2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

PollyWollyDoodle · 1 April 2018 at 6:51AM

That's annoying - but I must admit I didn't realise they had other stuff on their website! I might take a look, although I have a self-imposed ban on buying any fabric or yarn - even recycled - till I've used some up.

Since farmers get so little for a fleece, I've never understood why pure wool yarn is so expensive, yes I know it needs spinning and dyeing etc but surely so does acrylic.

No more coupons spent since the handbag was purchased. A girlfriend gave me some clothes she didn't want but most of them went to the CS, I have too many already. Hoping to do some sewing next week but the fabric was a gift so no coupons needed.

RicardaRacoon · 1 April 2018 at 6:38PM

Evening all

Pip, that is indeed annoying and the price for the yarn is crazy! I also prefere to see the yarn as the colours online just don't really fit the actuall yarn. The only place I love to order online is a store which sends out colour cards to their customers each season, so you see the actuall yarn. I just ordered yarn for a poncho for a friend (I assume it comes from her points...) and paid 4 Swiss Franks for a 50 g ball of pure merino wool. So that makes 3£ for 50g, but mind, Switzerland is rather expensive, so I guess in the UK the yarn would be closer to £2.50...And that is for really nice, good quality yarn.

I was looking for a nice blouse online and decided that a red one would be lovely as I love red and don't really have much in my wardrobe at the moment. Plus it would go with all my neutral coloured cardigans. So I have been lurking around a blouse online for a week. I actually wanted to order it straight away last Sunday because it said they had only one in stock in my size, but then I decided to wait. I know, once it arrives and fits I will not send it back, even if I don't like it 100% anymore by then. So guess what, in the meantime they did got a new delivery and now even have more than one, so there was no need to worry. So I now ordered it and will see if it fits....

[Deleted User] · 1 April 2018 at 7:15PM

I have a capsule wardrobe based around 3 colours, navy grey and brown. I cannot wear back.......I look like a corpse in a coffin in it.

I have two woollen coats, one is bright red and short the other a full length grey one, plus a waterproof navy jacket with a detachable lining. I usually wear trousers, but have a couple of skirts and two dresses. wear either tee shirts or tops. Cardigans or fleeces,help to keep me warm.

So apart from maybe a couple of pairs of trousers I doubt I will need anything else. I had to buy 4 bras (scaffolding) and some new knickers last year.

I find it difficult to get clothes from charity shops, when I was younger I used to get a lot of clothes from there, now I am older and a bit 'larger' I find it awkward to find things to fit me.

I used to make a lot of my own clothes as well as my childrens, I find it difficult to 'fit' myself now.

I have only bought 2 pairs of shoes in the last 10 years......one pair 3 years ago and the other for my grand daughters wedding last year. I may need a paid of flat black shoes during this year.

Can you carry over the coupons to another year?

Jonesy88 · 1 April 2018 at 8:25PM

Hi all,

Please can I join? I haven't kept track of any purchases year to date so I think i'll start the challenge with a pro rata (and nice round amount) of 50 coupons.

My resolve will be tested shortly when I pick up my n3xt sale goodies. I too and trying to lose weight, although I don't want to factor this into my coupons as I have enough "skinny" clothes in my wardrobe.

PipneyJane · 1 April 2018 at 9:52PM

Deleted_User wrote: »

I have a capsule wardrobe based around 3 colours, navy grey and brown. I cannot wear back.......I look like a corpse in a coffin in it.

I have two woollen coats, one is bright red and short the other a full length grey one, plus a waterproof navy jacket with a detachable lining. I usually wear trousers, but have a couple of skirts and two dresses. wear either tee shirts or tops. Cardigans or fleeces,help to keep me warm.

So apart from maybe a couple of pairs of trousers I doubt I will need anything else. I had to buy 4 bras (scaffolding) and some new knickers last year.

I find it difficult to get clothes from charity shops, when I was younger I used to get a lot of clothes from there, now I am older and a bit 'larger' I find it awkward to find things to fit me.

I used to make a lot of my own clothes as well as my childrens, I find it difficult to 'fit' myself now.

I have only bought 2 pairs of shoes in the last 10 years......one pair 3 years ago and the other for my grand daughters wedding last year. I may need a paid of flat black shoes during this year.

Can you carry over the coupons to another year?

I believe you could carry coupons over during the war, but not indefinitely. If I recall correctly, even the Queen had to save up coupons for her wedding dress. If it!!!8217;s good enough for HMQ, then it!!!8217;s good enough for this challenge.

I like your capsule wardrobe. When I shop, I usually buy a suit - jacket, skirt, trousers and dress (if there is one) - and wear them to death. My wardrobe is built around grey, black and blue suits purchased from the French boutique, Un Jour Ailleur. I buy one every couple of years. The oldest suit from them dates from 2004 and is still worn frequently.

I did have one year when I scored four suits in charity shops: 2 from M&S, one from Next and another from Country Casuals. However, that is unusual - you normally must do an awful lot of looking first. Those suits are holding up well, too.

- Pip

RicardaRacoon · 2 April 2018 at 8:50AM

PipneyJane wrote: »

I believe you could carry coupons over during the war, but not indefinitely. If I recall correctly, even the Queen had to save up coupons for her wedding dress. If it!!!8217;s good enough for HMQ, then it!!!8217;s good enough for this challenge.

I read somewhere that people sent her coupons to contribute to her wedding dress, which acutally was a crime as you weren't allowed to take coupons out of your ration book and pass them on outside of the family/household. You had to take your ration book to the store and they cut out the coupons needed. You were only allowed to cut them out yourself when you mailordered something. In case you returned the item and got the coupons back - or the seller could not provide you with the item/fabric and returned the coupons - you could then only use them for another mail order and not to buy anything in the store.

Does anyone know whether the original 66 coupons were considered acceptable or ways too little compared to pre-coupon consumption? It would be really interessting to see how much clothes an average person bought before. I'm sure there were people with a lavish wardrobe for whom 66 points were nothing while others didn't had the money to use up all their coupons. But the average person who didn't had to stretch every penny and could afford to buy more than an absolute neccessary basic wardrobe...

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 April 2018 at 8:59AM

PipneyJane wrote: »

< rant alert >

I have never felt so depressed. Excluding the Regia and a small display of cotton, they had absolutely nothing that wasn’t primarily acrylic. The highest wool content I saw was 20%! And most of the acrylic crap was not cheap, averaging £5 for 50g. I can buy pure wool OFF THEIR OWN WEBSITE for less than that! For example, Hobbycraft’s website is currently selling West Yorkshire Spinners Illustrious DK Yarn at £9.90 per 100g. It’’s pure wool, spun in Yorkshire. Their website contains a full range of woollen yarns - I’ve just checked - but none are available “in store” for you to handle, compare the colours etc. Instead, they reinforce the myth that knitting with good yarns is expensive. It’s not. I can knit a jumper in quality 4-ply, to fit me (size 14 with a huge bust), for less than £20.

< / rant over >

You took the rant right out of my mouth! I even asked a member of staff about it in February and sh said brightly that she's actually the one in charge of the wool department. I said, "well, you know most of it is not wool, it's yarn?" and she said, "oh, we've got almost twice the range of wools we had" and I said, "no, you have twice the range of acrylic and cotton yarn, but about a fifth of the wool yarn that you had" and she said, "no, all of these shelves now are wool!" and I gave up...

She suggested buying online for collection from the store; I said the problem was that then I couldn't be sure of colours or texture and sh said, oh lots of customers just order what they might like, open it when they collect it and then you can return it free for a full refund if you don't like it...

In what universe does that make any kind of sense???

I now find yarns I like, and then go and search in Ravelry's yarn-stash-search to find someone selling it

That way I can have lovely yarns for less than full price!

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 April 2018 at 9:08AM

Jonesy88 wrote: »

Hi all,

Please can I join? I haven't kept track of any purchases year to date so I think i'll start the challenge with a pro rata (and nice round amount) of 50 coupons.

Good idea!

I'll keep my whole annual coupons allowance, though as I haven't bought anything at all so far this year, because I gained weight over Xmas and it's just tipped me over into the zone where only one pair of black jeans will just-and-only-just do up and look awful, so I made myself an Emergency Skirt from fabric I already had, bought for a ludicrous £1/m and intended for making 'muslins' or 'toiles', ie a test piece before you cut up the expensive fabric... so now I have a skirt that fits (elastic at back waist!) but it's a depressing brown. I love some browns, there are some beautiful browns. This isn't one of them.

I've just ordered some M&S 'seconds' knickers online as most of mine no longer fit... I have lost over half a stone but need to lose a bit more to get into my normal cloths and Note To Self not to let this happen again!!

So with my 66 coupons intact, two pairs of knickers will be 4 coupons, so that leaves me 62.

I am hoping to end the year considerably lesser than I am now!

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 April 2018 at 9:13AM

RicardaRacoon wrote: »

Does anyone know whether the original 66 coupons were considered acceptable or ways too little compared to pre-coupon consumption? It would be really interessting to see how much clothes an average person bought before. I'm sure there were people with a lavish wardrobe for whom 66 points were nothing while others didn't had the money to use up all their coupons. But the average person who didn't had to stretch every penny and could afford to buy more than an absolute neccessary basic wardrobe...

Fashionable women complained, but it seems to have been fin for the majority of women. People owned fewer clothes - occasionally you come across an inventory of someone's entire possessions (police reports, etc.) and it is not uncommon for a middle-aged woman running a corner tobbaconist/ newspaper/ sweet shop to own a Sunday best coat and skirt, an everyday coat and skirt, a Sunday hat and an everyday hat, 2-3 blouses, 1-2 jumpers or cardigans, underwear, 3-4 pairs of everyday lisle thread stockings, one pair of fine black wool stockings for Sundays, a pair of good shoes for Sundays and a pair of everyday shoes. Maybe a headscarf or two, could be worn round the neck or on the head.

Basically you might well wear the same outfit every day except Sunday. It was certainly normal, going by diaries and journals and Mass Observation records, to wash out your smalls and blouses most evenings to wear next day. Girls working in offices were encouraged to wash their blouses every couple of days to avoid smells, and to change their (lisle thread) stockings daily.

[Deleted User] · 2 April 2018 at 10:06AM

My grand mother was a tailoress, before the war 1939 - 1945 she bought fabric and stored it. She had enough in stock to make my Uncle a morning coat and trousers and her dress for his wedding in 1948.

I remember my mother had a very limited wardrobe for a long number of years after the war. She bought a length of 'Munrospun' tweed and my grand mother made her a suit which she could still wear when she died 40 years later. It was a classic design, straight square cornered jacket with inset pockets and a box pleated skirt.

I am not a 'fashion' person, prefer classic clothes that never loose their style.

in 1997 I bought a leather handbag from JL it cost me £45 which my husband thought was too expensive, how ever, although its looking a little shabby I am still using it. I have 4 bags and change them regularly at present I am using a red leather messenger bag I bought 8 years ago. I usually buy my purses from CS they are the only shops that seem to have the type of purse I like.

Re the wool yarn debate, I had an argument along those lines with a charity shop which was displaying a'wool' sign on acrylic yarn, she just could not get the concept that wool is wool and yarn is yarn. I rang the trading standards people, they could not get the concept either........wool comes from sheep, yarn is manufactured from synthetic fibres.......has nothing to do with sheep at all, its man made.

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2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

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