2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

maddiemay

@Madbat60 your dress is absolutely beautiful.

Two purchases to declare, I recently bought a really soft and cosy dressing gown that is lovely to wear early mornings and later in the day relaxing.  We will begin caravanning soon and have 3 weeks booked in The Lake District in May so I now have a sale price one to use and keep in the van. 

Looks like that is 16 coupons to declare (first new purchases for this year) = 50 coupons left.

I hope to find a new pair of Summer weight walking boots while I am there, so much choice in Ambleside and Keswick.

thriftwizard

Lovely dress, @Madbat60! I'm considering doing a wrapover dress from a duvet cover; I have the duvet cover and a suitable pattern, but I don't know whether I can get enough "hem" out of it. It's a sort of Indian print fabric and very directional; tomorrow, when I've finished unpacking from today's market, I'll have a go!

Cherryfudge

Great piece of sewing, @Madbat60. I live in hope of one day being able to create something like that.

I have a last year's New Year's resolution to declare! I have finally got my sewing machine working again. I just put a waist band onto some PJ trousers which I'd unpicked as too tight a week ago. It still needs hand finishing and some tape to thread through. It took several goes to get enough stitches all the way around. I'm wondering it there's a problem with the machine as I've never been able to get far with it - perhaps something is misaligned or the timing ain't right or there's a gremlin in the bobbin case (most likely the last as that's where I keep having problems).

I am pleased with myself though and have consolidated it by annotating the instruction book with the things it doesn't tell you (like pushing the bobbin in till it clicks).

I've also had a bit of non-textile creativity this weekend and am eagerly waiting to see if it works. I have a wicker laundry basket with a tatty lid and saw that the big willow trees near us had lost some young twigs. I picked up (and washed) a few slim ones and have used them to weave the edges back together. Once the green twigs have dried I will have more of an idea whether it works but the natural colour actually looks lovely against the white paint of the rest. I've still to solve how to do one edge with a different design.

Cherryfudge

6 coupons to declare: I saw some pretty trousers on the market that should be nice for holidays/summer and I bought them even if this is the coldest day of the year.

I've also bought embroidery thread which I'm fairly certain is coupon-free, and some felt squares. I have no idea what the felt comes to (1 x 12" square which is a wool/viscose mix, 3 x 9" square and 5x 18" by 4" which have unspecified content)

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge, they do say you should buy summer things in winter and winter things in summer!

I have been saving coupons I had a khaki-green linen skirt which stretched to give a very uneven hem (yes, I hung it, for five days, before hemming, but over the next 2-4 weeks it lengthened by about 8 inches in the bias areas compared to the straight0-grain areas of each 1/4-circle panel...). As it also had colour that didn't so much run as gallop and was still pouring out of it after three 60-degree washes and a desperate 90-degree wash before I cut it to sew, it was a bit patchy and uneven - all in all not the greatest success in appearance although very comfortable! 

After the Majhor Skirt Cull last week, we decided to give it a machine-dye, so now I have a black skirt (the pink buttonhole thread was synthetic and stayed pink but a few minutes with a marker-pen has sorted that!), and I have sewn some very very dark grey buttons on in place of the seven cream-pink-green ones, added a popper for one bit that always gaped, and am just adding two 4" sections of elastic to the side-back waistband on the inside. 

I undid the hem before dyeing, and pressed it flat, so once I've finished everything else, I shall get Mr E to crawl round with chalk and a ruler, as he is so brilliant at doing, and then I can put a level hem on it... 

and I shall have a just-below-knee length circular skirt in black linen, to wear with anything from pastels to crayon-brights  

Cherryfudge

Reinventing things is fun! And not many things are as versatile as a black linen skirt.  

Nelliegrace

DH decided it was cold enough to wear several layers of clothing, from the long thermal underwear to the big padded coat which I bought in the sales in December, after getting chilled at several football matches. I packed him off well filled with a hot pot roast and apple crumble, and made him a flask of tea. He came home saying he had been really warm. What a surprise!

thriftwizard

Laughing gently at your DH, @Nelliegrace, mine's just the same! A couple of years ago we bought him a properly warm & waterproof winter jacket & hid his 70s-style thin bomber jacket so he had to wear the warm one to footie; he's been wearing it out ever since, having frantically resisted any such stylistic meddling previously & coming home blue, soggy & shivery more often than not.

I've sidetracked myself again; spotted an elderly-but-interesting duvet cover for 50p at the recycling warehouse last week & thought it would be a good source of dark fabric strips for my latest rug. Instead of which, I now have a wrap skirt, using an original 70s pattern that arrived in an auction job-lot, and I still have the other side to use - into the rug, or make a tie-top, if I can find a pattern?!

Cherryfudge

That print is perfect for that look, @thriftwizard! I'm sure there will be patterns out there on the internet for tie tops but you may need to go back to the recycling warehouse for more material for the rug!

Liverpool_Anne

@thriftwizard I love the skirt, as Cherryfudg says perfect fabric . When I get to the stage I can set my sewing machine up I will be investigating the cs for duvet covers . 
Take care everyone