clothes for the size-skewing

[thanate]

I'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.)

Comments

[dragonvyxn.livejournal.com]

that's very cool you're looking into making your own maternity wear! i am not a sewing person, in fact, i'm actually rather bad at it.... there's certainly a lack of attention to maternity wear in general in the clothing industry, it seems. there could be a better selection online than in physical stores, too. i never really looked...

my job is all outdoorsy and messy and athletic-y (not that i was going fast at 7 months and beyond) and maternity wear here is all tents and frills and frilly tents which seemed pointless to me. (awful colors, too.) i bought 3 maternity tanks at target and everything else from lululemon because they make stretchy stuff i can still use now. i went up a sizes in pants (10-12) but could wear the same size on top (8) because of stretchy fabric... of course now i have to wear nursing tanks for a long while, and there my size is nonexistent. i ordered nursing bras from new zealand of all places since my size isn't found in any store or anywhere online that i looked but this one site... (hotmilklingerie.com if you're curious)

i was just complaining to my friend who had her baby 3 weeks after me that nb sizes only come in pastel pink/blue/white/green. Lilit has 3 green onesies and one with dark pink and purple apples on it (that one is my favorite because it's made of bamboo and is very soft)... there's a couple neat outfits from babysoy and barefoot dreams that i like - they're not onesies, but have an elastic bottom for easy changing. she also has many hand decorated white onesies from my shower that she will likely only fit in for another couple weeks. and that's the good part - you don't stay in nb size for long, so you should be able to find nicer things for your baby to wear as he/she gets older! here are a couple link to nice clothing i've found online... we tend to put her in the same thing every day until it gets dirty, you only need 3-4 outfits, maybe.

here are some places i looked at online...
babyearth.com has a good selection of clothes, blankets and other supplies;
wugbug.com has very nice colors and designs;
giggle.com has physical stores in my area, and they carry some too-expensive stuff but that could give you ideas for things to make and whatnot;
laylagrayce.com has some chic looking stuff including barefoot dreams which is very soft bamboo clothing;
allison's sister amy dyes and designs children's clothes and might have some ideas to share with you - blotchandthrum.com.

i got all my blankets, bath towels and clothes from the internet (mostly babyearth) since the stores around here were pretty much devoid of non-gendertyped clothes and no one had blankets i really liked (they were also gendertyped!).

happy searching :-)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Ooh, links are good-- thanks! (although slightly frustrating, as the front page at wugbug has something in bright red with dinosaurs on that I would totally buy, except that they don't appear to sell anywhere this side of the Mississippi. Bother.) Amy is also on my radar (and her accounts of quilting adventures from twitter are very inspiring.) I suspect I'll start combing etsy as well, after we've got a better idea of what we're going to end up with in hand-me-downs from local friends & family.

I've run into a bunch of "how to convert a normal bra into a nursing one" tutorials-- if that's something you might actually use, I can see if I can find a good link or two for you. They're mostly quite easy, and require minimal-sewing. I find bra sizing frustrating in general, though I guess it's possible that by the time I'm nursing I'll have grown into being slightly easier to fit.

The malls around here have a few frills, but mostly things that'll pass for business casual, 90% of which trip my boring meter. Of course, I learned to sew in the first place so I could make things I couldn't find to buy, so there's that.

[dragonvyxn.livejournal.com]

thanks for the idea to convert a regular bra to nursing! i'm up to a 36h at the moment and it should be bigger than that, probably, if I'm to be perfectly comfortable for nursing, so that's my situation, which is a little goofy. i am ok in size large nursing wear so far, but it's tenuous for some styles. :-D

i found the wugbug stuff at a local store... i was hoping they'd be more nationwide but oh well.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, apparently it's pretty easy to do the conversion-- a couple straps of elastic to keep the strap from wandering off, and a pair of the little swimsuit strap hooks that you can get out of the notions section at your local fabric or craft store should do you. (tutorials do not seem to be coming to my fingertips, but I'm sure you can google if you need to.) Anyway, very minimal sewing, and then bras that actually fit. Yay! :)

[dragonvyxn.livejournal.com]

hey there! don't know if you've seen this - but i found wugbug clothes on etsy - http://www.etsy.com/search?includes[]=tags&q=wugbug

hope all is well with you. sorry to hear about your husband's grandfather passing on... sounds like a difficult loss for him.

:-)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Cool-- thanks!