2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Nelliegrace

We are going to see a film at a local village Memorial Hall this afternoon. There will be an interval, with tea and a biscuit. (Someone had made mince pies to have with our tea.)



It was his first film after gruelling years flying bombers in WW2.

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/jimmy-stewart-ww2-mission-air-force/

Nelliegrace

@PipneyJane, I don’t sew much now, so I left the patterns for others to buy. 
There were 1940s dress patterns too, but rationing gave many children a better diet so a lot of us are bigger built, bigger boned, than the patterns allow. 

https://the1940sexperiment.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/mof-10-your-childrens-food-in-wartime.pdf

On the other hand, following ration quantities, cooking from scratch, and eating my greens, has got my weight and waist back to normal. 

This was an interesting programme, BBC 2, Why We Can’t Stop Eating, presented by Dr Chris van Tulleken.

Laura_Elsewhere

Nelliegrace said:

I hunted for 100% cotton lingerie too @thriftwizard. It has gone colder and I am wearing my old, short sleeved, plain cotton camisoles, which were labelled as T-shirts. I have some which were labelled Men’s, which have higher necklines, long sleeves, and longer bodies. They are warmer than my strappy cotton vests. I found 100% ladies lingerie, cotton vests and camisoles or spencers on eB, by Gabrielle, White Swan, and Slenderella/Vedonis.

M&S do cotton for men and children under 14, and some skinny sizes. Women of an age to appreciate cotton have to sweat in synthetic junk. “Cotton Rich,” means really that it is cotton poor. An advertisers con.

Being both female and these days a size 22, sometimes 24, means undies are a nightmare- all manufacturers are quite certain that I a) must want constricting thus most is Shapewear, b) must want lycra-heavy jersey-knit stretchy stuff... 
I have ended up wearing shorts as knickers- actual shorts, sewn in woven viscose fabric, sold by Primark and Morrison's ('Nutmeg') as summer outer garments! Their size 20 shorts fit fine as undies on me. 

For camisoles, I have several I have made, using rectangles of pure linen and crocheted yokes, one from a 1919 pattern, others just made up and more simple. 

It makes a huge difference wearing loose woven material that doesn't have any synthetic, not even a few per cent. My hot flushes were a frequent occurrence but not at all unpleasant, and I put that down to wearing 100% linen camisoles and blouses (secondhand M&S on eBay), and loose woven-viscose knicks... 

@PipneyJane - yes, vintage patterns are a huge thing inc wartime ones- but all in teensy sizes. I'm cheeky and look for images showing the pattern-pieces laid out in the cutting diagram, and then I can draft my own, knowing the construction... haven't done that in quite a few years but I do hope to draft myself a pair of 1930s-style tailored shorts for the gym next year... 

Nelliegrace

Mum said they all had to make a pair of pants to learn to sew the different seams, in their first sewing lessons at senior school in the 1930s. She learnt how to adapt a pattern to fit well, and made her own suits. She made our wedding and bridesmaid dresses. 

@Laura_Elsewhere, One frugal blogger mentioned that she found boys cotton underpants were better quality and far more comfortable to wear. 
One could stitch up that pocket on loose fit cotton boxer shorts. 

PipneyJane

While I’ve been dressmaking since I was 5, I’ve never been brave enough to draft a pattern, @Laura_Elsewhere.  (I am in awe.). My mum trained as a dressmaker/pattern cutter, before she joined the WAAAF.  Watching her redraft a jacket pattern put me off for life, as a teenager.  It involved a lot of freehand drawing and i can’t draw.  I can adapt patterns - I have the knowledge/skills - but I’ve rarely done it.  (Mind you, I’ve barely sewn in the last 2 decades.)

@Nelliegrace, yes.  I saw that program and found it very informative.  Dr Chris has also presented several BBC podcasts about nutrition, ultra-processed foods, and exercise. (“A Thorough Examination” with his brother, and “Fed” about the food industry).  You may also find the Zoe podcasts interesting, since they cover similar subjects. 

(At one point, while I was really sick in hospital, I had a session with the dieticians discussing my regular diet.  Since I cook most meals from scratch, try to get 30g of fibre a day, and aim to eat 30 different plants per week, I was given a gold star!)

- Pip

Sarahspangles

Nelliegrace said:

One frugal blogger mentioned that she found boys cotton pants were better quality and far more comfortable to wear. 

I put some on once by accident. They weren’t a good fit but it did occur to me that here were pants with pockets

Laura_Elsewhere

My viscose shorts do have pockets- proper ones, in the side-seams! I have on occasion used them... 

I found this photo on eBay of a smaller pair in a paler colour so you can see- I cut off the ties, and it makes them a very comfortable pair of what I know as French Knickers, nowadays often called. by the 1970s name "tap-pants". A flat front-waistband and wide elastic at the back. 

@PipneyJane - to be honest, I've almost never used a sewing pattern. None of me is a standard shape or size, even as a child I had to have extra length added to the sleeves of jumpers knitted for me, and anything bought was just short in the arms and legs; even before puberty I had so broad a back that I had to have shirts from M&S men's dept as school-blouses because the uniform blouses stopped at a 34" bust (I can't imagine I was the only one!! I bet that'\s not the largest size now...). I was flat-chested but broad-backed, and even now, a blouse that fits my broad back will hang around the front on my now-medium bust, and a blouse that fits my front will be so tight that I can't move my arms without tearing the back of the armholes... 

So I have to adjust any sewing pattern for length, for breadth, for bust shape, for back width, for so many things I just gave up many many years ago and taught myself basic drafting! 

It's not as difficult as people think. Much of the time I do as tailors do and chalk directly onto the fabric, which makes life easier. I am about to use a pattern for a velvet-needlecord jacket, but that's a pattern I drafted a dozen or so years ago, so even that's not a bought one! 

Most people I know who make their own clothes started sewing because they couldn't buy clothing that fitted them... 

Nelliegrace

@Laura_Elsewhere, You could unpick an old comfortable pair for a perfect pattern.

Nelliegrace

@PipneyJane, I met the hospital dietitian on the cardiac ward in the district hospital. I had complained that the only choice for vegetarians was white or brown bread on their cheese sandwich for lunch and dinner every day. I suggested that they might as well serve toasted cheese sandwiches for breakfast. She said it was a very good idea to use up the leftover cheese sandwiches. 

I got an egg salad sent up specially from the kitchen, but I was taken to X-ray, and when I got back it had been thrown away, but they had saved me a cheese sandwich.
Relatives were forbidden to bring in food from home, because we were on a, “cardiac low-fat diet.” I suppose it worked, I lost 2 stone in the 2 weeks I was there, from hospital malnutrition.

I remember a child, on the mixed medical and surgical ward at the children’s hospital, asking another child, “Are you here because you are ill, or because they are going to make you ill?”

thriftwizard

Oh, @Nelliegrace, those patterns are to die for! I may have to invest in one... I do suspect I might have a few "economy design" pattern in my stash & hadn't realised they were saleable now; I've taken them on my stall to vintage events before now & they've just been talking points, as most people felt they didn't have the skills to upscale patterns. Hopefully the academy of YouTube has enlightened some of them!