2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

Laura_Elsewhere · 7 May 2018 at 12:14PM

PipneyJane, your post is really intriguing and interesting and making me think - this situation must have happened to so many people, being asked to participate in a wedding (congrats, btw!) and they would just have had to find ways...

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...

monnagran · 7 May 2018 at 9:36PM

Confession time. I have just gathered up all my summer clothes. Those I intend to wear this year, those I was wearing 3 years ago when I was 2 stone heavier that I have kept in case I ever put the weight back on, and those that I WILL get into if my present diet actually works.

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.

Topher · 7 May 2018 at 10:54PM

My grandfather's cousin Frances was a formidable old girl. She'd been brought up to have a wealth of middle class housewifely skills. When WW2 broke out, she was living in a "nice" area of Liverpool, but as she could already drive, volunteered for the Ambulance service, so was bucketing around Liverpool during air raids and such. No need for a full life story. At the end of her life, she came to live at my Mum's, and with her came her stock of gorgeous hand made underwear, nearly all satin or silk, and beautifully embellished with the hand stitching she was well known for. (She hand smocked a dress for my daughter when she was a baby, and sewed tiny rosebuds - each made with a certain stitch, on each point where the smocking came together). Since I've been collecting sewing patterns from WW2 era (& before and after), I've acquired a couple for cami-knickers like Frances's and slips etc, also some lovely hand knitted longer leg pants (would deffo keep your kidneys warm when attending an air raid). The hand knitted stuff is interesting, items we no longer bother with, usually a pattern or two for just the heels of socks, so you could double up the heel thickness, or replace that part of the sock that had worn through. I've never been able to successsfully transfer photos onto here, otherwise I could share the patterns.

Topher · 7 May 2018 at 11:02PM

I got some advice from the shoe repair man on our local market. He said there are some restoring creams in a basic range of colours for leather furniture. If you apply it to a handbag, it doesn't rub off onto clothes etc. I bought a jar of black cream from him, and used it to polish my handbag, it really worked well, and, as promised, did not rub off onto clothing etc. The finish didn't last as long as the original colour had, but it gave the bag some more years of use without it's looking too shabby.

Laura_Elsewhere · 28 May 2018 at 9:14AM

I've been away intermittently for a few weeks but now am home (which is a lovely feeling!) and am planning to Get On With Some Sewing. I have the fabric bought in my previous post, and am going to crack on asap with the dark green sheeting-cotton - instead of a skirt, I shall make a divided skirt, or possibly wide-legged mid-calf trousers... I made Accidental Trousers several years ago when I forgot to add the large box-pleat to the pattern I'd drafted for a divided skirt, thus making trousers which are basically two near-circular skirts joined at a crotch (!). The hem on each leg is over 80 inches, so it looks like a very full skirt and I have to say, it's the only outfit I have where total strangers come up to me to say how much they like my style - four times so far! That never happens, so I really should just copy them in other colours, as the original Accidental Trousers are in a very boring brown furnishing cotton I had miles of (think janitor's work-coat colour...).

So a pair of Deliberate Trousers in dark green, perhaps?

Laura_Elsewhere · 5 June 2018 at 5:07PM

Oh golly.

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...

PipneyJane · 19 June 2018 at 8:57PM

Good evening all

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

Laura_Elsewhere · 24 June 2018 at 11:14AM

Morning Pipney Jane! I need to sit down and calculate my coupons but I have a horrible feeling I've overspent - two different pairs of jeans at 1/2 price and 1/3 price recently... one pair was a very unflattering pale pink but Dylon "rosewood red" machine dye has turned them a lovely rich deep brick-red with paler stitching, and by adding a cream belt, they look deliberate

Laura_Elsewhere · 7 July 2018 at 12:46PM

I am officially back on track with this challenge, because I have just made myself a lovely pair of shorts: old-fashioned ones, with turn-ups, front pleats, really comfortable, fully lined throughout in cream cotton, made in a lovely brick-red linen-blend sturdy fabric...

....made from two old scallop-edged lined window-blinds someone was chucking out!!!

PollyWollyDoodle · 7 July 2018 at 10:21PM

Bother. I've been very smug about my ability to resist buying anything, but I forgot that fabric counts. On a little trip last week I bought some fabric. 8.5 m to be precise - I think that's going to add 17 coupons to my current tally of 27, assuming two coupons per metre? It's all lightweight cotton type stuff.

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!

2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge - Page 7

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2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

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