2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire · 19 August 2019 at 1:53PM

CAFCGirl - I did a proper declutter and re-organise of my wardrobe after doing the workbook so thank you for that.

I haven't got a capsule wardrobe as such now but I have now narrowed down what clothes I like and suit me so it will be easier when I do go shopping for something I need. I have also discovered a couple of skirts I had forgotten about as well as cleared out a couple of things that I'm not sure of or don't fit particularly well. I have spotted the random coloured clothes that I have that really don't go with much at all so I can either decide whether I really do like them, and if not get rid, or whether I need to find something that they will go with to make more than one outfit. I was also pleased to note that I only have a handful of "seasonal" clothes. Most of my clothes I can (and do) wear throughout the year. I have also realised that I don't really need to buy anything more for my working holiday. I should be fine with what I have now.

I found the whole process quite therapeutic. I have checked my token allowance and I am at 38 tokens used. After this weekend I have decided I need to find/make a black casual shirt (loose fitting) and some knee high flat boots. That will make quite a few more outfits with what I have already.

Laura_Elsewhere · 19 August 2019 at 5:28PM

I have co-opted my chap into helping me over the next six weeks to assess most of my clothing...!

He has excellent taste, and his main criterion for whether I look good in something is "well, do you really love wearing it?", which I admire in him...

So the plan is to start by sorting out the top shelf of the cupboard (currently just has unsorted stuff bundled up loose), then go through all my skirts on one day, trousers another, tops another, etc., and I'll do quick-change modelling and he can be helpful in asking astute questions or getting me to compare this one to that one to help me decide, and then we will divide them into three lots: charity shop// keep// unsure.... the unsure category get cleaned and put into storage on the upper shelf; the charity shop ones go to the charity shop; the keep ones get enough space to hang properly and not be crushed, and I can choose which skirt to wear instead of wearing the only one that isn't crushed, or the only one that is already out of the pincer-like-grip hanging space, or the only one I know will do up, etc.

I should end up with some clothing leaving the flat; some clothing properly stored away, taking up minimal space, oh and a list kept as well so I know what is stored where; the clothing I really like to wear stored so that it stays nice and I can easily get at it to wear it.

Some clothing may go into a wear-to-destruction pile, for example that green linen skirt I made that went all patchy in the wash, that I was going to dye black - bizarrely, it's now sagged so badly that what was an absolutely level hem (and yes, I hung it for a week before doing the hem, as all fabric will stretch a bit on the bias)... what was level now varies by about five inches. It looks like one of those 1980s-hippy Fleetwood-Mac handkerchief-hem skirts except without any points...
We now think it isn't worth the cost of two £7 Dylon machine-dyes, so I'll keep wearing it as green, but look out for decent linen to make a better one (after which I can use this as scrap fabric, lining, kitchen-cloths, etc.) - cheap fabric is cheap for a reason...!!!!! I've never known fabric behave quite like this though; it's scored 150% on the cheap-o-meter...

PollyWollyDoodle · 19 August 2019 at 5:46PM

I'm quite envious of you having someone to go through it with you, Laura. I have made a start on the workbook, trying to define my style. Next step is to look at colours, I have already pruned my wardrobe fairly severely following the Marie Kondo principle. It sounds as if your chap is a natural, because really the question "do you love wearing it?" is the only one that matters. If you don't love it, there is usually a reason, and while analysing the reason may help you not to make mistakes in future, there is no point in keeping the item if it's a 'no'.

Asking myself that question has prevented quite a few mistakes in recent years; I am not going to buy something just because it fits or it will do the job.

Laura_Elsewhere · 19 August 2019 at 7:38PM

My biggest problem is a sadly-mistaken conviction that I look lovely dressed in multiple subtly-varying shades of what my friends for fifteen or more years have truthfully persisted in calling "sludge-green"... I think of it as soft, gentle, mossy-greens, but no - the entire world is united in looking at me kindly, patting me sympathetically on the arm and assuring me is, in fact, sludge-green...

I still have no colour-sense... and the newly-arrived cataracts in both eyes are not going to help that!!!

I think I was probably the only person whose mum was delighted when I started wearing black from head to foot in my student days

I think branching out in my mid-30s to gentle moss-green and old-rose looks pretty but unfortunately not one person has agreed about this in all these years, so...!

PipneyJane · 20 August 2019 at 1:05PM

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

My biggest problem is a sadly-mistaken conviction that I look lovely dressed in multiple subtly-varying shades of what my friends for fifteen or more years have truthfully persisted in calling "sludge-green"... I think of it as soft, gentle, mossy-greens, but no - the entire world is united in looking at me kindly, patting me sympathetically on the arm and assuring me is, in fact, sludge-green...

I still have no colour-sense... and the newly-arrived cataracts in both eyes are not going to help that!!!

I think I was probably the only person whose mum was delighted when I started wearing black from head to foot in my student days I think branching out in my mid-30s to gentle moss-green and old-rose looks pretty but unfortunately not one person has agreed about this in all these years, so...!

Firstly, EEEEKK! about those cataracts. Please press your GP for a referral for surgery. The earlier you have it, the better, particularly if you drive, because of the impact they'll have on your life.

Secondly, have you ever considered having your colours done? Although I've never been Colour-Me-Beautifulled, I've had my colours done twice, by two separate organisations and, each time, I was given fabric swatches of the colours that best suited my skin/hair/eyes, etc. That way, if sludge-green really IS your colour, at least you'll have supporting evidence. :rotfl: And, if it isn't, you'll know which shade of green to dye everything. :beer:

Horror story, re the green linen skirt. The weave must be really loose for it to survive a week of hanging and then sag. I'm not sure it's even good enough for lining, since it'll continue to sag. I'd be tempted to put it through a paper shredder and then donate it to a friend's compost heap. At least it'll be giving something back.

Put my work loafers on this morning and realised that the cellular structure in the rubber sole of the right one is going. They're two years old and have stood up to quite a bit of wear. When I purchased them, I had the foresight to purchase another pair of flats in a different design, so no need to spend more coupons for a while.

The week I bought these shoes, I'd been wearing a pair of Clark's loafers to work. Drove to Winchester on a hot day and, by the time I got there, my right foot was complaining, as if the shoe was too tight across the ball of the foot. Hobbled to/from the office and spent most of the day in my socks. Went to M&S the first chance I got and purchased two pairs of wide fitting flats. I've just realised the cause of the pain was a breakdown in cellular structure in the moulded sole of the Clark's loafers - I've had a twinge or two this morning in the same place, with the current shoes and they're wide enough to flop on my feet if I'm not wearing hand-knitted socks.

< sigh > Of course, I have to find the other shoes first, before these can go in the recycling bag. (Our council recycles shoes.) Perhaps they're cuddling up to the sandals I purchased in Wellington last November (which I forgot about completely until yesterday and had to check last year's Challenge to confirm that I'd bought them).

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere · 21 August 2019 at 8:41AM

Pip, if they consistently go across the ball of your right foot, and you do a fair bit of driving, have you considered keeping a pair of sturdier shoes in the car for driving distances in? Then change on arrival - like they used to! That way your more attractive shoes, smart for work but comfy for your feet, will last longer... driving puts a helluva strain on shoes, ask any cobbler!

I think the green linen may end up as floor-cloths before, yes, eventually being torn into strips and composted or used for tying things in the garden in lieu of string! It was hot-washed too, so should have shrunk snugger - it took literally 6 or 7 long, 60-degree washes, and even iirc one desperate 90-degree one to get it to stop oozing ruddy excess dye...
There really is a reason you should be suspicious of pure linen at £4.50/m... it was so kind of my friend to give me it, but it has NOT been worth it - except in a "learn from my mistakes, dear children" kind of way!

I've never had "my colours" done, not least because I still would run into trouble. For example in my early 30s I went through a phase of wearing warm reds and pinks, which is fine, except that I had no idea how to put them together and just cheerfully wore all the nice bright red and pink colours together, which basically just hurt everyone's eyes... (hot-pink leggings with a vermilion t-shirt with a crimson-plaid shirt, I recall... and I think there may have been red socks with that too).
So even if someone instructed me "you should wear cool blues and aqua-green" or "you should wear warm beiges and soft browns" or something, I would still end up with some pretty odd looks1

I never have had any colour sense at all, and have always had to rely on asking trusted friends... now I have it reasonably sussed by season... summer is a box of kids' wax crayons, bright colours, primary colours, with black or sand as neutrals... autumn is grey or bottle-green as neutrals, with rust and dead-bracken and autumn leaves and fiery sunsets against pewter skies (that lot I'm really confident with!).... winter is black or grey as neutrals, with crimson, scarlet, emerald or ice-blue... spring is grey or sage-green as neutrals with softer yellows and golds, bluebell blues and touches of pink, much like spring wildflowers...
If I keep those in mind, it all works fine. But nowhere in there is sludge-green, it has to be admitted - and the skirt goes with remarkably few things, as well, unless I wear it with the few sludge-green tops I've sentimentally clung onto, in which case I simply look as if I fell into an overgrown ditch and have emerged covered in green sludge...

The cataracts are so early they aren't affecting my actual sight, in focal terms, but I have an extra eye-test next week to see what may have changed in a year, so we have some idea of what their behaviour may be - my optician, conveniently, is a specialist in the ophthalmology of pathology, iyswim, ie he gets the referrals from the local hosp's eye clinics and works with them, so that's handy for me - but the cataracts and astigmatism turned up last August, out of the blue, in both eyes, and currently we simply have no idea if one or both is stable, unchanging, galloping, or what... so we're monitoring to get an idea of their behaviour. I know the RNIB recommend surgery before cataracts have much of an impact, the earlier the better. It was a shock, at 49, I must say, and in both eyes, and astigmatism too! Neither runs in the family, either...

PipneyJane · 22 August 2019 at 12:19PM

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Pip, if they consistently go across the ball of your right foot, and you do a fair bit of driving, have you considered keeping a pair of sturdier shoes in the car for driving distances in? Then change on arrival - like they used to! That way your more attractive shoes, smart for work but comfy for your feet, will last longer... driving puts a helluva strain on shoes, ask any cobbler!

Good point. Although, when I looked, both soles were going.

In my case, I think its a combination of general wear breaking down the cell structure in the rubber soles of both feet's shoes and having a dodgy right foot which is more sensitive since I broke it in 2016 so I notice these things more. (Once they took of my "boot", I had to relearn how to walk properly, which surprised me.) I'm not driving significantly greater distances than I was (say) 15 years ago, but my work shoes are wearing out considerably faster.

I buy M&S loafers because a) I know they'll fit and be comfortable, and b) they're reasonably priced. However, whereas a decade or so ago, the soles would be solid, now they're all cellular and not as durable. I'll have to find a different source.

(I don't actually expect my work loafers to last more than a year because that's about as long as my school shoes lasted and I was harder on them. )

I think the green linen may end up as floor-cloths before, yes, eventually being torn into strips and composted or used for tying things in the garden in lieu of string! It was hot-washed too, so should have shrunk snugger - it took literally 6 or 7 long, 60-degree washes, and even iirc one desperate 90-degree one to get it to stop oozing ruddy excess dye...
There really is a reason you should be suspicious of pure linen at £4.50/m... it was so kind of my friend to give me it, but it has NOT been worth it - except in a "learn from my mistakes, dear children" kind of way!

I've never had "my colours" done, not least because I still would run into trouble. For example in my early 30s I went through a phase of wearing warm reds and pinks, which is fine, except that I had no idea how to put them together and just cheerfully wore all the nice bright red and pink colours together, which basically just hurt everyone's eyes... (hot-pink leggings with a vermilion t-shirt with a crimson-plaid shirt, I recall... and I think there may have been red socks with that too).
So even if someone instructed me "you should wear cool blues and aqua-green" or "you should wear warm beiges and soft browns" or something, I would still end up with some pretty odd looks1 I never have had any colour sense at all, and have always had to rely on asking trusted friends... now I have it reasonably sussed by season... summer is a box of kids' wax crayons, bright colours, primary colours, with black or sand as neutrals... autumn is grey or bottle-green as neutrals, with rust and dead-bracken and autumn leaves and fiery sunsets against pewter skies (that lot I'm really confident with!).... winter is black or grey as neutrals, with crimson, scarlet, emerald or ice-blue... spring is grey or sage-green as neutrals with softer yellows and golds, bluebell blues and touches of pink, much like spring wildflowers...
If I keep those in mind, it all works fine. But nowhere in there is sludge-green, it has to be admitted - and the skirt goes with remarkably few things, as well, unless I wear it with the few sludge-green tops I've sentimentally clung onto, in which case I simply look as if I fell into an overgrown ditch and have emerged covered in green sludge...

The cataracts are so early they aren't affecting my actual sight, in focal terms, but I have an extra eye-test next week to see what may have changed in a year, so we have some idea of what their behaviour may be - my optician, conveniently, is a specialist in the ophthalmology of pathology, iyswim, ie he gets the referrals from the local hosp's eye clinics and works with them, so that's handy for me - but the cataracts and astigmatism turned up last August, out of the blue, in both eyes, and currently we simply have no idea if one or both is stable, unchanging, galloping, or what... so we're monitoring to get an idea of their behaviour. I know the RNIB recommend surgery before cataracts have much of an impact, the earlier the better. It was a shock, at 49, I must say, and in both eyes, and astigmatism too! Neither runs in the family, either...

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, re your eyes. I'm not sure how significant genetics is with cataracts and astigmatism. It's known that cataracts can be triggered by UV exposure. (Don't ask me the mechanism. I don't remember.)

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere · 22 August 2019 at 4:53PM

Thinking of shoes, I'm about to sort through all our sturdier cold-weather footwear and check what needs re-soling, re-heeling or just new non-metal segs put on.

If you don't know about segs, they were originally metal in the shape of a 'seg'-ment of a circle, so a sort of curved wedge of metal with spikes on, so you hammer them into the heel or sole of a shoe to take the wear and tear. Then you just replace the seg when it wears thin, and the sole or heel needs replacing very much less often.

They won't stay on hollow heels, of course!

these are the ones I find most useful - non-metal 2-inch segs by Blakeys, which come with a tiny envelope of nails and you hammer them onto your heel. They don't find small ladies'-shoes heels but I find I can trim them with a very strong knife, and they will fit on my cuban-heeled shoes, as well as boots. I haven't had to have those shoes and boots re-heeled in years, just replace the segs every 1-2 years.
https://blakeys-segs.co.uk/product/blakeys-segs-no-3r-non-metal/

PollyWollyDoodle · 22 August 2019 at 9:05PM

Thank you Laura, I have always just called them "Blakeys" - that's what they were known as when I was at school, I didn't realise it was the manufacturer's name nor that they had another name. I always seem to wear out the toes of my boots, so perhaps this would be a good way to extend their life.

Laura_Elsewhere · 25 August 2019 at 4:09PM

Eurgh, this baking hot, blazing-sun, tiniest-breeze weather is doubtless perfect for nearly everyone who's having a bank holiday weekend, but I will be SO pleased next week when it's over!

My mind - and body, I suspect - are now thinking about cooler weather, after a week or two with a light cardi over t-shirt and feeling distinctly chilly first thing in the morning with the window wide open all night... suddenly we've got 28C and I'm melting....

I have been knitting boot-socks, but have had to give up as my hands are too hot with the wool

I can, and have, coped fine with temps far higher than this (lived in Sydney for a year, worked in August in the southern Balkans, etc.), but we haven't had much over 20 for weeks, and mostly it's been well under 20. To go from a max of 15C to 28C is too fast, too much, argh!

I want to start sorting out cupboards so I can properly organise the clothing I have, but we are both too hot to do anything, so everything remains bundled-in and shoved-in and mostly unknown...

Someone wake me up when it's cooler weather again please!!

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2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

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