2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

I think that looks as though it should be sleeveless, @Laura_Elsewhere. The only giveaway might be the lack of an edging to the armholes, but I don't see that as necessary. And the colour is very good one you!

And re weight - you're active so some of that may be muscle gain, in which case it's to be celebrated.  

weenancyinAmerica

@Laura_Elsewhere - it does look really nice minus the sleeves. Great job.

dND

And another spend 😞I succumbed to an offer at Mr T for a couple of nightdress/ long-T's which is another 12 coupons.
In my defence, most of the clothing I came back with was on it's last legs as I hadn't bought anything new for a few years as I knew I was eventually going to move back to the UK where the climate is different.

One thing I did notice though, as I wandered around the clothing that had 25% off, was that having bought good second-hand clothing from the charity shops, just how cheap/flimsy the clothing is.  I guess that means I will have to brush up my sewing skills once the workmen have finally left😁 
That might be a while - currently waiting for the emergency gas crew as the gas main was ruptured this morning during the excavations to replace the retaining wall.  The old gas pipe - plastic - was hidden beneath a tree root and had no marker tape on top or anything like gravel around it.
So, not your average Saturday morning - I'm not doing anything 'just in case' but I will be watching Le Mans 24 hrs later.

thriftwizard

@dND, that raised a wry smile from me on two fronts: first, you are so right about the new clothing - best described as flimsy, IMHO! Designed to be worn once or twice then disposed of... utter madness. 

And second, we had a similar incident; a couple of years ago, OH was removing a drain cover that stuck up about 10cm from our driveway, which was a danger to tyre walls and unwary pedestrians, but the concrete surround seemed to go on forever in one direction. So he walloped it - and it crumbled away from an unsuspected gas pipe, looping upwards to surface level but nowhere near where the supply would logically run. And it was 5th November... the gas people came racing round, announced there was no detectable leak, and that it was probably just a dead pipe, just thrown in as infill with building rubble. I wasn't so sure; it's an old house, it was a plastic pipe & I knew that the original kitchen & scullery were on that side of the house. It seemed likely that that's where the meter had originally been. Anyway, turned out that it was their responsibility to remove it. A month or so later, the pipe-removing crew turned up; turns out it was live after all! Now safely re-routed & buried, at their expense, but we did have about 6 weeks, over Christmas, with our driveway full of barriers & stripey tape, whilst we awaited the hole-filling crew...! But at least it didn't cost us anything.

PipneyJane

@dND I’m glad you’re OK and that there weren’t bigger repercussions from the ruptured gas pipe.  It seems that both you and @thriftwizard suffered similar bomb damage…

Having had the chance to look through a few shops over the last week, I totally agree with you re the fabric and construction of many new clothes.  To my eyes, the majority of them look shapeless and unflattering to the majority of the female population.

Having said that, I’ve succumbed and bought a new, light blue, Harris Tweed Jacket . It’s fitted, beautifully cut, looks great on me and I got it at a discount.  11 coupons spent.  Did I need it?  Probably not.  Will I wear it?  Definitely.  It looks great with jeans and should go well over several of my smarter pairs of trousers.  Did I wish it came with a matching skirt and trousers?  Absolutely.  While I’m tempted to contact the store’s HQ re obtaining offcuts from their supplier, there is little chance that I’d obtain fabric from the same dye lot, even if they were obliging.  Not worth the risk.

- Pip


ETA:  I’ve just updated my signature.  33 coupons spent; 33 remain.  It’s amazing how fast one can burn through coupons!  Fortunately, beyond bras, I shouldn’t need to buy any more brand new clothes or shoes this year.  It does leave me with a massive amount of respect for our wartime sisters.

Cherryfudge

That's a truly lovely jacket, @PipneyJane. Why not contact the supplier anyway? Even if you made a purse or hatband that didn't quite match, it would probably be close enough in colour to use with the jacket as there would be other things in between. And you might be lucky - I remember us swapping stories of yarn that turned out to be from the same batch as some we already had. Mine came by post from the other end of the country and matched some bought years before in a sale up here but yours, if I remember rightly, came from another country but was the same dye batch as some in your stash!

weenancyinAmerica

Re-finding match ups far away: My mother's car broke down and while she was waiting for my father to come and get her, she went into a furniture store and bought an armchair. Two weeks later, I was on my way to give a speech 50 miles away in the opposite direction and went to a branch of the same store - and found a matching armchair which my parents came and bought. Turns out they were both made for another store 40 miles in another direction. The store had no idea how they ended up where they did. But we enjoyed them for another 25 years.

Cherryfudge

I'm racking my brains over which thread has the Nancy Birtwistle fans, and I think it may be here? She has a book on Kindle Daily Deals for 99p today.

@weenancyinAmerica, I love that your mother bought an armchair while waiting for a lift home. I expect your father was a little trepidatious the next time she rang him for help with transport!

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

I'm racking my brains over which thread has the Nancy Birtwistle fans, and I think it may be here? She has a book on Kindle Daily Deals for 99p today.

@weenancyinAmerica, I love that your mother bought an armchair while waiting for a lift home.  I expect your father was a little trepidatious the next time she rang him for help with transport!

Thanks for the tip-off, @Cherryfudge.  I’ve just purchased the book.  I, too, love @weenancyinAmerica ’s story.

After much umming-and-ahhing, I’ve emailed EWM and asked them about the fabric.  All they can do is say “no”.  If they say “yes”, the more difficult thing will be finding the right pattern(s).  I know what I’d like to make, skirt/trouser-wise, but I’m no draftswoman.

In other news, I’ve finished Thrones, Dominations.  Oh, my!  In some respects, it was easy to spot the bits written by Dorothy L Sayers.  I got the distinct impression that Jill Paton Walsh read, and re-read, a couple of paragraphs where Harriet was musing about her marriage, then decided to replicate that style for 3 pages, in multiple places.  Parts of it were too laboured for words.   It was almost possible to pick the bits written by DLS, simply because they were the easy read.

Also, I agree with you @Laura_Elsewhere that JPW doesn’t have good knowledge of the 1930’s nor of the type of people about whom she was writing.  Mr Bunter would never call the Wimseys “the Quality”, neither would his soon-to-be wife.  Bunter would call them “the Family”.  Miss Fanshaw would either do that or not use the phrase at all, being a member of the middle classes.  (Also, why would Meredith leave her standing in the hall, and not immediately take her to the servants quarters?  And why would he not know that his brother was away from home?).  The things that do ring true to me are Miss Fanshaw’s conversations with Harriet regarding portrait painting vs photography, and Harriet’s solution to Bunter’s resignation, although I do wonder if DLS would have had the latter suggestion come from Bunter.

If you don’t already own a copy, don’t bother buying it.

- Pip

Sarahspangles

PipneyJane said:

In other news, I’ve finished Thrones, Dominations.  Oh, my!  In some respects, it was easy to spot the bits written by Dorothy L Sayers.  I got the distinct impression that Jill Paton Walsh read, and re-read, a couple of paragraphs where Harriet was musing about her marriage, then decided to replicate that style for 3 pages, in multiple places.  Parts of it were too laboured for words.   It was almost possible to pick the bits written by DLS, simply because they were the easy read.

Also, I agree with you @Laura_Elsewhere that JPW doesn’t have good knowledge of the 1930’s nor of the type of people about whom she was writing.  Mr Bunter would never call the Wimseys “the Quality”, neither would his soon-to-be wife.  Bunter would call them “the Family”.  Miss Fanshaw would either do that or not use the phrase at all, being a member of the middle classes.  (Also, why would Meredith leave her standing in the hall, and not immediately take her to the servants quarters?  And why would he not know that his brother was away from home?).  The things that do ring true to me are Miss Fanshaw’s conversations with Harriet regarding portrait painting vs photography, and Harriet’s solution to Bunter’s resignation, although I do wonder if DLS would have had the latter suggestion come from Bunter.

If you don’t already own a copy, don’t bother buying it.

- Pip

Seconded! It’s one of the few audiobooks I’ve returned. If DLS had wanted to tidy up the loose ends she would have completed the book. Instead, she paid her readers the compliment of assuming they could work out the happy ever after.