2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

ahw23 wrote: »

Laura-Elsewhere: your inspiration dress looks super and I like the idea of two alternative coordinating tops. I'd like to do something similar to stretch the utility of what I sew. My two main obstacles are invariably getting remnants rather than enough for multiple garments, and not really liking separates as much as dresses.

I have not yet made a multi-piece dress - what would you call it? A dress-set, or something?! But I've been meaning to for several years... dresses themselves are less practical for me, as I prefer not wearing a top more than a couple of times between washing, especially in hot weather when I'm out trotting over hill and dale to the shops carrying heavy loads, but at the same time, I'm not overly keen on washing and then ironing longish full skirts - there's a lot of fabric involved in a skirt that goes all the way round me with any to spare!

So the thought of tops which can easily be washed and ironed, or even better washed and hung up to dry - well, it makes sense to me! I experimented last year with making a blouse, button-front, little fold-down round collar, and short dolman/kimono sleeves, and although that one has problems (too short to stay tucked in, for a start!), I think I shall be making more this year from cotton fabric I already have. It really didn't need ironing at all, and it did its essential job of covering my cleavage which ALWAYS burns in modern low-cut tops and blouses that can't button above bra-level.

And I recognise your "not enough for what I want" fabric collection, yep! I also have "oh, that's a usefully big piece of fabric, best to save it and not use it for what I want to make..."

Today I've been bustling about in a black linen skirt I normally wear in summer - it's a bit short at knee-length, and VERY faded and a bit tatty but it's so useful just to put on for housework, etc. So one thing I'm planning is to consider my fabric stash and see if I've anything that might make a direct copy. I tend to much towards very full, either circular or gathered or pleated, and don't often make anything less flamboyant - but given how much I wear this one, clearly I should consider replacing it...

vintagegal wrote: »

Not much to report here.

Well, that's a load of cobblers, now isn't it? TONS to report, you have!

You've grasped the crucial Buying Mantra that "nice isn't good enough" - it took me a whole bloomin' year, and you've done it in a month. Nice work (that's "nice" in the sense of "definitely good enough!")

You've saved coupons by buying unworn-second-hand on eBay - and yes, if you bought them from a person then that's the same as in a jumble-sale, imo. It's different if you buy them from a shoe-shop's own eBay outlet, because you'd still be buying them from the shoe shop. But here, someone bought them and is selling them on - that's buying second-hand on your part, even when they're unworn! I hope they are comfortable and what you wanted. But if they aren't, you know what to do - sell them on again for someone else to wear!

I do find eBay seriously good for unworn shoes - but nobody seems to know about it!

You've found a way to re-use something - it's gone from "makes me feel bad about myself" to "yay, comfy nightdress!" hurrah!

You've put the dress-making on hold til you find the right fabric - that's excellent, too. Maybe you'll come across it in a charity-shop, disguised as linen curtains... or there's eBay's vintage curtains section, which provides my dress-fabric quite often... oh, and also keep an eye out for cut-price bedlinen, sometimes available in linen fabrics...

Have still been knitting scarves but downloaded a pattern from Ravelry which looked plainish and not too difficult. Now I've realised it needs CIRCULAR NEEDLES - what even are they? I may not be ready..

They're fine, really. Don't be scared

A circular needle is two rigid, normal-looking knitting needles, about half their usual length, joined together at the non-pointy end by a flexible length of cable. It means you can knit tubular knitting.

However... you can also do this with knitting needles which are pointy at each end, called DPNs, double-pointed needles. You use 3 or 4 to hold all the stitches, and another to knit with, which sounds ghastly but really, it isn't - you are only ever using TWO needles, just like you always have been doing; the others are just hanging about holding the other stitches until you get to them.

Remember that in the 17th century the census returns included thousands of small children, 5 and 6 years old, listed as earning money as stocking-knitters... it REALLY isn't impossible, trust me! And the huge advantage of knitting in the round is that you don't have to sew anything up afterwards, or very little... AND you only ever have to knit on the right side... effectively your tube is a looooong spiral. You never have to purl back on the wrong side, so it's much faster, more even...

If you can blow-dry your hair or put make-up on, then you can knit on DPNS or a circ.

It is definitely easier to be shown than to describe, though, so I would ask around and find someone to show you.
I can go on for hours about how much easier it is to knit in the round with DPNs - it's the only way I can actually knit. I have been knitting for almost 20 years now and I actually don't know how to sew two bits of knitting together, because I've never made anything that needed seams!

Oooh, nice choice of pattern - just looked it up on Ravelry, and it gets 4.5 out of 5 from 8 votes, which is pretty good, and is rated between 'easy' and 'very easy' by 8 ratings, too - that looks like a great place to start!

I love looking on Ravelry at patterns, because you can browse through other people's successful (or not!) projects... in my case, being on the hefty side, it lets me see how a pattern looks on someone my size, which is a big influence on whether to make it or not...
And also it's really useful looking up the yarn, too - if it's liable to pill really badly or felt abruptly on the first cool wash, etc., it's useful to know! I spent a fair bit on three colours of newly-released DK yarn last year, and not only did it pill (bobble) really badly on the FIRST wash (!) but in less than two months the stranded colourwork socks had worn through on both socks on the soles... I reckon I spent longer knitting them than I did wearing them... now relegated to bedsocks which have a pattern barely visible under the pale bobbling obscuring red and black! Now I know better than to buy yarn if I haven't looked it up and read people's experienced comments!

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/trefann-sweater

Not used up any coupons yet, as stocked up a bit over Xmas. I plan to make or get from charity shops this year.