clothes for the size-skewing
Aug. 29th, 2012 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thanateI've spent a moderate (ok, large for me) amount of time wandering around malls doing maternity & baby reconnaissance and determined that infant clothes come in boy-specific, girl-specific, and white, and that the only maternity-specific garment I liked was a little above that day's mental price threshold. Grauwulf asks (not unreasonably) why I even bothered to look if I wasn't willing to pay $35 for a blouse that I can wear this winter and would probably continue to wear thereafter. Having discovered that the maternity mall shops are as uninspiring as the pattern books, the idea that I was looking for inspiration kind of falls flat... I've so far picked up four pairs of wearable pants at thrift stores (for under $20 total) but the cute blouse selection is much slimmer. I suspect that I am not the only one looking for tops that I will want to keep around post-pregnancy.
As for the pattern companies... well, McCalls technically has a symbol for patterns that "can be adapted for maternity" which as far as I could tell is used on about two blouses; Simplicity doesn't admit to anything, nor do any of their sister companies; and Butterick has about five patterns stuffed in the "Mens/Unisex/Sleepwear" section, one of which is actually cute, but I haven't managed to catch them on sale. As for baby patterns, there are five or six of them in seven or eight different permutations, almost all of which are theoretically girl clothes. (also, what is with the baby butt ruffles?)
Anyway, while I'd like a pants pattern just in case, I'm not too worried about them given the thrift store selection thus far, and I'm set for long dresses until I can't stand those anymore, but what I want more of (and actually have been wanting more of for... possibly almost a decade now? and have mostly not gotten around to making) is things in the blouse/babydoll dress line. Reasonably fitted shoulders & bust, looser below that (obviously), hemmed somewhere between hip- and knee-length. I've got a couple commercial patterns along these lines, and a diagram of the rectangles for a proper smock. Does anyone have any recommendations for historic styles/ patterns that I could adapt? I know regency or Italian Ren can have about the right shape, but I don't really know what's out there in terms of patterns or garment guides that are worth looking at, or what else might work for the right look. Suggestions? Bonus-points if it can be made to work well for nursing, too.
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Meanwhile, People I Know are off to have a fabulous time at Worldcon, and I am vaguely wistful that I don't actually want to go. But I don't, and so I have not spent today battling airport nonsense to get to Chicago. (I just get to fight the Grand Prix road closures to get into Baltimore for my volunteer shifts instead.)
As for the pattern companies... well, McCalls technically has a symbol for patterns that "can be adapted for maternity" which as far as I could tell is used on about two blouses; Simplicity doesn't admit to anything, nor do any of their sister companies; and Butterick has about five patterns stuffed in the "Mens/Unisex/Sleepwear" section, one of which is actually cute, but I haven't managed to catch them on sale. As for baby patterns, there are five or six of them in seven or eight different permutations, almost all of which are theoretically girl clothes. (also, what is with the baby butt ruffles?)
Anyway, while I'd like a pants pattern just in case, I'm not too worried about them given the thrift store selection thus far, and I'm set for long dresses until I can't stand those anymore, but what I want more of (and actually have been wanting more of for... possibly almost a decade now? and have mostly not gotten around to making) is things in the blouse/babydoll dress line. Reasonably fitted shoulders & bust, looser below that (obviously), hemmed somewhere between hip- and knee-length. I've got a couple commercial patterns along these lines, and a diagram of the rectangles for a proper smock. Does anyone have any recommendations for historic styles/ patterns that I could adapt? I know regency or Italian Ren can have about the right shape, but I don't really know what's out there in terms of patterns or garment guides that are worth looking at, or what else might work for the right look. Suggestions? Bonus-points if it can be made to work well for nursing, too.
---
Meanwhile, People I Know are off to have a fabulous time at Worldcon, and I am vaguely wistful that I don't actually want to go. But I don't, and so I have not spent today battling airport nonsense to get to Chicago. (I just get to fight the Grand Prix road closures to get into Baltimore for my volunteer shifts instead.)
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Date: 2012-08-30 02:35 am (UTC)My favorite maternity clothes were overalls. Seriously. When I was working around the house and yard, maternity pants just kept creeping down! Overalls solved the problem, and also let me wear blouses/shirts I wouldn't be able to otherwise. (With overalls, no one cares if the bottom buttons are open!)
Baby clothes have become increasingly gender-specific, alas. When Dev was born, I could still find stuff in earth tones rather than the primaries and pastels. Now that's a little harder to do.
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Date: 2012-08-30 08:59 pm (UTC)I'm afraid most of those are still in the "but it's so boring!" spectrum-- though I guess part of my problem is that after 20+ years of sewing I'm kind of done with patterns for something I can clone off a garment I already have. (But I might steal the nursing nightgown design concept.)