2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

Thanks, @Cherryfudge - all complicated by Mum smashing her elbow up in August and needing a load of metalwork implanted, so poor Dad’s been cooking and cleaning and doing all her work for six weeks- thankfully helped by Younger Niece staying a couple of nights every week, bless her, otherwise I’d have been up like a shot… all well on the mend now but thank heavens for the NHS, and for lovely neighbours helping lots, and for the bikers who stopped and leapt off their bike to run to her rescue at the time, closely followed by locals who brought chairs out for her and Dad to sit on til the ambulance arrived…

People, eh? Aren’t they nice?

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Did I mention that my parents lost part of their roof in a bombing raid (storm…) in January? The insurance company tried twice to claim Dad was committing fraud (a, because he uses his middle name, always has done, so they say he is two people and therefore using an agent which is not allowed, and b, because he gave the number of bedrooms as the number of bedrooms, not knowing he should include any room which is not a sitting room, bathroom or kitchen…) but eventually have agreed to repair the house, on a policy which he has never claimed on but paid the policies since 1979…!!!

Anyway, finally my late-80s dad no longer has to go up into the attic every time it rains to empty buckets and washing-up bowls. January til September… that’s a lot of buckets (their bit of Scotland didn’t really get the drought memo…). 

It’s meant us going up a few times to clear my childhood bedroom and boxroom in the attic… I say childhood but I lived in that room til I was fortyfive so it’s meant a lot of memories dredged up, bad and good. 

I can’t think how people coped in the war. I suppose generally they wouldn’t have had the sheer quantity of Unsorted Stuff that I had, but still… 

we’re up for one last effort next week, and then the ceilings all come down- the roof itself has now been rebuilt as of a couple of weeks ago, so now they demolish the ceilings in all four rooms and the attic stairwell, and that means the 1882 plaster walls will shatter so all rooms are to be rebuilt up from the skirting-boards. Farewell, my 1980s Victorian-study Laura Ashley wallpaper, and hullo smooth new modern plasterboard and the first insulation ever (rooms previously having only plaster skim over laths, with beams and slates/lead sheets above, freezing in winter). 

A long ramble, sorry!

I think seeing it with half the ceilings down will look a lot like some wartime homes must have looked. We’re so lucky to be able to buy replacements for most things if needs be… 

Oh @Laura_Elsewhere!  No, you didn’t mention that your parents have been bombed!  What a nightmare for your dad to sort out.  (It’s no wonder insurance companies are hated.  His sounds awful!)

Are they definitely going to use insulated plasterboard? It will make the rooms much warmer.  In our 1930’s house, we have insulated plasterboard against the external wall of what was the original kitchen (now part of the lounge.)  It makes a huge difference, especially when I compare it to the uninsulated section of the same wall, in the downstairs hall.  

A word of advice, though, from someone who grew up in plasterboard lined houses:  On its own, plasterboard can’t take weight.  if you want to put up paintings or wall mounted shelves, make sure you know where the timber uprights are, and only put your screws/nails into those.   (You can find them by tapping.). There are special screws/plugs you can buy which will distribute the weight a bit if you want to hang a painting, but I don’t know how much weight they can take.  (Think of the all those Australian timber-framed houses, with plasterboard internal walls.  To make the walls strong enough to hang kitchen units, they put plywood behind the plasterboard.)

HTH

- Pip

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Thanks, @Cherryfudge - all complicated by Mum smashing her elbow up in August and needing a load of metalwork implanted, so poor Dad’s been cooking and cleaning and doing all her work for six weeks- thankfully helped by Younger Niece staying a couple of nights every week, bless her, otherwise I’d have been up like a shot… all well on the mend now but thank heavens for the NHS, and for lovely neighbours helping lots, and for the bikers who stopped and leapt off their bike to run to her rescue at the time, closely followed by locals who brought chairs out for her and Dad to sit on til the ambulance arrived…

People, eh? Aren’t they nice?

They are indeed. The kindness of strangers.

How is your mum now?

Nelliegrace

@Laura_Elsewhere, the photograph of the spools of cotton made a lovely jigsaw puzzle. Thank you. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Thanks, all!

@Cherryfudge - she is doing splendidly now! Onto physio, lovely quick referral. 

@PipneyJane - oh, don’t worry! what was there before was very thin brittle 1882 plaster over split laths…! I don’t really have the concept of hanging anything on the walls other than finding solid timber!!

PipneyJane

moginstein said:

PipneyJane said:

@moginstein, use the polyester.

Please show us the results of your work.

- Pip 

Thanks @PipneyJane I'll use the polyester when I do the main ones. Not yet, waiting for a calm day.
Here's the "practice ones". First is just with a zigzag edge, and is just for a makeup remover type cloth (I've spoilt a few facecloths)
 

Second is towel with edge turned up and zigzagged.
I've had the towel for 35 years 🫣 so no wonder it was a bit holey!
(I have had other towels in between too...)
Will be a while before I tackle the bath sheets..
Thanks for your support and advice @thriftwizard and @pipneyjane and all you lovely people on here 

@moginstein I just realised that I haven't complimented you on your beautiful work.  I really can't see the stitches!

- Pip

moginstein

Thanks @PipneyJane, that's very kind of you. I have to admit, although it was only a little thing, I  hadn't appreciated how much it was doing my head in to have a towel with holes in, and it didn't need that much taking off to make it serviceable,  and bring a smile to my face!
Also @Laura_Elsewhere, thank you for your pictures of cotton reels, they are such a beautiful range of colours, and your shoe related knowledge is so useful, thank you for sharing.

Nelliegrace

38 coupons spent in one splurge!
Two pairs of cotton pyjamas and seven pairs of socks each for the two grandsons to put away for Christmas. I grabbed them now because they are sure to be sold out soon. I got generous sizes with plenty of length for growing. I think that when the thirteen year old sits to read a book he has grown still more when he stands up. With permission from Santa, I shall deliver them early in case they are needed. 

Coupons used,

3 for a bathing costume.

2 for 2 pairs of ankle socks.

10 for 5 pairs of ladies other undergarments. Reduced from 15 to 10 coupons, with thanks to Pipney Jane.

24 for 4 pairs of boys cotton pyjamas. (For Christmas.)

14 for two packs of 7 pairs of boys socks.

Total 53 coupons

PipneyJane

@Nelliegrace, the boys will appreciate your coupon sacrifice.  That way they can spend their coupons on football boots and jerseys.

How is everyone?  What a weird week it’s been. Yesterday’s news of the Manchester synagogue attack left me feeling a bit vulnerable.  I realise that I’ve been lucky; when I was an active synagogue goer, the world I was living in was very much more peaceful.  (I’m very lapsed.).  I was feeling quite rough yesterday, anyway, so crawled into bed after watching the lunchtime news.  (I had my flu and Covid jabs on Tuesday afternoon, and felt quite flu-ey.  I was warned that might happen.  Feel human today.)

I must report that I went to L!dl on Monday and didn’t buy a single skein of sock yarn.  I did look at them but the colours didn’t appeal to me.  Perhaps if the multicoloured skeins had had a different pattern, I might have succumbed. (The bands show an approximation of the pattern that they’ll knit up into.  Not as nice a pattern as, say, a skein of Opal or Regia.)

- Pip

alicef

I've been a bit poorly - so awol.  Thank you all for the trip down memory lane on 70s fashion. It did get me thinking on my school uniform - (oh those trips to Bourne & Hollingsworth to get kitted out in too large garments so one could grow into them - and the cost of it all! - winter uniform, summer uniform, games kit galore (lacrosse/netball/tennis/gym/dance/swimming), and for 5 kids!)  and no-one, absolutely no-one, looked stylish in those winter hats.  

Anyhow WYS (West Yorkshire Spinners) site has a free Shaun the sheep blanket (knit or crochet) - Shaun the Sheep - what's not to like!

https://wyspinners.com/collections/free-patterns