2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

maryb said:

My name is Maryb and I can't stay away from the Knitting and Stitching Show

I actually only bought 1 skein of sock wool and one metre of wool for a skirt but lots of lovely quality hiyahiya needles came home with me.....

Well done,@maryb!   Almost every time I go to the Knit & Stitch Show, I spend a fortune and come away with more stash than I’d planned.  (I have been resisting its siren call this year.  Fortunately, feeling rubbish and having a cold has helped.)

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

Grits teeth - I’ve had to miss the Knitting & Stitching Show this year as too busy - in fact I’m just off to Norfolk for a short break. However, it occurs to me that I would definitely have spent some money at Ally Pally, so that means there must be something in the craft budget.  I might just happen to see a yarn shop on my travels.   

Welcome, @tincantoast - pull up a chair, there are some Melting Moments in the biscuit tin (shh, don’t ask where I got the butter). 

I was going to suggest bicarb @kiwisavings - try a bit first as suggested, to make sure it doesn’t affect the colour.  Let it soak overnight and then rinse it and see if that does the trick.  However, it may be that you’re getting the smell because you’ve got a whole bundle of elastic, once it’s cut up and stitched to the underwear in smaller pieces, It might be less noticeable,   Let us know how you get on, making my own knicks is still on my project list but another year is passing without me achieving it!  

tincantoast

Thank you @PollyWollyDoodle, do you find the knitting and stitching show good? We used to do festival of quilts yearly but stopped that a couple of years ago as it would just be a slog and there wasn't really much to buy/ the quilts just were all the same.

PipneyJane

tincantoast said:

Thank you @PollyWollyDoodle, do you find the knitting and stitching show good? We used to do festival of quilts yearly but stopped that a couple of years ago as it would just be a slog and there wasn't really much to buy/ the quilts just were all the same.

I've found that it's changed over the years @tincantoast.  When I first went, 20-odd years ago, there were more embroideries - the friend I went with then was into cross stitch and we'd do embroidery classes.  10-15 years ago, it became more about wool and rarer knitting yarns. The last time I went, ?two years ago, there were a lot more fabrics and sewing machines.  (Thanks, Sewing Bee.)

- Pip

tincantoast

PipneyJane said:

tincantoast said:

Thank you @PollyWollyDoodle, do you find the knitting and stitching show good? We used to do festival of quilts yearly but stopped that a couple of years ago as it would just be a slog and there wasn't really much to buy/ the quilts just were all the same.

I've found that it's changed over the years @tincantoast.  When I first went, 20-odd years ago, there were more embroideries - the friend I went with then was into cross stitch and we'd do embroidery classes.  10-15 years ago, it became more about wool and rarer knitting yarns. The last time I went, ?two years ago, there were a lot more fabrics and sewing machines.  (Thanks, Sewing Bee.)

- Pip

Ahhh that makes complete sense, I've just been pondering going one year

itsthelittlethings

I slipped and bought some yarn off a lady in West London. She neither asked about coupons nor particularly seemed to care. It was expensive stuff and I’m not sure if it was worth it. I don’t know where she gets her fleeces from but I’m telling myself the farmers are grateful for the extra pennies. I don’t expect M&S are paying over the odds at the moment!

I can’t wait for next year and another set of coupons. Hopefully the war will be over by then. I have heard good things from people in the know.

Must make a list of next year’s “look”. I have three pairs of jeans and some sports trousers and probably need some more tees for next summer. Then I need some socks and unmentionables.

I bought a heavenly dress nearly new about a month ago. It is mid calf. I will have to do some walking as I am so often on my pedal cycle I tend to stick to jeans. I also need some new leggings as my old set are quite holey!

Nelliegrace

The old cotton vests will last another season, though I have nice new ones stored away. I am wearing my old sheepskin slippers still, new ones from the sales three years ago are still in the box. I shall save them for Christmas. 

It must have been a quandary, with the blitz and many blackout road deaths, should we, "Eat, live, and be merry for tomorrow we die,” or keep things for best, and save for a rainy day. So many house clearances have vintage linens, still in the box.
Does clothes and food rationing end as soon as we win the war?

I have been given some thin, Nylon handkerchiefs, with pretty, hand embroidered flowers. They have been treasured for over 70 years. The only use for them I can think of is as a wrapping for a small item in a box or small parcel such as a scented soap. 

Psst! Messrs Tesco have wooden storm laundry pegs in stock at £2 for 24. Don’t you hate reassembling a normal peg when the wooden parts have escaped the wire spring?

Laura_Elsewhere

@Nelliegrace - I’m pretty sure the majority of people eked things out very warily, partly because within a year or so it was obvious that this was not going to be over quickly, and partly because as well as coupons there was a terrible scarcity that we just can’t imagine- you might plan ahead for new winter vests and have the coupons but there might be none at all available or they might cost twice as much. 

After the war, rationing got tighter and there was less and less of everything available- and then once most things were available, into the 1950s, the quality of many things went down, which is why so many novels have characters exclaiming in surprised and pleased tones, “and really quite pre-war quality, too!” as they wave their new winter vests or glass-cloths!

weenancyinAmerica

@Nelliegrace - Handkerchiefs can be stitched together to make things. I have a really nice cover for a tea table made from handkerchiefs. 

Cherryfudge

Sorry to veer off-topic, but I'm hoping your collective knowledge and imagination might come up with a way of saving/repurposing some shirts.

My husband loves linen shirts but seems to be rather too vigorous about tucking them in, so there are now three with a hole in the shirt tail! Of course that means wear and tear on the surrounding fabric, so unless back-baring shirts become the fashion, they won't be worn again. The top half of the backs seems okay, and so does the rest of each shirt.

Any bright ideas how to deal with this? Either to make them re-wearable or to repurpose the fabric? They are all different colours so I can't use one to patch another.

P.S. My son's lovely partner seems to have fixed my sewing machine! For years I've struggled with it and it seems it left the factory over-tightened in several places. It's now making even stitches without loops on the back. I might even be able to use it to sew shirts!