CUT YOUR COAT ACCORDING TO YOUR COUPONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 18

CUT YOUR COAT

ACCORDING TO YOUR COUPONS

F OR the. last fortnight the female members of "The Listener" staff have been huddling anxiously in corners, swapping temarks such as "But my dear, how can you possibly manage on half a handkerchief a year?" and "I suppose one could sleep in one’s petticoat." For the last fortnight they have been dining out in strdnge restaurants, ears bared to overhear any remark from neighbouring tables relevant to the Clothes Rationing Crisis. And for the last fortnight they have been scouring the country, seeking opinions and suggestions from every woman from Mother of Six to Change Daily Girl wit@ a view to presenting for the benefit of listeners a complete and fool-proof solution of the Rationing Problem. They have not succeeded. But their quest has not been in vain, for they have at least from the material collected evolved some sort of system tor the allocation of coupons, which they hope will be of some help to readers.

WE SUGGEST .... The schedule on the right should cover the needs of the average housewife or business woman. If she is lucky, she will have bought her winter coat or costume before rationing was ‘introduced, if she has not, and if she can sew at all, she should make up her own material. An overcoat is worth 12 coupons readymade, the material plus the lining can be bought for 744 coupons. And a costume (11 coupons ready-made), can be made at home at a cost of 614 coupons. Raincoats are a menace at 12 coupons, and you can’t very well run them up on your own little sewing machine. And remember that you can save nothing in coupons by taking material to a dressmaker or tailor. A winter-coat or costume fortunately lasts at least two years. The suggested schedule provides for one or the other each year, but a substantial coupon saving can be effected if these garments can be made to last even longer. Couponically speaking, it’s immaterial whether you buy your frocks readymade or make them yourself, although if you're smal] you possibly save half to one coupon by making them. And you won’t be able to have more than two a year. Then four pairs of stockings a year is manifestly insufficient, even for those who don’t have to do much walking in the course of the day, and it looks rather as though most of us will go stockingless in summer. And there won’t be much point in ‘"handknitting a pair of knee-length woollens for winter, for their coupon value with wool at half a coupon a skein will be considerably higher than that of the most impeccably all-silk, full-fashioned glamour hose. And from the coupon point of view hand-knitted jerseys have little to recommend them. A machine-knitted jumper or cardigan can be bought for three coupons, a machine-knitted dress for four. A handknitted jumper or cardigan requires five coupons. And with skirts at three coupons (two if you make them yourself), the jumper and skirt combination is not as economical of coupons as the onepiece frock. And apart from their stocking-saving value, slacks will be difficult to justify in a 2-coupon wardrobe for their coupon value, regrettably, is out of all proportion to their usefulness. (Jumper and slacks=8 coupons=2 woollen frocks). We have in our schedule provided two coupons for an overall. The business woman will be able to substitute another pair of stockings or perhaps a pair of gloves for these two coupons. But if you’re the glove-losing type, it will be advisable to hand-knit a pair, using only one coupon. Scraps of wool

can also be used for knitting striped gloves. And if you desperately need a new jumper or cardigan, we advise unravelling the one you had the year before last. THE HOUSEWIFE’S PROBLEM The housewife who has to replace her linen and bedding stocks may find it difficult to manage on the allotted 52 coupons. Blankets range from five coupons for a single bed to eight for a double bed, sheets from 312 to 6 per sheet. Face and bath towels are 1 and 14% coupons, tea towels half a coupon, bedspreads and rugs from 2% to 6% coupons, table cloths from 1 coupon (for yard-square cloth), to 3 for the usual size of dinner cloth. The average household will need to replace at least 20 coupons worth of household linen a year (equivalent three sheets, two bath towels and four tea towels), and though most housewives we interviewed seemed confident that a large proportion of this would be drawn from the husband’s allowance, the husbands seemed equally confident that it was coming from the wives’ and children’s allowance. And, of course, there is the problem of the soldier’s wife, who has no ration-book of her husband’s to draw from, The mother with grown-up family is probably in the worst position. Her family will not only use up its own coupons for clothing but will expect to be able to draw on her allowance. And from her allowance also, she is expected

to provide linen replacements. The mother with a young family is somewhat better off, for not only is there a possibility of handing clothes down from one child to the next, but a substantial coupon saving is effected by buying material for garments instead of buying them ready-made. (The coupon value of a child’s ready-made frock or coat is the same as an adult’s.) "It’s easier to make your coupons pan out if you have children," said a married woman. "It allows more coupons for linen replacement, though, of course, you wear out more. And you can do quite a lot with old clothes." She showed us a large tweed coat. "This was given to me by a friend of mine who has outgrown it. It will make a fine new winter coat for my eldest boy, and if it’s carefully cut, there might be a pait of pants for my youngest two. . ." THEY LIKE RATIONING "Rationing strikes me as very generous compared with English rationing," said one woman recently arrived from England. "Each coupon’ goes nearly twice as far. We were at first allowed 66 coupons, but that has since been reduced, and there is nothing you can get for less than one coupon. A coat used 14 coupons, short coat 11, a frock 7, and a jumper 5. A man’s suit was 26. It should be quite easy for a married woman to dress herself on 42 coupons, which leaves 10 for linen. If her husband managed on the same number that should allow for linen replacements." "I rather like the idea of rationing," said another mether. "It’s always a temptation to buy something ready-made, but there is so much more satisfaction in making it yourself. And our children will lose that uniform look. We will see our boys in coloured shirts instead of the inevitable grey, and we will all try to put our own ideas into our little girls’ frocks." "I was in England during the last war," said another married woman, and though clothes were not rationed, I got into the habit of making my old clothes last, and of buying little, but of as good a quality as possible. No, I don’t think one need ever look shabby, as there will be less shoddy buying. Every sensible person will buy carefully or do without, and provided the shops can cope for the demand for better-quality goods, women should look even better dressed than they did before rationing." Business women, on the _ whole, seerned less enthusiastic. "I don’t get time to make clothes myself," said one, (Continued on next page)