your shirt and just wore your collar and cuffs under your waistcoat to look as if you had a shirt... 

Based on his appearance at a funeral last year, my long unlamented ex (aka "Dumbo") still wears shirts with detachable collars.  When we were together, he had a couple of heavily starched linen collars in the back of the wardrobe, but he usually wore white cardboard ones held on with two collar studs.  On more than one occasion, I remember having to fetch a packet or two of collars from a shirt maker in Saville Row.  (Yes, of course, I had to pay for them.  Dumbo's money was for him to spend on his social life, while my earnings covered everything else.)

- Pip

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Gran taught me to turn Dad's shirt collars - the short answer is that shirts used to be better-made and so they weren't wrinkled on the underside because they were stiffened with a bit of heavy-fine linen instead of the iron-on fusible synthetic stuff used now which is what wrinkles  

And @Cherryfudge, it's the other way round! All shirts used only to have the narrow little band like a grandad shirt, and the collar was attached with collar-studs

You are always interesting Laura! It makes perfect sense, and I wonder how much we could learn from past practices in order to save our clothing nowadays. (I refuse to try celluloid seating in my jeans - can you imagine!   - but it's fun working out alternatives for other much-worn garments).

I may have mentioned it before but I have a tiny 'shirt front' which my Mum must have worn under a jumper or jacket while at the office. Similar principle to Kipps, of course, but caused by war not poverty.

CraftyLittleLisa

I have a spend to report.  I made another smart casual dress and used 2 metres of new fabric which I work out to be 6 coupons.  As I have already taken my overspend from last year off this years tally I now work it out to be 35.5 coupons left.  I also made a new t-shirt and a skirt which I can use in the summer.  The t-shirt was made from left over fabric from my stash and the skirt was made from two unpicked garments so neither of them cost me any coupons.  Also it now seems I have now made 4 items of clothing so I am well on my way to "MakeNine" in the challenge I decided to try to do this year.

Naturelover22

PipneyJane said

 MSE's fabled "Jam Crumblies" in the tin. (Baked at 180c for 20 minutes.)  It's very kind of you to offer fruit for jam and cider.  I'm fairly certain there's a cider press in the Hall basement, unless the scouts have repurposed it.

What are you currently knitting?

- Pip

Oh thanks for the warm welcome. I'll take a look at the biscuits. I have an apple press too, but it is hard work and it takes alot of of apples to get the juice, its lovely and sweet though.
I am knitting a fairisle Christmas stocking, it was an advent calendar when you get a small ball of wool each day in a different colour, then I have a different pattern stripe to do with them.

maryb

I recently bought the Simplicity vintage pattern for blouse dickeys.  Largely because it was the only Peter Pan collar blouse pattern I could find and I thought I would frankenpattern it with a regular blouse pattern.  But actually I am tempted to try a dickey.  My winter "uniform" is a white long sleeved tee shirt under a v neck jumper.  I don't like blouses under jumpers as I feel all bundled up.  But a collarless tee means I can't wear crew necks because the jumper collar comes up too high and is itchy.  So a dickey over a white tee shirt would mean I would have the choice of jumper necklines and I could use DH's old worn out shirts for the dickey.  A lot of them are very nice fabric and it's a good way of upcycling.  I can't get a full blouse out of a shirt so I've been stuck for ways to recycle them