2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge
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Can you ask round friends your size or bigger and see if anyone has a good condition frock they never wear? That kind of thing might yield either something you can simply wear, or something you can alter, adapt or even just cut to pieces and use the fabric!
I have bought some fabric, two skirts and three tops worth, and a little more still to be bought. I need to sit down and work out the coupons on that.
A yard of wool cloth is 3 coupons, but a whole dress of other fabric is only 7 - these are all cotton or polycotton, so should I halve the wool-cloth couponage and make it 1.5 coupons per yard, or can I get away with 1 coupon per yard, or is that pushing my luck?
What do people think?
I am pleased with myself anyway, because for once, I didn't just buy pretty stuff (my downfall!) but I actually went in a few weeks ago with notebook and jotted down widths and descriptions and prices of fabrics I liked, then came home, sat down and looked at my wardrobe and what I don't need more of and what I'd love more of, and what would fill in gaps and enable me to wear things I already have, etc., etc...
Then I went back in and made decisions, with a useful Niece to assist, and chose a dark green cotton skirt, a cornflower blue cotton skirt, a rich dark green soft viscose for a gorgeous ruffled off-the-shoulder peasant top, and two polycottons for button-front camisole tops.
So I bought very specifically and can just sit down and get going on making stuff to wear this summer, instead of vaguely intending to do something...
2021 acquisitions, with or without coupons; all clothing, footwear or textiles:
Jan: 1.4kg Shetland wool (2nd-hand, so 0 coupons)
2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: Calculations not done yet - started with 74.5 coupons (66+8.5 from 2019)
2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 8.5 coupons left out of 66
Most of these clothes came from the local CS. All in all I've probably got enough to last me till Armageddon. All my coupons can now be used to replace any underwear that is too disreputable for even me to wear. No one can see it, right? And, of course, the odd pair of shoes. I'm very hard on shoes. My most comfortable shoes and the ones I wear just for a trek to the village shop are already kept together with bits of glued on duct tape.
You see what happens when you were really brought up during the war. You turn into a walking rag bag.
PJ, I was a bridesmaid in 1944. My wonderful mum made me a beautiful dress with NEW material. A blue creation with scalloped sleeves and the hem scalloped to just show the lace of the petticoat I was wearing underneath. She also made my headress of stiff lace and little flowers she had also made. I carried a posy of sweet peas from the garden.
After the wedding she cut a length off the skirt to make it into a short dress. The cut off piece made a bolero to wear over a white blouse.
I could give Shirley Temple a run for her money.
Have I given you any ideas? You can skip the bolero and the Shirley Temple ringlets if you like.
Who lift us to our feet when our wings
Have trouble remembering how to fly.
So a pair of Deliberate Trousers in dark green, perhaps?
2021 acquisitions, with or without coupons; all clothing, footwear or textiles:
Jan: 1.4kg Shetland wool (2nd-hand, so 0 coupons)
2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: Calculations not done yet - started with 74.5 coupons (66+8.5 from 2019)
2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 8.5 coupons left out of 66
I went through my entire fabric collection today.
I either need to get sewing a LOT more, or open a fabric shop. One or the other...
2021 acquisitions, with or without coupons; all clothing, footwear or textiles:
Jan: 1.4kg Shetland wool (2nd-hand, so 0 coupons)
2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: Calculations not done yet - started with 74.5 coupons (66+8.5 from 2019)
2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 8.5 coupons left out of 66
How did we get almost half way through the year? I don’t know where the time has gone. How are your coupons holding up? I still have my remaining 30 coupons intact.
Regarding the wedding outfit, I met up with my friend and her fianc!e a couple of weeks ago was presented with a fait accompli. A very elegant, oyster-grey coloured shift dress, which they categorically refused to let me pay for. (I have no idea what it cost.). More importantly, it fits well and it’s a colour I can wear.
Since it’s a gift, I’m not counting it towards my coupon spend. Instead, I’m treating it as “gold” from my friend’s wardrobe (which it probably isn’t, since it isn’t her style), but that is in keeping with the more-monied middle class during the war, who raided each other’s wardrobes for “new” clothes and upcycled what they found.
- Pip
2021 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons plus 6 brought forward unspent from 2020 equals 72 coupons to spend in 2021. 25 coupons spent. 47 remain.
NOTE TO SELF: NO MORE YARN!!!
2021 acquisitions, with or without coupons; all clothing, footwear or textiles:
Jan: 1.4kg Shetland wool (2nd-hand, so 0 coupons)
2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: Calculations not done yet - started with 74.5 coupons (66+8.5 from 2019)
2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 8.5 coupons left out of 66
....made from two old scallop-edged lined window-blinds someone was chucking out!!!
2021 acquisitions, with or without coupons; all clothing, footwear or textiles:
Jan: 1.4kg Shetland wool (2nd-hand, so 0 coupons)
2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: Calculations not done yet - started with 74.5 coupons (66+8.5 from 2019)
2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 8.5 coupons left out of 66
Still, if I can get the items made up it will be fewer coupons than buying ready-made. Laura, I take my hat off to you - that's really MSE!