2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Nelliegrace

I have used 6 points on three pairs of 50% wool fingerless gloves at £1.99 in the sale. I have been making them out of well-worn, thick cotton socks and a bit of blanket stitch, but I grabbed some back out of the sewing pile for further use as bed socks last night! I was so glad of my flask of tea. 
I bought a beautiful wool knee blanket for a shawl at the same time, from Heritage of Scotland reduced from £36.99 to £8.99. Rugs and throws are so cosy in cold weather. I got free postage too.
Total used 17 points.
They do go down fast, I am thankful that I hunted for the best sales and offers and stocked up on good quality warm clothes before rationing started. I used most of the extra heating money, but it has been an investment. I have been watching the prices of the pure merino wool jumpers on TKMaxx online and in store which make the best thermal base layers and bit by bit they go down in price. My best so far has been £15, another 5 points. The men’s ones have longer sleeves and bodies, except when they are the silly short fashion. Who would buy a padded anorak for warmth which leaves a draught up their back?

22 points used.

Cherryfudge

I wonder if shops consider taking the winter stuff off sale prices and promoting them for a few days when the weather turns snowy...? The gloves were a timely purchase.

That rug is lovely, and I imagine it will stand you in good stead for years to come. Such gentle colours!

Nelliegrace

Thank you @Cherryfudge
I think the bad weather might deter customers. 
There were a few designs available but that matches my assortment of rugs. I have a rug in the car too, useful for emergencies and to keep the seat clean with children.

2Scratters

I have obtained some old fashioned blankets from my parents house as they have moved out and into modern complex for the over 55's. DH last winter was in denial of the benefit of using a blanket to keep heat topped up. (baring in mind he is the one who feels the cold, I just don't like to be cold) He has finally picked on a blanket that he likes due to its weight and says it keeps him warm! You can't tell, he nods off easily when he gets warm  There are 2 that are ear marked for giving to the homeless charity. 
Also from the parents house mum had said there was a vintage coat that she suggested could go the the amateur dramatics. Not sure what made me try it on twice, anyhow when I tried it on for a 2nd time I did it in a different way. It is handmade and made to measure. I'm sure this was my grandma's. It fits me perfectly. Sadly a moth has got to it before me and there is a little damage. 7 small holes that need my attention. It is a timeless style. I was going to take it to the cleaners but not sure if more damage may be caused, so it will get a good damp cloth clean and air out and worn by myself until it decides enough is enough. 

2 Scratters xx

Nelliegrace

I wonder how people cleaned coats before there were dry cleaners? 

DD outgrew her school coat in 6 months. The second one got a tear across the back the first week she wore it. Climbing trees! One of the other mothers whipped it off her at the coach stop, saying, “I can mend that. It won’t show.”
Bless her. She used some invisible mending powder? (This clever mother borrowed DD’s uniform for a pattern and sewed a lot of the uniform at a fraction of the school supplier prices, and no-one noticed.)
I hope you can restore the fabric after the moths @2Scratters.

Laura_Elsewhere

Well, dry cleaners, to a large extent, use the methods that used to be done in one's own home, but it's a damn sight safer for them not to be done in one's own home! 

Lots of Victorian and early 20th-century books have instructions for using an alarming array of flammable substances for spot-cleaning or refreshing fabrics...! Different solvents were used on different fabrics or types of stain, petrol or kerosene or benzene... god knows how many maids lost their eyebrows in the process, or worse...

You can almost always avoid paying for a dry cleaner by spot-cleaning (not using petrol!!!) and using the old methods to freshen up a coat. If your tumble-dryer has a no-heat setting, give it 5-10 minutes in there with a couple of old tennis balls or a pair of clean old plimsoles to bash it around a little; if you don't have a heat-free setting then hold the coat by its hem and hit it with your other arm, or get one person to hold it and one person to hit it.
Then turn it inside out, lightly mist the inside with a fine spray of vodka, and hang it in the sunshine for a few hours. Turn it right way out again, and hang it in the bathroom while you have a long hot steamy bath. Finally, wrap some sellotape round your hand, sticky side out, and use that to go over the surface to raise the nap a little. If anywhere has gone shiny with wear, you could use a dry old toothbrush to fluff it just a tiny bit and then tape-tap across it to even it out with the surrounding area. 

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

You can almost always avoid paying for a dry cleaner by spot-cleaning (not using petrol!!!) and using the old methods to freshen up a coat. If your tumble-dryer has a no-heat setting, give it 5-10 minutes in there with a couple of old tennis balls or a pair of clean old plimsoles to bash it around a little; if you don't have a heat-free setting then hold the coat by its hem and hit it with your other arm, or get one person to hold it and one person to hit it.
Then turn it inside out, lightly mist the inside with a fine spray of vodka, and hang it in the sunshine for a few hours. Turn it right way out again, and hang it in the bathroom while you have a long hot steamy bath. Finally, wrap some sellotape round your hand, sticky side out, and use that to go over the surface to raise the nap a little. If anywhere has gone shiny with wear, you could use a dry old toothbrush to fluff it just a tiny bit and then tape-tap across it to even it out with the surrounding area. 

Laura, you are a genius and invaluable as well as fascinating to know - but possibly costly in terms of alcohol (unless anyone knows of any that fell off the back of a troika?).  

Cherryfudge

I promised a few weeks ago to share some photos from the 1940s scrapbook I had for my birthday, and I've not forgotten, just not got round to it. However, I had another find today (same town, different shop). No date that I can find but the fashions are 1940s and the title is 'Knitting for All Illustrated'. Authors are Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, pub. Odham Press Limited. There's a section on economies in wool: using flat stitches as opposed to textured ones, and drop stitches as part of the pattern to eke out supplies. Fir some reason they don't mention searching Ravelry.

And just a thought from looking thorough all these old patterns: quite a few were for underwear and knitting our own knickers seems to have gone out of fashion (even here! ) - but actually, longish, knitted shorts-style undies might be a really good way of keeping out the cold! It seems to have been taken for granted back then.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

Laura, you are a genius and invaluable as well as fascinating to know - but possibly costly in terms of alcohol (unless anyone knows of any that fell off the back of a troika?).  

Ah, you don't need that much of it! A tablespoon or so will do an average overcoat - and if the coat isn't particularly bad you can dilute the vodka 1:1 with water...  

Re the knitted knickers - yes, exactly. You've grasped the purpose of those long-leg knicks And as I understand it, the knitting wasn't against your crotch; much like school gym-knickers later on (which are pretty much the surviving examples into post-war life of what were once far more common for adult women), there'd be a washable cotton or linen 'liner' changed daily, which I believe looked a lot like modern briefs but without the elastication to stay up by themselves. 

In earlier decades, one's legs stayed warm from layers of petticoats; once skirts became shorter and petticoats stopped being plural, one needed something to keep the gap cosy, and the long-leg knicker was the 'modern' version of the old-fashioned knee-length drawers - made in cutting-edge modern fibres such as rayon, easily washed and colourfast in a whole rainbow of trendy colours, they were affordable to young women who couldn't afford the handwash-only delicate silk knickers they copied but who wanted something prettier and less frumpy than the old-fashioned boiled-cotton drawers! 

Also, good work on the knitting book - Murray and Koster are very well-known names in early-mid 20th century knitting publications, and Odhams did some of the best needlework books around. I use my Odhams Encyclopaedia of Needlework from iirc 1951 for all kinds of useful things!

Cherryfudge

I'm on the lookout for a handy small spray bottle for the vodka now.

The change in fashion is really interesting - sort of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, isn't it? In the last few days I've seen people out and about in jackets and leggings - their legs must be freezing with just one layer on.

I suppose the multitude of knitted hats were more than fashion items, too due to the head losing a lot of heat.

I'm loving my knitting book: there's a whole chapter of before and after pictures and explanations of remade knitwear. Some is about unravelling and using the wool again, of course, but where it's damaged or felted beyond use, they still had things to make with it, such as a 'blouse front' and a baby's bonnet. I wonder how many office workers sat primly in jumper and jacket on a hot day because there was no more to their jumper than the front? I have a tiny 'blouse front' (not knitted) that my mum had for office wear, and it certainly couldn't have been worn alone!