2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Gem-gem

What a lovely photo of the dog. My friend's cat keeps presenting her with her balls of wool that she has sorted into different projects. 

Wraithlady

Talking of knitting, I am presently working on my 'Minnie the Minx' striped jumper - the wool was bought several years ago, I just never had the time to start it.

Am getting near the armholes, need to find the original pattern!

PipneyJane

Gem-gem said:

What a lovely photo of the dog. My friend's cat keeps presenting her with her balls of wool that she has sorted into different projects. 

Hey Boss.  I want you to knit on this one! 

Wraithlady said:

Talking of knitting, I am presently working on my 'Minnie the Minx' striped jumper - the wool was bought several years ago, I just never had the time to start it.

Am getting near the armholes, need to find the original pattern!

You must share a photo @Wraithlady

- Pip

alicef

@Wraithlady - how I would have loved a Minnie the Minx jumper - probably still do!

Thank you so much for the links @PipneyJane - I'm so behind on everything so haven't managed to watch as yet - but I will.  At the moment I'm feeling somewhat like Alice

aka quote

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

unquote

I'm so behind I will have to come up with another topic for my 1 on 1 next week.  Perhaps best intarsia technique.

This popped up in my inbox (haven't listened to it as yet).  Haptic and Hue's Jo Andrews produces podcasts on textile subjects.  

https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-7/?utm_source=emailoctopus&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Coupons for Clothes: A Wartime Idea Made New

 no. 58 is titled Coupons for Clothes: A Wartime Idea Made New?

kiwisavings

I was chatting with my 89 year old Mum the other day about this forum and she shared a few memories of clothes during WW2.
She mentioned that her grandmother made some knitted sleeveless tops for her and 2 of her cousins (aged 10 to 14). They were to go under cardigans to make a twinset. The front of the tops were multicoloured stripes that used up small leftover quantities of wool and the backs were made up of pieces of fabric from clothes no longer wearable. My Mum said that the striped fronts were great as they matched any cardigan, but the back of hers was a dark purple crepe and was not a colour that suited her fair colouring. So she made sure that she didn't take off her cardigan when she was wearing the striped top.

CapricornLass

I think this year will the the Year Of The Shoe.  Just bought 2 pairs of trainers on a 2 for the price of 1 deal, and another bra, so that is another 13 coupons.  However, there is another pair of sandals that I've got my eye on.....  

maryb

Well, I've just completed week 3 of sticking with WW2 tea ration and this time I didn't try to be careful.  Still ended up with 3/4 oz left over from 4 oz.  So the ration would have been OK for us.  I'm trying out one thing at a time rather than going full 1942. 

Fat ration would have been OK in total though I use butter rather than marge.  I've moved over to lard from vegetable oil as I have read quite a lot about how pro inflammatory it is.  Maybe coincidental but my arthritis has simmered down.  Lard is actually more monounsaturated than saturated.  One thing that surprised me is how much less fat is absorbed when frying in lard rather than oil which I only used for chips.  And after straining the fat is still a nice clean colour whereas oil has to be chucked after very little use as it goes dark which is not good for you.

I thought eggs would be an issue unless I assumed I kept my own chickens.  But if I counted dried egg equivalents it would just about have been ok.  We would also have managed with the bacon ration and the cheese ration would have been plenty for cooking.  But sandwiches would have been difficult.  I suppose a lot of people would have had a cooked meal in a works canteen and there was an extra cheese allowance for those who couldn't.  Housewives at home would probably have had leftovers or soup.

So the main areas that would have been a problem for me are milk and meat.  I might try sticking to rationed amounts for milk next.  I know some people water down full fat milk to make it the equivalent of semi skimmed and that might help to stretch

Sorry to hijack the thread but as I don't need any clothes at the moment I don't have anything much to say about fashion on the ration

kiwisavings

Thanks @maryb, I'm sure that a lot of the forum members are interested in food rationing as well as clothes rationing
 

weenancyinAmerica

@maryb - And some of us are interested in anything to do with the Home Front in World War II. The hints have actually helped me a lot. Thank you.

PipneyJane

alicef said:

@Wraithlady - how I would have loved a Minnie the Minx jumper - probably still do!

Thank you so much for the links @PipneyJane - I'm so behind on everything so haven't managed to watch as yet - but I will.  At the moment I'm feeling somewhat like Alice

aka quote

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

unquote

I'm so behind I will have to come up with another topic for my 1 on 1 next week.  Perhaps best intarsia technique.

This popped up in my inbox (haven't listened to it as yet).  Haptic and Hue's Jo Andrews produces podcasts on textile subjects.  

https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-7/?utm_source=emailoctopus&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Coupons for Clothes: A Wartime Idea Made New

 no. 58 is titled Coupons for Clothes: A Wartime Idea Made New?

Thank you for recommending that podcast, @alicef.  I’ve listened and it was fascinating.  I didn’t realise that the sale of stockings was banned in 1940!  I just thought they were unobtainable.

kiwisavings said:

I was chatting with my 89 year old Mum the other day about this forum and she shared a few memories of clothes during WW2.
She mentioned that her grandmother made some knitted sleeveless tops for her and 2 of her cousins (aged 10 to 14). They were to go under cardigans to make a twinset. The front of the tops were multicoloured stripes that used up small leftover quantities of wool and the backs were made up of pieces of fabric from clothes no longer wearable. My Mum said that the striped fronts were great as they matched any cardigan, but the back of hers was a dark purple crepe and was not a colour that suited her fair colouring. So she made sure that she didn't take off her cardigan when she was wearing the striped top.

@kiwisavings, according to my 1936 Lux Knitting Book, vests like your mum’s had a “Dickie front”. (The pattern booklet was my mum’s.  I think I first opened it when I was 11 and have loved the patterns ever since.)

maryb said:

Well, I've just completed week 3 of sticking with WW2 tea ration and this time I didn't try to be careful.  Still ended up with 3/4 oz left over from 4 oz.  So the ration would have been OK for us.  I'm trying out one thing at a time rather than going full 1942. 

Fat ration would have been OK in total though I use butter rather than marge.  I've moved over to lard from vegetable oil as I have read quite a lot about how pro inflammatory it is.  Maybe coincidental but my arthritis has simmered down.  Lard is actually more monounsaturated than saturated.  One thing that surprised me is how much less fat is absorbed when frying in lard rather than oil which I only used for chips.  And after straining the fat is still a nice clean colour whereas oil has to be chucked after very little use as it goes dark which is not good for you.

I thought eggs would be an issue unless I assumed I kept my own chickens.  But if I counted dried egg equivalents it would just about have been ok.  We would also have managed with the bacon ration and the cheese ration would have been plenty for cooking.  But sandwiches would have been difficult.  I suppose a lot of people would have had a cooked meal in a works canteen and there was an extra cheese allowance for those who couldn't.  Housewives at home would probably have had leftovers or soup.

So the main areas that would have been a problem for me are milk and meat.  I might try sticking to rationed amounts for milk next.  I know some people water down full fat milk to make it the equivalent of semi skimmed and that might help to stretch

Sorry to hijack the thread but as I don't need any clothes at the moment I don't have anything much to say about fashion on the ration

@maryb you haven’t hijacked the thread.  It’s good to hear what managing on the food rations is really like.   Please continue to share your experiences.  I don’t remember how many dried eggs were in a packet/in a person’s ration.  How many were there?

Re cooking oil discolouring, I suspect it is because it burns.  Different oils have different burning temperatures, e.g. extra virgin olive oil will burn if overheated, so isn’t suitable for deep-fat frying.  (You can smell it burn.)

No coupon spends for me to declare, although I may have to purchase some Aran-weight acrylic yarn soon.  The wives of two of my colleagues are expecting babies in July.  I’d like to make baby sweaters for both of them.  One is definitely having a girl; I’m not sure about the other.  (Not that that helps because I don’t have any pink.). Somewhere around here is a ball of white ? DK, that my MIL gave me.  I’ll start knitting with that and see where it gets me.  That’ll be my Easter project.

- Pip