2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Liverpool_Anne

@PipneyJane, that's lovely, I might give it a go

Hodgepodge

PipneyJane said:

Hodgepodge said:

Late joiner here.
Tried last year but gave up, so determined to do it this year.

Welcome @Hodgepodge.  I see Laura’s made you a cuppa.  Here’s the biscuit tin.  Do have some.  (I took it home to top it up.). Please stay and chat and tell us all about yourself!  Do you craft?

- Pip

Thanks for the welcome, tea and biscuits 

No, I don't craft anymore (will you still let me be a member?), but I used to crochet years ago. Keep meaning to take it up again, I often see wool in the charity shop.

I love hunting through a charity shop for clothes, but my wardrobe is bursting at the seams, so I need to be ruthless in donating stuff I don't wear. I was good recently, donated 2 coats that I liked but didn't wear.

Laura_Elsewhere

Hodgepodge said:

No, I don't craft anymore (will you still let me be a member?), but I used to crochet years ago. Keep meaning to take it up again, I often see wool in the charity shop.

Of course you're still welcome! Being a maker isn't compulsory in the slightest - it's just rather useful when trying to aovid buying new clothes  

Nonnadiluca

There's an article on the guardian website about someone making skirts with huge pockets and I thought of you Laura! Practical pockets definitely need to make a comeback !!!

Laura_Elsewhere

@Nonnadiluca, I saw that and grinned hugely!  

Only her skirts are so long that they bring a new kind of impracticality - I always check my skirts' length to make sure that even the longer ones like my grey wool skirt are short enough that I can walk upstairs without needing to use a hand to lift the skirt out of the way - whereas she will need to lift the skirt constantly to avoid standing on it going upstairs, and also when going downstairs otherwise it will trail in the dust a lot on outdoors stairs but also if other people are around they will stand on it. 

So whilst she has solved one impracticality, imo she's acquired a new one!  

My grey skirt this morning, with its huge pockets made of 12" squares sewn on diamond-angled...  

Nonnadiluca

What a gorgeous outfit, you look fab! The hat looks proper cosy. 

Cherryfudge

Lovely photo, @Laura_Elsewhere! You look so warm and snug! And it's lovely to see your pockets, I really like them. Have you made a pleat then somehow lost it in the fold over top, or is the top separate? Stylish and practical.  

CapricornLass

Snow!!!!  There's nothing down here, but its biting cold.  You look warm and cosy, Laura!

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - It's two parts: a 12" square and a 7"x3" piece folded over a 7" x 1.5" buckram. 

if you take a 12" square, and cut off one corner, that's the basic pocket; then make a small box-pleat in the middle of the cut-edge, and then put the folded pocket-top on so it encloses the cut-and-box-pleated edge, you get the pocket, sort of ivy-leaf shape. The two long sides are 12 full inches, then there's a right-angle and a couple of inches before the cut-edge with its enclosing pocket-top and its box-pleat... does that make sense? 

EDIT: here are pics of my black-wool housekeepers' skirt pockets in the making, which I lined before sewing on - and they're smaller, as you can see by the chalked measurements!  

Cherryfudge

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere, that's a great description and the finished effect is enviable - except that if I ever learn to use my sewing machine and follow a pattern (both on the bucket list) I would be copying it not envying it.   Who doesn't love a decent-sized, interesting pocket?!