2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

That sweater looks lovely on you, @Laura_Elsewhere.  It’s your perfect colour!

No wonder the sleeves were rubbish,  How much yarn did they use?  Hopefully enough to make a striped top feasible at some point.

- Pip

Nelliegrace

There is Trefriw, Meirion, Solva, and Melin Tregwynt. This is a Trefriw tapestry. The prices reflect the amount of work and skill involved. 
There are some lovely ones on eB starting at £15, and a gorgeous long cape. So tempting.

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - one sleeve used 98g and one used 103g, so similar amounts even though one was shorter and wider and one was longer and narrower  

I love the idea of a striped or patterned slipover- but I also love the idea of someday re-knitting the whole thing, so... I think at present I'll keep the sleeve-wool and see how the weight-loss goes. I lost 5lbs in April when they diagnosed the high blood pressure and then it's gone back and forth since, back down to the lower weight but no further weight loss, which is very frustrating after six or seven weeks of being far more active and trying very hard to change my sugar intake...! Ah well, it took time to get this big, so...  
But if I can shrink, properly and permanently, then the very floppy, loose knitting of this will be unwearable. Already it is actually quite an odd fit, so I suspect I'll wear it this summer, but then it really will have to be unravelled and re-knitted! The wool is only a Cygnet Superwash, but it's 100% wool and as I keep saying, such a lovely colour! I have a couple of coppery-peach linen shirts and a skirt which is coppery-peach with sweet-peas all over it (Cicely Mary Barker design, sans fairies), and this will look gorgeous with either or both! 

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.