2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

CapricornLass

I don't know about the Dylon Detergent, although I would love to try it.  I do have an egg, but dont use it as I don't think its particularly effective.  I've been doing sashiko on a pair of jeans for years.  I use them for the garden or rough jobs round the house and probably have had an additional 4-5 years wear out of them.

I found sodium percarbonate very effective for bleaching and whitening clothes.  However, a word of warning: soak the clothes in a bucket in the bath!  It turns any varnished surface black, as I discovered to my cost when I soaked some clothes with sodium percarbonate in the kitchen sink.  OH wasn't amused as he had spent a week patiently building up five layers of varnish on the kitchen worktops just three months before.....

MrsCD

@Liverpool_Anne, how lovely, a new baby! 😊
I sort of hope it isn't born on Christmas Day, as my friend, hates her Christmas day birthday. One of her relatives once tried the, " I'll just give her one bigger present, for Christmas and her birthday," but her mum put a stop to that idea. I think the idea is nice for other folks, but not necessarily for the child. My friend has her birthday on the morning, then it's Christmas from lunchtime. 
Hope mum and baby do well xx.

PollyWollyDoodle

Interesting article, @Cherryfudge, I had seen an ad for the Dylon detergent but hadn’t really understood what it was. 

I use an eco egg for most of my everyday washing, which isn’t usually very dirty, just gently worn.  I use liquid soap and washing soda (thank you, Nancy Birtwistle!) for other washing, and I also use ‘green’ bleach. I didn’t know about the varnish - I don’t have any in my kitchen but I’ll bear that in mind, thanks @CapricornLass! 

Sarahspangles

MrsCD said:

@Liverpool_Anne, how lovely, a new baby! 😊
I sort of hope it isn't born on Christmas Day, as my friend, hates her Christmas day birthday. One of her relatives once tried the, " I'll just give her one bigger present, for Christmas and her birthday," but her mum put a stop to that idea. I think the idea is nice for other folks, but not necessarily for the child. My friend has her birthday on the morning, then it's Christmas from lunchtime. 
Hope mum and baby do well xx.

It isn’t just combined presents, my birthday is a couple of weeks before Xmas so, as an adult, if we go for a meal the restaurant is in full ‘Xmas work party’ mode. I used to refuse to put up the Xmas cards and decorations until my birthday cards had had a couple of days airing!

Now my children have left home Xmas is even more low key and starts on either the solstice or Xmas Eve depending on when my last working day falls. It’s all cleared away by New Year’s Eve as my son is a New Year’s Day baby.

More on topic, I always did the ‘something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read’ when they were at home.

dND

Liverpool_Anne said:

Hi all, I have finally finished the rework of the scrap blanket and have started baby blanket number 1, baby due on Christmas day so I should get it done

@PipneyJane I love the idea of you explaining how Britain works . 

Take care everyone

As a Boxing Day baby can I float the idea of a half birthday - mine being the 26th June.  Christmas time birthdays, in my experience, blend into Christmas, there is often the 'joint present' and then there's the 364 days until the next present plus the lack of availability of friends on the day for parties.  The half birthday gives the chance of a summer BBQ and friends ready to party. 😁

weenancyinAmerica

@dND - That is what my mother did. Her birthday was the 3rd of December so she celebrated in June also. We have a problem now with three birthdays in December (16, 26, 31) for my grandniece and grandnephews. I try to make sure there are separate birthday and Christmas presents for them. But we only see them at Christmas, not for their birthdays. So they tend to get opened the same day. 

CapricornLass

I wish my parents had thought of the half birthdays.  My birthday is New Years Eve - not a good day when you have Scottish parents!  I often felt my birthday finished at 9am as they sorted out the house ready for their Hogmany party later on.  Birthday parties are impossible, and no-one is interested in going for a meal - if you could get one that hasn't been ramped up in cost for NYE.  And even presents could be dicey.  I woke up for one birthday to find I only had one present - a box of smarties from my youngest sister - presents from my parents and grandparents hadn't been delivered on time by Royal Mail.  I was old enough to pretend it didnt matter, and young enough to be really hurt....

OH has suggested I have half birthday but it's too ingrained now.,  But Christmas is and always will be more important to me.

basketcase

@CapricornLass
Why not have both 'real' and half?!

My DS's birthday is 27 June.  When he was about 8 he said to me "Isn't it great that my birthday's in June, Mum?  It means that you've got exactly 6 month between my birthday and Christmas to save up for my presents!"

thriftwizard

Another one with a mid-December birthday here & I'm totally in favour of having a half-birthday! Since we became parents 35+ years ago, my birthday has been swamped by the festivities, however hard my family try to set that one day apart. We don't start Christmas decorating etc. until after my birthday, but when we were kids (in a vicarage, admittedly) it didn't start until 24th, and it did go on until January 6th. No money, but lots of visitors, fun, games, music & home-made treats - I do know how lucky we were!

Nelliegrace

Does’t it seem daft to have to buy another product to remove the gunk which builds up clothes from modern detergent and fabric conditioner?
I loathe the chemical smell of fabric conditioner, and the way it rots elastic. 

I remember seeing Ruth Goodman grating a bit of carbolic soap into a hand-cranked washing machine in The Wartime Farm. 

The helpful person at Miele talked me through getting my washing machine to work again. It didn’t like having a programme interrupted when I thought it had finished. It didn’t work the first time, but I left it unplugged overnight and tried it again in the morning, running the drain/spin cycle with the machine empty. Then the short programme worked. We cancelled the repair man, £170 an hour or £285 including parts, (the shock gave me angina, so I hadn’t been able to pay immediately, they allow 24hrs!) And yesterday the adjust temperature worked. My last Miele was simpler and lasted well over 25 years.