2026 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

dND

Please count me in @PipneyJane. 😁

I rounded out last year on 41 coupons which I think is a success.  I was lucky and found some really good clothing at my local charity shop which helped enormously.

Having the coupons really makes me think about what I'm buying - I'm not sure what I want for this year clothing wise apart from the usual underwear.  I have feeling some new thermal items might be added as I've found that the ones I have, which on the whole are many years old, now itch.  It will probably depend on what's in the sales. 🤣

Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy 2026. Dxx

Nelliegrace

Beautiful Fair isle knitting, @Laura_Elsewhere, and a lovely the photograph. I have lots of DD’s school nametags, to stitch the surname part into things which might get left behind somewhere. My uniform navy cardigan always came back when it was loaned when someone had to go out with an ambulance. 
Sorting the feet might be less annoying than darning the socks constantly. DH has got used to going to the chiropodist after initial resistance. I got so fed up of his moaning about sore feet. 

itsthelittlethings

I’m in for 2026. Determined to stick to my rations. For the purposes of the challenge I’m going to count second hand clothes as needing coupons - I’ve never been exactly clear what the score is with them.

keepcalmandcraft

I'm in again this year.  I haven't been doing a lot of crafting as I've been studying as well as working.  The studying ends in June so will hopefully get back onto making clothes and doing my favourite silk-painting.
I intend to comment more but love hearing all that goes on when I lurk!

PipneyJane

Nelliegrace said:

Beautiful Fair isle knitting, @Laura_Elsewhere, and a lovely the photograph. I have lots of DD’s school nametags, to stitch the surname part into things which might get left behind somewhere. My uniform navy cardigan always came back when it was loaned when someone had to go out with an ambulance. 
Sorting the feet might be less annoying than darning the socks constantly. DH has got used to going to the chiropodist after initial resistance. I got so fed up of his moaning about sore feet. 

Now you’ve got me wondering what happened to my nursing navy cardigan, @Nelliegrace.  I have a horrible feeling it got binned at some point because it was totally unfashionable.  < hangs head in shame >

Ravelry tells me that DH has been wearing this particular pair since December 2013, so 12 years’ wear isn’t too shabby, but I do wish they’d held up longer.  I’ll knit on patches and he’ll get another 5-10 years wear out of them.  (He walks like a dancer, on the balls of his feet, hence that’s where the holes form.)

itsthelittlethings said:

I’m in for 2026. Determined to stick to my rations. For the purposes of the challenge I’m going to count second hand clothes as needing coupons - I’ve never been exactly clear what the score is with them.

Welcome @itsthelittlethings. Cup of Tea?  Officially, second hand clothes only required coupons if they were over a certain value, but we don’t actually know what that price was.  (It’s in the small print of the third picture, in the first post.). The consensus last year was that it would be £100 in 2026 money.

keepcalmandcraft said:

I'm in again this year.  I haven't been doing a lot of crafting as I've been studying as well as working.  The studying ends in June so will hopefully get back onto making clothes and doing my favourite silk-painting.
I intend to comment more but love hearing all that goes on when I lurk!

Welcome back @keepcalmandcraft.  What are you studying?  Good luck for June.

- Pip

SpikyHedgehog

Could I join this year please?  (And be here more than last year! )

I think I used 29 coupons last year.   (Replaced existing worn out base layer set with 1 pair long johns and 2 vests,  3 coupons each,  replacement pack of 5 knickers, 5 coupons for the pack,  replacement pair of pyjamas, 8 coupons,  and new shorter length dressing gown at 7 coupons.)  Other clothes came in second hand or made with yarn from stash. 

I need to save my coupons for clergy clothing for and post ordination.   I've been given a secondhand alb, and bought a secondhand cassock.  But still need a surplice and stole, and clerical tops.

daisy_1571

PipneyJane said:

daisy_1571 said:

lovely gloves Laura 

Dxx

Welcome @daisy_1571. Lovely to see you.  Please sit here by the fire and have a cup of tea.  Are you going to join us for the Challenge?  Do you craft?

- Pip

Thanks for that, lovely cup of scorch 🍵, I'm glad of the sit down thank you.   I've just moved in to the Old Barn, just out of the village, I'm converting it into a house so can often be found in rather unladylike dungarees and head square.  I craft (by which I mean I sit in my craft room thinking about what I should be doing whilst imagining in my head some of the pictures I saw at the local fleapit ten years or so ago, the marx brothers Duck Soup was the most recent one that I remembered in great detail just before xmas.  So real it was like I could see it actually happening in a box in the corner of my room 😆 )  I've concentrated on getting my craft room sorted before getting other rooms in order as you can see!


Daisy xxx

Cherryfudge

Hi all, I have a  little light reading if you love a contemporary (1949) account that mentions rations. It's Noel Streatfeild's book 'The Painted Garden' (later republished with rations redacted as 'Movie Shoes'), and is a children's story (but about 300 pages) telling of an English family visiting California. I loved the social history aspects and found a copy to read for free on the Open Library.

The painted garden : Noel streatfeild : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

keepcalmandcraft

PipneyJane said:

Welcome back @keepcalmandcraft.  What are you studying?  Good luck for June.

- Pip

I'm studying Theology and will be ordained in the Church of England in July.  
Like @SpikyHedgehog I have a secondhand alb and I also have my Dad's cassock and surplice which I have had altered to fit me.

PipneyJane

SpikyHedgehog said:

Could I join this year please?  (And be here more than last year! )

I think I used 29 coupons last year.   (Replaced existing worn out base layer set with 1 pair long johns and 2 vests,  3 coupons each,  replacement pack of 5 knickers, 5 coupons for the pack,  replacement pair of pyjamas, 8 coupons,  and new shorter length dressing gown at 7 coupons.)  Other clothes came in second hand or made with yarn from stash. 

I need to save my coupons for clergy clothing for and post ordination.   I've been given a secondhand alb, and bought a secondhand cassock.  But still need a surplice and stole, and clerical tops.

Yes, of course.  Welcome back @SpikyHedgehog. Well done on only using 29 coupons last year.  You can roll forward your unused ones, so that’ll give you 105 to spend in 2026.  Work uniforms are exempt; that exemption would include your cassock, surplice and stole.

In addition, please be aware that coupon counts have changed slightly this year; after the initial launch, the Government issued a revised list a month later.  (I suspect the Minister’s wife gave him an earful about some of the coupon counts, so he’s made changes.)

We need to come up with a suitable saint for our Norman church to be named after.  Hmmm….

- Pip