2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Sarahspangles

@Laura_Elsewhere 1944 must have been grim, and an anxious time. I can’t find any reference to the coupon count for specific items having changed at this or any other point.

I think modern clothing is more different than I realised. Not only are we taller and heavier than that generation, so each garment takes more fabric, but we use heavier fabric for some items and at the same time have some staples like leggings that use less but which would scandalise the earlier generation.

I was looking to see how much Land girl breeches ‘cost’, as I have a pic of my great-aunt wearing those, but maybe they were issued like uniform. That great-aunt went into nursing after the war (I think she was born in 1924) so she spent her whole life in one kind of uniform or another.

alicef

Ahh @thriftwizard your blanket looks stunning. I cannot crochet for the life of me. One day, maybe, I shall master it, (I have a saved pattern from an 80s Pingouin magazine of a gorgeous top).  I also shouldn't be let near a craft show, though I'm determined to attend Shetland Wool week.

It's coming to the end of Feb.  I should get the dishcloths finished and the fair isle vest.  Probably not the blanket.   I need to finish the yoke colour-work for the next workshop session; aran weight yarn knits up SO quickly, therefore I have no excuse - though I have been on Snowdrop walks - latest one at Rode Hall, (visiting friends, so was nearby), in between the high winds, and I picked up a few greatorex varieties at most reasonable cost, plus Heyrick Greatorex seems to have been a most fascinating person. 

I put out a request for recycled 9cm pots for potting on of seedlings, (plants for the Library fund raiser in May) - though some donors took the opportunity to divest themselves of all and sundry sizes!  VE celebrations also in May!   I'm thinking about knitting a replacement tea cosy, (current one is a shrunken beanie), in time for the celebrations. Pattern 'I'm a Little Teapot'  by June Dickinson.






     
  

Laura_Elsewhere

@Sarahspangles - Land Girl uniform was definitely issued as uniform, so no coupons! 
I agree that leggings would scandalise our forebears but tbh I think they'd be much more scandalised by the flimsiness- I can imagine my Gran (born about 1908 iirc) asking why on earth anyone would buy clothes that wear out in a matter of a few months! (I can also hear her fretting that I'd catch a cold in my kidneys wearing such thin flimsy outfits! )
I think the biggest scandalising things would probably be footwear- the modern "monobloc" manufacturing technique in which sole and heel are cast as a single unit, with a hollow heel, means that re-heeling is physically impossible, and so effectively when you wear down your shoes or boots, you have to throw them away... as opposed to traditionally-made footwear with a solid heel attached to the sole-piece, and all of it can be re-heeled, re-soled, repaired in all kinds of ways. 
It would be normal to wear a pair of decently-made shoes for ten to twenty years, and even then they'd go on into the secondhand market. 
The shoemaker I have two pairs of shoes from charges just over two hundred quid, and given that prior to getting my first pair, I'd been having to buy a new pair of lace-up "character" dance-shoes, which were the only similar style I could find, about once a year for fifty quid! So four years on, my beautiful shoes made for each foot individually have paid for themselves... and oh, how comfortable my feet are now- I have worn them on trips where for work I ended up walking six miles every day for 4 or 5 days, on stone paving-slab pavements, and although I was glad to finish for the day, I didn't have painful feet in the way I had got used to (at 17 stone and a Size 22, my feet do a lot of hard work!) 


Here are my second pair when new They look almost exactly like this now  

laura_lau

The videos were so interesting to watch, thank you for posting them! I remember from the exhibition that the uniforms were definitely a very attractive benefit for women who joined different forces, and there was some sort of "competition", as different forces had different uniforms, not only more or less attractive looking, but also and especially made of materials that were better quality and/or impossible to get hold of during rationing. I will have to get the book out and read that chapter again! It's going to be 10 years this coming 30th August since I visited the exhibition! I remember because I went with my cousin the day after my best friend's wedding!

I haven't done much knitting this past week as I've been very busy. However, I have resumed crocheting small solid granny squares for my Battenberg blanket https://www.cherryheart.co.uk/2018/12/battenberg-blanket.html. I made 15 last week, and I am going to make more tonight. I think the latest count is 73, so I am at 10.1% of the overall count of granny squares. It's a multi-year project, so it's fine. I want to make one like in the picture, half variegated colours and half natural colour. I do have the variegated colours already in my stash. I will have to acquire the natural colour, but it will be another while before I have to go and buy it. According to my calculations, I will need 480g of natural colour to match the variegated colour I already have. It's all done in 4 ply, because I am an extremely insane person.  But I love the look!

Cherryfudge

@laura_lau, that blanket - hundreds of squares! But an ideal project for either using up stash or taking on holiday (perhaps as a bag of yarn that turns into a bag of squares, rather than the whole thing). I do like the light and airy effect.

@Laura_Elsewhere, very handsome footwear. I completely agree about the inbuilt wastefulness of many modern shoes styles, though those soft soles are a boon... and then they're worn out in no time.

PollyWollyDoodle

That blanket is gorgeous, @laura_lau - a big project, but very portable.  Have you set your self a target of doing a certain amount each week?  

Nelliegrace

Fashion in uniforms.

kiwisavings

@Laura_Elsewhere, Beautiful shoes and I love the colours that you are wearing with them 
 
@laura_lau, that blanket looks fabulous, are you keeping the original overall colour scheme with your variegated wool? This would be a great way to use up small amounts of wool - so very fitting for a fashion on the ration project.

@Nelliegrace, you can see the humour coming through in this cartoon , at a time that needed a bit of a lift. Quite a range - some quite stylish (WAAF and Navy) and some more rugged (Land girl and factory) 

laura_lau

Thank you for the love on the blanket, I can't wait to show you some progress! I am definitely keeping the colour scheme, as much as possible, as I am using some of the (many) minis I have. They are all 20g 4ply and the ones I am using now are all from a 2022 advent calendar. I have others I can add to it, but I I want to see how big it will be after I've used all of the 24. The calculations I've made are based on 20g x 24.
As I want to keep the colour arrangement, with the variegated alternated with natural or cream colour, it will already be double that amount. I don't have the undyed yarn in my stash, but it will be a while before I need it, so who knows, I might be gifted it in the meantime! If that doesn't happen, I have already found a place where they sell good quality undyed yarn for a very fair price, at least last time I checked, so that might be a solution.

I started this more than a year ago and I hadn't worked on it for a few months, but now I am willing to speed it up a bit, and I was thinking to set myself a goal of doing at least 1 square a day for a month or two, so that might help.
It is a very portable project indeed, as I only have 1 or 2 20g ball in a small pouch, and when I finish a colour (15 squares) I move them to another bag where I am keeping all the finished squares. I have been bringing it with me everywhere, and I have occasionally done a square or two at the airport, as the little pouch always fits in my bag, even when I only have a very small one.

alicef

@laura_lau the blanket is gorgeous and will be treasured!

I have been staying with friends. They know I do GYO and have an interest in WW2 - so they found a copy of C Middleton 'Dig On for Victory' and have been quizzing me as to whether I have 'maintained my succession of lettuce'; potted on my cucumbers or done something or other with sea kale, aka February 4th week, and I said I've just sown tomatoes.   Somehow I'm quite thankful I don't have to rely on my fruit/veg patch. My local Lidl had their £1.50 boxes today and they were sumptuous!