2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Nelliegrace

Libraries did stay open and were very popular during WW2, and although paper was limited books were still published. I remember cheap editions at school with course paper which seemed to be chopped straw?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940_British_novels

There were regular collections of used books for the forces and prisoners of war, both novels and text books, and collections of books for pulping and recycling the paper.

As a VAD in WW1 my grandmother was in a hostel in Paternoster Row, by St Paul’s Cathedral. It was the centre of the London book publishing industry, and had second hand and antiquarian bookshops.
The street was devastated by aerial bombardment during the Blitz in WW2 suffering particularly heavy damage in the night raid of 29–30 December 1940, during which an estimated 5 million books were lost in the fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs

https://journalpublishingculture.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/8/4/16842954/zoe_thompson.pdf

Sarahspangles

Nelliegrace said:

As a VAD in WW1 my grandmother was in a hostel in Paternoster Row, by St Paul’s Cathedral. It was the centre of the London book publishing industry, and had second hand and antiquarian bookshops.
The street was devastated by aerial bombardment during the Blitz in WW2 suffering particularly heavy damage in the night raid of 29–30 December 1940, during which an estimated 5 million books were lost in the fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs

We visited the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin this week, they’re just in the process of decanting all the books so they can carry out work including installation of sprinklers. They have irreplaceable books like the Book of Kells. The guide said ‘we couldn’t bear to have a Notre Dame here’. I can’t imagine what 5 million books would look like.

CapricornLass

I have a couple of Dr Doolittle books that were published during the war.  They are probably not as good as the hardbacks that were printed before the war, but they still had a decent cloth-bound cover.  I think its probably the colour plates that got affected most - there are only B & W line drawings in these books

Laura_Elsewhere

I have some children's books which have a design in the front saying 'War Economy Standard' - cheaper paper, shorter abridged text, denser text for fewer pages, fewer endpaper pages... 

I'm off to the two big re-enactment suppliers' markets outside Coventry this weekend (TORM and ARM, if anyone's looking). A few quid to get in, and then a lot of excellent top-quality kit and materials... I no longer do any re-enactment but it's the best place, imo, to choose from a wide range of pure wool cloth, much of it British wool, sometimes hand-woven, or natural dyes, etc. 
I am collecting three metres of 60" (!) needlecord-velvet in a gorgeous very dark midnight-blue, a present from a very very kind friend. I plan to make a jacket with it, lined with fake-fur from a furry throw I bought years ago to use a tiny corner to make a little teddy bear for Mr E's mother. 
I want to keep going on sewing- we tried Sewing Tuesday a few weeks ago, and on the two days we did it, it really worked. We've got a busy week next week and weekend following but then I shall push hard to have Sewing Tuesdays... 

Gem-gem

Thank you everyone for your comments / stories about old books. 

@Nelliegrace, I can see from the first link that you posted that a couple of Agatha Christie and an Enid Blyton were published. 
@CapricornLass, I have my Mum's copies of cloth bound Enid Blyton books from the 50's. Mum had a couple missing, so I tracked copies from the 50's down and purchased them.
@Sarahspangle, 50 million books burning how ghastly. Just to put it into perspective, there are over 13.5 million printed and electronic books in the British Library.

thriftwizard

Oooh Laura, I wish I could get up to Coventry too, that looks like a fabulous day out! But I'll be running my stall, making-do & mending down here in Dorset instead.

@Gem-gem you've just reminded me, I have a copy of Every Boy's Handbook from 1970 to take along tomorrow... if books weren't so heavy, that's all I'd want to sell! But then again, I probably wouldn't actually want to part with most of them...

PipneyJane

Ooh…. @thriftwizard hope you have a very profitable stall.   @Laura_Elsewhere I wish I could have gone to Coventry too, but I was singing in a concert last night.  If anyone gets the chance to see a performance of Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light - A Requiem, go!  And take loads of tissues.  It’s very moving.  (And very sing-able, unlike a lot of modern music.)

I have some confessions to make.  Back in June, I got new glasses.  Sadly, the sight in my right eye deteriorated further - the astigmatism got worse - so I had to have the right lens replaced in my regular glasses, my sun glasses and my “computer” glasses, which resulted in multiple, weekday trips to the optometrist, starting in August.  The car park I used meant walking through M&S.  Each time cutting through the shop, I walked past a wool-blend, black, boucle, Chanel-style jacket.  Every time I passed it, I’d find myself drawn to it.  Eventually, I tried it on.  

Two weeks ago, Mr Spencer caught me looking at it and reminded me that I had some unused gift vouchers that needed spending.  I told him that I had no clothing coupons left.  He dragged me into a storeroom, said “This one smells of perfume, so we’ll claim it’s ‘second hand’,” and sold it to me.  (It was the only one in my size.)




Hopefully, you can see the pocket details.

Ahem….

Sadly, that’s not my only overspend. Of course, you’ll remember the 75% wool, sock yarn that took me over my coupon count in the first place:



Four packets of this bought from L!dl because a) at £4.99 per packet, it’s incredible value for money, and b) I can knit a jumper in the solid colour.  Well, I started knitting a pair of socks for DH and I’m delighted to say that, for the first time ever, I am knitting self-patterning socks where the heel does not noticeably impact the pattern repeats.  (Sock knitted over 72st; heel worked for 36 rows before turning.)



Well, Friday-back-a-week, DH and I popped into not-our-usual-branch of L!dl, on our way home from a visit to iKEA.  Guess what I found?  The same Anika sock yarn, in a totally different colourway.  



Of course, I bought the only packet they had, which then sent me on treasure hunt through other local branches of L!dl.  Tuesday, on the way home from work, I found two more packets.  Mr Lidler kindly let me exchange my special stocking coupons for them. (I won’t be spending any of those this year.). He also thrust a packet of knickers at me, saying “These are your size and go on sale on Friday.  Take them!”.

< hangs head in shame >

I did try to resist but, truth be told, this is the colourway I’d have preferred to buy, when I bought the Anthracite at the start of October.  I was shocked to see it in store.  I had to try 4 other branches of L!dl to find the other two packets.  (Journeys combined with trips for rehearsals, petrol buying, etc.).   I even tried Bay-of-E, where I managed to buy a secondhand packet from a lovely lady, whose craft group had an unclaimed one (she was selling it on their behalf, to raise money for their local food bank).

- Pip

Nelliegrace

I have a date for my talk on handkerchiefs for the local WI. I said it would be a thank you for all of the cakes we have had at the meetings. A fair exchange.

The County WI does a day for members twice a year at the county showground. We are to have a demonstration of pork pie and sausage making, and Will Kirk, the skilled carpenter from The Repair Shop is the speaker for the afternoon. There will be a craft fair and the WI food market, ( a good place to stock up on new jam jar lids,) and various charities have a stall. We have been asked to donate toothpaste for the WI Resolution, Dental Health Matters.

I shall take my packed lunch and flask, and I leave a flask of coffee in the car to have before the drive home. 

Cherryfudge

@PipneyJane, surely if you had vouchers to spend, it would come from someone else's coupons, not yours? And it's a great jacket: ticks all the boxes for me.

As for the yarn, if you are knitting for someone else, perhaps they would use their coupons, or donate some to you for your jumper?

@Nelliegrace, I've just admired your new handkerchiefs elsewhere and I think I have a pillowcase with the design on the lower left box. And you are going to see Will Kirk? Lucky you! He seems such a nice person as well as super-skilled.

alicef

@PipneyJane I love the regular self stripe from the Lidl wool; I shop at Lidl but I've never seen the yarn bundles - they must be very popular.  

I do buy the OH's socks from Community Clothing, but I want to slowly replace them with handknitted. I'm knitting my first pair, (ever!), of socks as an intro to circulars & magic loop, (West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn).

 

(Gorgeous jacket BTW!)