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.

---

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

[batchix.livejournal.com]

Did you see the maternity stuff that Aimee Major made recently? they were super cute. she's pregnant with twins and about to pop.

[cheshiretiffy.livejournal.com]

Have you been to Burda Style? I'm on my phone so I can't really check for maternity, but they have a lot of patterns in general.

I'll keep an eye out at our Goodwill and see if I can't at least find something you could take apart to make a pattern.

I didn't wear maternity clothes at all. I wore empire dresses and those skirts with the shirred waists just under my belly with long tunics. Comfy and way cheaper since they were just going out of style again at the time.


Oh, here we go (http://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_store/patterns?creator=6&for=1&most_recent=1&pattern_garment_type=11). They don't have much.

And here's (http://15dollarstore.com/p/my-michelle-embroidered-peasant-top/5085095487572590) a shirt like I wore a lot, and from the same place, even. I got a few discounted dresses from there. Their shipping was reasonable at the time, but I've not ordered from them in a while.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We hit the sales at Hanna Andersson (http://www.hannaandersson.com/home.asp?cchkrd=y) for baby/kid clothes that are not All The Gendered In The World. They have lots of things like grey elephants, orange/yellow giraffes, tan/orange monkeys, green/blue stars, purple turtles, etc., and their cloth wears like cast iron. Even for overtly gendered items like dresses for little girls, they often have things that are not overly ruffly and are made of very sturdy cottons--things that my goddaughters and nieces can play in really hard and pass on down to younger sisters and cousins to play in really hard. And they come in colors that are not cotton candy pink (although they sometimes have eye-searingly pink things too).

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Burda and Kwik-Sew have a couple things each-- I looked in *all* the books at JoAnn, and there were honestly about twelve or fifteen maternity patterns total, most of which were between boring and hideous. Apparently I'm just supposed to stop wearing attractive clothing for six months or so?

I'm good on the modern pattern thing (but thanks!), and I've got some peasant blouses, though most of them short-sleeve and probably going to be a little cold by the time February rolls around. Mostly I just need to get off the couch and actually make something, but I figured I'd see if anyone had inspiration in terms of dress patterns. (see me procrastinate further...)

On the whole, I don't think I'm going to be doing a lot of "real" maternity stuff, but having a few pairs of pants is great. And I think I've been promised one of those "loading..." maternity tees from Think Geek for a little farther along. :)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Ooh, some of those are rather nicer. Thanks; I'll keep an eye on them.

I'm not opposed to pink or frilly in moderation; I just want the bulk of the baby clothing to be suitable for handing down to a mismatched sibling or cousin or friend later on, instead of trying to imprint the child on "this is your colorset because you are [gender]."

Of course, if I find out I'm having a girl, I am totally going out in search of one of the 18" Merida dolls to keep in trust for her, so it's possible there's a limit to my idealistic principles.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

In my memory, my mom and grandma dressed me in pink all the time when I was little. But when I look at the photos, there were little blue overalls, a little grey dress, a shorts set that was red and yellow and blue primary colors...there were lots of things that weren't constantly pink. It just wasn't like it is now, where I saw a ring-stacking toy in shades of pink, because God forbid any aspect of a girl's life be non-pink.

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

Might you like these patterns (http://www.nearseanaturals.com/browse.php?category=92)?

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.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

The earliest garment I actually remember owning was a pale pink wool dress, and it is followed in my young affections by the pair of pink satin high-tops that I somehow managed to talk my mother into buying for me in second grade. I think they fit me for about two weeks before I outgrew them (after which my My Pet Monster wore them for a while), but I still have the horribly tacky rainbow shoelaces. However, in all the baby pictures I can remember I'm wearing dark green or yellow.

I think I'm just offended because there is not a multi-pack of onesies in bright rainbow colors next to the white ones. Because really, who in their right mind puts unrelieved white on a creature of diaper and spit-up age? I'm hoping the thrift store selection will be better, but there's no point in looking until they start putting out things with long sleeves.

The thought did occur to me, though, to wonder if there's any connection between girls being better at distinguishing colors, and being inundated with red-spectrum at the age where they can't distinguish blue-tones yet. (Probably not, but it's not un-suggestive that men stopped being culturally allowed to be foppish about colors around the time when the pink/blue genderswitch happened. Also, clearly the world needs more crackpot theories of an entirely frivolous nature!)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing about white is that it can be bleached. So in old-fashioned terms before good detergent, it was far more practical for babies than colors, because the colors were going to end up stained and couldn't be bleached.

We do not live in those times.

And yes. Bright rainbow colors. Seriously.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I'm all about primary crayon-box colors, but haven't really seen those, either. Ugh. Here's hoping the thrift store selection will be better, once they start putting out things with long sleeves.

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.)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Even if I were to make my child frilly white dresses with tiny little glass buttons, I would still soak them in biz/oxyclean to get stains out.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And for newborns it makes even less sense, because for newborns you're going to be really careful to use a detergent that isn't going to make them break out, because of them being new to this whole world thing. And bleach? Is so not that.

[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! :)

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Wait, how did I miss replying to this comment? Oops-- anyway... I don't think I'm familiar with Aimee Major-- where would I find this?

[batchix.livejournal.com]

no worries! she does cosplay and used to be active with dolls... we all seem to know each other. XD

http://aimeemajor.com/2012/07/momoko-kamikaze-girls-maternity-dress/ this is the specific dress that i thought was really pretty. If i am ever pregnant i am going to sit down and sew a wardrobe of these types of dresses.

http://aimeemajor.com/2012/08/regency-maternity-for-costume-college/ she made this regency dress as well, which is also very pretty and flattering.

she did a 60's maternity pattern too, but i'm not crazy about that one. It's more a personal preference that i really, really hate 1950's and 1960's women's patterns. 1960's gogo dresses I'll take... but I grew up with too many old lady relatives wearing the rest of it to be fond of it.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Those are both terribly cute, and I just spent the last er, hour or so, looking at regency era patterns that I don't actually need to buy tonight. Oops. :)

[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!