2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

laura_lau

Laura_Elsewhere and PipneyJane you will be proud of me, today I finally got round to mend those knitted socks I asked advice for. 

I’ve followed your instructions, @PipneyJane, to mend the hole, they worked wonderfully! However I might have been a little over enthusiastic in picking up some of the side stitches to k2tog or p2tog, so the result is not perfect, but certainly good enough for a first attempt.
Then, I’ve followed the video you linked, @Laura_Elsewhere, and reinforced the heel of the other sock, as the wool was looking dangerously thin. 

I’ll attach the picture at the bottom. I noticed another pair I use at home and to walk the dog has a tiny hole, so now I’m off to mend and reinforce those as well, and while I’m at it, I will take out the other two pairs I have and which are a bit newer, and reinforce the heels for good measure! 

I’m very pleased, thank you so much!

PipneyJane

kiwisavings said:

Hello everyone, I would like to ask the people who have been doing the Fashion on the Ration challenge for multiple years about how they have found it?
I'm coming into the challenge with a pretty well stocked wardrobe (including some new clothes I bought last year). Have you found that it has got more difficult as time has passed and most of your wardrobe was from previous years? Or has it changed how you look at your clothes and spending habits?

Damn good question @kiwisavings .  My wardrobe is built around multiple capsules and, most years, I add another one.  I started thinking about capsule wardrobes in my very first job, back in the mid-1980’s, when I was a receptionist.  (I’d doodle ideas in a notebook, while typing up tax returns.)  However, it wasn’t until the mid-1990’s that I started doing it in earnest, when I read Susie Faulkes’ seminal book “Wardrobe”. Suddenly, I had a road map to follow that worked.  The rules are simple: 

1. Go for classics, not exaggerated fashion.  
2. Get your colours done and only wear colours that suit you.  
3. Ditto assess your body shape and only wear clothes that suit it.
4. When you find basics that you like and that suit you, stock up, because you’ll live in them for years.
5. If you have to be booted-and-suited at work like me, buy every component of a suit in one of your core neutrals: jacket, trousers, skirt, dress (if there is one), and, if available, the contrasting jumper/top that picks up the pin-stripe or a shade from the tweed.
6. Ensure you have several fine wool/cashmere cardigans in your core neutrals so that, when travelling for work, you can alternate wearing your suit jacket with a cardigan that looks like it was designed to be worn with your suit skirt or trousers.  (It can be teh same colour or a contrasting one.)
7. Try and stay the same clothing size.  (Something I failed at, gradually going up a size or two as I’ve got older.  However, thanks to weight lost during my recent brush with lymphoma, I have suits that are 20 years old which I can comfortably wear again )

My big weakness is yarn and that’s where I usually blow my coupons.  I have a tendency to discover a small producer or two and then buy a jumper’s worth of something that’s taken my fancy (on the basis that, if I don’t, I’ll regret it later).  Or it’s something you just can’t buy in the UK  For example, I came home from New Zealand with a couple of balls of Naturally’s Waikiwi Prints sock yarn, which contains possum fibre.  (Bought in Spotlight, in Rotorua.  I’ve made to pairs of socks, which I wear regularly.)  

I’ve knitted another crocheted since childhood.  I always have 2 projects on the go:  a jumper that I’ll knit at home, and a “handbag project” - usuallly socks - for when I’m stuck on the Tube, or a passenger in a car, or sitting in a waiting room.  

- Pip

laura_lau

Forgot to add the picture!

Laura_Elsewhere

laura_lau said:

Forgot to add the picture!

Great work! And I’m so pleased you’re running the worn patches… SO much easier to reinforce than it is to mend once it’s a hole!

MrsCD

laura_lau said:

MrsCD said:

Oh, the dolls and duck are so gorgeous,  @laura_lau.
Ducky is particularly pretty with all the beads. 
How long did it take you to make them? I'm not as keen on making stuffed characters because the hook needs to be smaller than I would normally use, and my hands get stiff after a while.

Thank you! They were fun to make! I had never worked with beads before, and, despite not enjoying threading the wool, I absolutely loved crocheting with them, it was oddly satisfying!

I can’t really quantify how long it took, as it was a mystery crochet-along over December, and I would receive a limited set of instructions per email every morning. Considering I managed to keep up while only crocheting 1-2 hours in the evenings, I don’t think it took too long, and for about half of the days it wouldn’t take more than half hour to work on all instructions for the day.

I used a 3mm hook, and working with wool instead of cotton is much easier on the hands, I find. Working on a small portion every day, like in this crochet-along, also helped.

Well I still think you've done an amazing job on them! They're absolutely gorgeous! 😊

Cherryfudge

Something I forgot to add is that I'm trying to buy good quality, even if not all the time. A few of my second hand treasures have been things way above my usual price range but being sold off because someone saw a tiny hole as a flaw, not a challenge. These are classic pieces that make me feel elegant. I do find the knowledge and ideas on this thread inspire me to continue, though I don't have the making skills that I eventually hope to acquire.

PipneyJane

Well done @laura_lau.  Those socks will last for many more years now.

- Pip

pixtotts

PipneyJane said:

Big hugs @pixtotts.  Here, have this spot by the fire, a cuppa and a large piece of cake.  Fur-balls are members of the family and should be mourned appropriately - if you feel up to it, do tell us about him and his brother.  If not, I completely understand.  

- Pip

Thank you so much They really are members of the family aren't they! We lost Milo last year to a heart condition aged just 4, and I've always said his little heart knew it didn't have long so he put a long lifes amount of love into the short time he had, and the same was definitely true of his brother Jasper too. It's like they knew they had to use their love quota up in too short of a time and so were the cuddliest sweetest natured cats. x

pixtotts

@Laura_Elsewhere your mums dessing gown sounds like the most exquisit thing ever! 

@kiwisavings I have tried multiple years to join the challenge... and always fallen off the bandwagon by summer, weight loss / gain doesn't help. But I am drowning in the amount of clothes I have, it is actually stressing me out so I am determined this year! I have added extra constrictions for myself to try and deal with the problem, things like only buying of a certain quality and longevity. 

@Nelliegrace - the year of one of the royal weddings our Church did a similar wedding dress display, dresses through the years. My mum and gran stumped them a little by taking their dress, when gran was getting married in the 50s (I think) she went in to Birmingham, probably looking at frabric more so than dresses as her mum was a seamstress, but she fell in love with a Chantilly lace dress she definitely couldn't afford . Her dad suprised her with it! My mum then wore the same dress when she married in the 80's. I will not be continuing that pattern as it's soooo tiny, it would probably fit 1 thigh, it didn't even fit on the mannequin!   




I have a coupon to admit to just 1 for a pair of socks... 14 used out of my  20 limit ( + 1 earnt from a clothes sale, thinking I'll keep these seperate so I can keep track of my wardrobe hopefully shrinking.....). 

I must confess I did also buy shoes, but I'm not couponing those... I went to town in new shoes which rubbed my toe so I bought socks and shoes in the sale for just £8 for both! Bargain! But there were no shoes in my size that I wanted so I got ones in a style I could donate to the business, they are too big for me but got me out of an emergency situation.
I feel like I'm half cheating but I'm always buying shoes and jackets for the business so I can't have them stealing my coupons! They are rarely even in my size as they are usually for lovely bridal models. (I paint leather and denim jackets and embroider shoes).


Not coupon related but a dress that didn't fit, fits again and got worn Friday night! Yay! 
And I found a pattern to use up some wool, it's a free knitting pattern for a jumper with a cat on it.

Lion Brand have loads of free patterns on their website if anyone is ever looking for any! x

CapricornLass

I had my colours done years ago, @kiwisavings, - one of the best things I ever did, and I still try to stick to those colours when I am acquiring clothes.  I worked in IT infrastructure, so trousers were a must (chilly server rooms, rooting under desks, climbing ladders into lofts, no, not wearing a skirt for that!) but also had to be fairly formal as I was also dealing with bigwigs.  I  tended to wear fairly timeless pieces, which allowed me to move freely.  I never really ever followed fashion, as I never had the money to do it properly and I could never get the shoes as I have large feet.

I've got rid of a lot of those formal clothes now I've retired, although I kept two suits and a formal jacket (because it was brown!) although one of the suits will have to go as it is a 14 and I am regretfully a 16.  However being a size 16 meant that I was able to plunder my mother's wardrobe, firstly when she lost weight, and secondly when she went into a home and we had to get rid of eight wardrobes worth of clothes in very good condition (I kid you not!  There were 8 bin bags of woollens as well...)

I have bought two new t-shirts in the past two years as they were in my colours, and of course there's underwear and shoes.  However, the big differences for me since joining this challenge is firstly thinking whether I really need things in the first place, and then mending clothes,( darning, catching seams , loose buttons) and finally wearing things until they are are literally just fit for recycling.  It also meant a huge difference to how I spend coupons.  I spend far less now than I did when I first joined.