2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge
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I'm considering making a list of some of my clothes, so I can realise how many of what I have... and maybe grade them somehow on how much I wear them - I have tops or jumpers or cardis I wear all the time at certain times of year and others I barely touch year-round. I think it might be useful to really work out what is what.
Maybe I'll start by clearing some space in the sitting-room and then actually emptying a shelf of clothing in the bedroom, listing the things I can confidently say I wear a fair bit, things that earn their keep, so to speak, and take other things through to the sitting-room where they can look at me pitifully and try to make their case for being kept!
I have vest-tops I have not worn since moving here in 2014, partly because they are too small and partly because I feel sentimental about not wearing them out because I bought them when I worked abroad in 2006 and they remind me of such happy times. Er, NOT sensible ways to treat clothing! I have other clothes from that time which I do wear or could wear, so maybe I can either wear the vest-tops or junk them to the textile-rags recycling-bin, or if I really can't stand to chuck them out I can cut two big square out of each and hem them with pretty bias-binding and have pretty dusters, for pity's sake.
but what i really shouldn't keep doing this year is keeping them untouched, faded and ageing...!
As well as weeding out the "keeping for the wrong reasons" I can work out what gets really really well-worn. I already know my grey cotton-jersey poloneck from Primark is so often-worn that if I ever see them again I would buy 5 immediately... the dark grey goes with everything, the high neck is cosy in cold weather, the cotton is light enough for days that are chilly on its own or layered for colder, easy to wash and dry...
So I think i should work out what other individual items are as hard-working as my grey cotton poloneck!
then I can really target my coupons to work hard for me...
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 want to make more of my own clothes this year, and I think it would be good to start by looking at the wardrobe and working out what I wear most, and why (colour/cut/fabric/length etc). Then I can see what gaps really need to be filled. Doing the 'Kon Mari' method really helped to declutter the wardrobe, I got rid of all those items that I used to pull out and then put back, it turns out that I had quite a few clothes I didn't really like wearing! If i'm honest, some of the stuff I made myself earlier on is probably not going to stay this year, because my skills weren't that great. I know now that if I'm going to invest time and energy and making something, I want it to be right.
I have a LOT of big skirts, and I wear only a few of them. I have discovered through doing the 2018 challenge that my biggest impulse-buy is tops of all kinds, and I think part of that is having skirts that don't really go with anything, so I keep vaguely buying new tops in case that makes the skirt magically work...!
I need to sort out the whole lot, really - but NOT all at one go or I'd implode.
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
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Babystepper, all my bras are from M+S, also bought from Debenhms in the past. They last quite well and the only issues I had so far was some tearing to the lace around the strap that could easily by fixed with a few stitches. Bought bras from others stores in the past and after a while the wire always came out... Never happened to these though.
aliwali, strangely food isn't as scary once you get into it and rearrange your mealplan a bit. I could probably not do it in summer as I use too much feta cheese and that like, but for winter it works surprisingly well, as long you love soups and stews and are ok with basic sweets (I do cheat though and allowed myself some 21. century treats when baking for visitors or when I brought cake somewhere...)
Fashion on the Ration: 0/66 coupons used
I just have vast amounts of clothing, and this challenge is making me realise how much...
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 would love to join you for 2019 if you’ll have me. I’m a shopaholic who wants to stop, for financial and ethical reasons.
I have started learning how to knit but am still on scarves - knitting has been keeping me off my phone in the evenings and will hopefully help to stop me seeing things I then want to buy!
I read through your whole 2018 thread tonight and am inspired by what I have seen. I’m hoping to be able to be more discerning and imaginative by having some boundaries.
I’m not tempted by shops like primark as I’m concerned about their ethics, but I do have a weakness for the January sales! I am an online shopper which I need to try and stop. I’m keen to discover charity shopping too.
Vintagegal