2026 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

maryb

The South certainly boomed in the 30s with house building and lots of light industrial estates on the new arterial roads. But the North took longer to catch up until rearmament (which did, in fact, start well before Munich) gave a boost to heavy industry, mining and and textile production (for uniforms). Those industries had been very export orientated, either directly or indirectly, and trade shuddered to a halt with the Depression. Despite the New Deal, America didn't fully recover either until it went on a war footing.

Neville Shute published Ruined City in 1938 and that gives a good idea of what life was like in an old shipbuilding town. His main character is struck by the fact that the town was so poor it could no longer support a Woolworths. All his novels are interesting for anyone who is interested in social history

thriftmonster

@PipneyJane I ordered via Wool Warehouse and also Yarndale as I wanted two more balls of Brenda sock wool for the Yarndale crochet cardigan

@Laura_Elsewhere following your tip, wool may have fallen into my basket at Tebay. I got the blue green 4 ply. On weighing them at home, each ball is slightly over 100g.

dND

Oh dear, I've spent more coupons. 😱

I realised that I needed some better clothing for my Land Army duties. Enter Mr Lidl; I have purchased a men's work gilet - recycled polyester and water resistant - and a pair of men's work trousers - same as the gilet but best thing is that it is comfortable to work in and…it has pockets! 😁

I'm not sure how many coupons for each though.

Being on the short side, I spent a day hand sewing a 5 inches reduction in leg length on the trousers, (sewing machine is buried somewhere in the house and not available). The trousers have been in action and I am really pleased with them.

PipneyJane

@dND a gillet would count as a waistcoat, so 5 coupons, and non-woollen trousers are 5 coupons. HTH.

I had a lovely girly day with friends in Monmouth yesterday, wandering through their numerous charity shops. Purchased a new-looking, pale blue M&S t-shirt for £3 and a light denim blue coloured, wool-and-cashmere cardigan for £10.50. Tried on an absolutely gorgeous 1980’s style, red coat which, sadly, was far too tight.

No coupons spent.

-Pip

dND

Thank you @PipneyJane so that brings my total to 48. They really made a difference to being able to work in the wet vegetation and brambles so 10 coupons well spent.

Monmouth is nice isn't it. I had a stopover there with my daughter last year as it was roughly halfway between mine and hers. We had a lovely mooch up and down the high street and in the museum/town hall followed by a little picnic down by the river. I loved the charity shops even though they were definitely more expensive than the ones down here in south Wales. Dx

Cherryfudge

We are on hols this week and I had a chance to pop into Primarni and buy yet more socks. That's all I've spent coupons on this year, though a few charity shop and V1nted purchases have also happened. This latest lot is a pack of 5 pairs of black 'footies' for £3. Not quite a planned spend, but a contemplated one.

From memory, socks this year have been 2 x 3 ankle socks for me, 1 x 3 ankle socks for my niece, 1 x 3 white 'footies' and now 1 x 5 black footies. Total is looking like 17 points spent.

The other thing relevant here is our visit to the International Bomber Command Centre at Lincoln. Highly recommended. I went in honour of my Mum's Dad, who was in Bomber Command, but I had not realised the scale of losses and how unusual he was to have returned from every mission. The Exhibition there is the only bit you actually pay for, but we spent quite some time as it was very informative and gave both the Government propaganda and the experiences of real individuals, which brought back some of my Mum's war stories - though not Grandad's. On reflection, I think he was one of those who didn't tell the stories and didn't claim the medals though my Mum later claimed them in his memory.

The actual memorial is a huge metal spire surrounded by short walls inscribed with the names of the over 58,000 people who died in Bomber Command. Many have poppies inserted next to them, showing they are still remembered by people who have visited.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge thankyou for that post. It feels shocking to read of the scale of the deaths- and of course many aircrew were terribly injured and/or disfigured by the nature of the work… not to mention those who, like your grandfather, were left with memories they didn't want to remember…

we are so fortunate.

Laura_Elsewhere

I am trying to organise myself properly with sewing and knitting- I have a pair of wool legwarmers for my elderly father, and then I need to stop faffing and actually apply myself to some woolly working!!

You may have heard of the "Super El Niño" currently forming- nobody is sure what will happen, as it's off all the normal scales, but it is likely to cause the UK to have a mild wet and windy autumn and early winter, ie rest of this year, and then possibly in the new year some bitter cold.

So definitely make sure you have decent footwear and warm/weatherproof clothing for wet or icy, rainy or windy, weather!

PipneyJane

Good reminder @Laura_Elsewhere . I saw a headline this morning which said that Britain needs 7 months of constant rain in order to recover from this year’s drought. (It’s on the BBC.). The decisive factor is whether the Gulf Stream has failed or will fail next year - last time that happened, we had 3 months of snow.

• Pip

maryb

I don't really remember much about the winter of 1963 (assume that's what you mean). I think things kept running rather more determinedly than they do these days. I do remember my mother giving me an old matchbox to scrape the frost off the windows inside the bus in the morning. These days the buses would be cancelled.

I wonder if the Gulf Stream weakening was also responsible for the winter of 1946-7 which must have been even harder with shortages of everything and not enough coal in the ration