OTOT fashion whine

I feel your pain Polly. I've been looking for a nice dress to wear to an evening wedding next month. There are lots of sun dresses out there & lots of "hoochie mama" dresses, but next to nothing in what I consider to be a suitable dress for this occasion. I'm going to try to make a dress & with Pati in PHX's help with pattern sizing, I'm going to work on it this weekend. What do middle aged & older women do when they need something simple & elegant!!!

Glad you were able to make the necessary alterations to your tunic, so it is wearable for you!

Pauline Northern California

The expression "hoochie mama" tickles me. OTOH, I can just see us taking family pictures and somebody saying, "Would somebody please throw a sheet over Great-Grandma?" Polly

"Pauline" I feel your pain Polly. I've been looking for a nice dress to wear to an

It really is difficult. I am 58 years old. Most stores carry clothing suitable (maybe) for ages 17 or 97. I'm going to have to go back to sewing my own clothes which will take away from my quilting time. Sigh!

Meanwhile, check out the latest in prom dresses

Rita L.

Polly Esther wrote:

I really like Dress Barn and Fashion Bug. they seem to have decent choices. i also like JC Penney's and Macy's. Great sales. i remember my DD's prom. LOTS of "hoochie-mamma's" there! phew....Lordie, what were those mothers thinking?

amy in CNY

And have you noticed all the girls who are pregnant are wearing revealing T shirt tops? Te non pregnant girls are wearing tops that look like my time period maternity tops. Of course with a migrating figure, I could wear a maternity top now. Anna Belle

Move to Thailand? DD1 lived there for a while, towering over most of the locals. They made clothes wide enough to fit around her (she's thin anyway), but nothing was long enough. She employed the local tailor a lot. Probably everything in Thailand would fit you just right! Roberta in D

"Polly Esther" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

I think that trend is starting to go a bit. I sure hope so.

I am not sure where women are buy> And have you noticed all the girls who are pregnant are wearing

My goodness gracious! Wherever does one buy something like that? And it really makes me wonder what sort of dancing she expected to do at the prom. IMO the handcuffs were a little excessive, although they probably doubled the amount of skin coverage. Roberta in D

"Rita L. in MA" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:g0h8qp$n9m$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org...

The insane prom thing is happeninghere too. Madness!

>>

'Tie a yellow ribbon...'

I go to these folk for bought clothes:

I have a presentation each spring and autumn, and get muy clothes with discount! :) They are good value for money even full price: I've had things last for 5-6 years when worn several times a week for all that time.

I buy T shirts and bras from Marks & Spencers, and swimsuits when I'm flush! :D

Other than that I buy my clothes in the fabric shop...

I hit the stash and the pattern catalogues, or play with Wild Ginger.

Probably they are thinking "WHY can't I find modest but not old-fashioned clothing for my daughter"?

I started sewing because, in the 60's, 5'8" was considered tall. I can let down a mean hem. But, other than a simple dress or skirt, my fashion-sewing skill is very limited (much easier to sew a set-in seam in a quilt block than to sew a nice looking blouse - at least for me).

Once, in desperation, I spent EIGHTY DOLLARS(!) at a Lord & Taylor department store for a knee length skirt for my oldest to wear to bible study, as she had had a really quick growth spurt. The first day she wore it, someone remarked that it 'rode up' when she sat down, to about 3 inches above the knee.

She never wore it again.

I found a wonderful seamstress and had some clothes made in a classic style that have lasted some time. But, we have lost so many local fabric stores in our area that it has been some time since I've seen nice fabrics with which to replace the old stuff. TSWLTH has a very poor selection of fabrics for clothing, IMO.

As for me, I'm BIG. I have no problem with my size, but I DO have a problem finding clothes. Even in the larger sizes, the clothing seems to be cut with less and less cloth.

With fewer resources for learning to sew (whatever happened to home ec?), fewer local resources for finding materials, and less time for 'hobbies', the manufacturers know that we will buy what they sell. Hoochie mama style is, after all, cheap in every sense of the word.

I agree, I was thinking about this: as a new quilter (and maybe an experienced one) one works _so_ hard to keep things flat, yet also to me the 3 dimensional issues with clothes sewing seem so much harder.

Frankly, for me it is because I don't know how to get/make/adapt a good pattern that actually fits. And I recognise that without that it is a no-starter.

This I recognise too. I usually clothes shop in the US, as I find it possible, as opposed to here. At New Year I picked up a really cute dress at JC Penny - I nearly didn't get it (no occasion, and I don't normally wear dresses), but I've already worn it to one party and will be wearing it for my Grandma's 85th (!) too.

Good clothes is so hard to get by, it is just not even funny!

Hanne in London

yes...i'm a petite plus, too. sooo hard to find stuff. i do make some of my clothes, but the "party" stuff i have to go buy. i do like the hi-end stores for that, or the local boutiques. i dont mind the extra cost for a special occasion. LLBean is great for outdoors stuff, too. and lets not get into shoes......

amy in CNY

Hi Polly,

I can commiserate with your fashion dilemma! (Although I must admit I live in NV where the summer temps get to be 115 and dressing like the Happy Hooker--within reason--(I never bare my tummy) is just a matter of survival unless you want to die in the heat.) My gripe is that I don't want to buy jeans that look like they've already suffered hard use for 10 years. This grubby, worn, torn look just doesn't do it for me. I finally found Newport News, which sells great looking jeans. Maybe further research is in order?

Okay, a tangent.... When I worked at hospital lab, often times we could tell the age of patient by his/her name. Geraldines and Harolds for example were usually older. During one of these discussions we had the sudden realization that one day there were going to be grandmothers and great grandmothers with names like Bambi! HA!

When DH & I were in Utah a few years ago, I noticed how modestly dressed the teenagers & adult women were. Some stores advertise that they carry "modest" clothing. I took a one day class at a quilt store & the teacher's teenage daughter came by after school. She had jeans & a t-shirt on. She appeared to be modestly dressed to me, however, she had been called to the principals office that day, because when she reached her hands over her head, you could see a slit of her midriff- this was unacceptable in the public school that she was attending. I believe the modesty factor can be attributed to the large Mormon population in Utah, but, if they can force the stores to not carry "hoochie mama" clothes, it would seem that could happen all over - if parents were monitoring what their daughters were buying. I live near a middle school & sometimes my jaw drops when I see what the girls are wearing to school. DH just shakes his head. We do not have children, so I have no idea how difficult it is to enforce a dress code on your kids.

Okay - I'm off my soapbox now:)

I find it quite easy with James: OK, so don't wear it: you can just wear XYZ that is too small, or go naked! He gets dressed! :) As I'm buying the kit, what I say goes!

Mind you, school is no problem, usually: they *all* wear uniforms here! And they carry a uniform card where he is: if they infringe the unifprm rules, they get the card signed. If the card is filled (five signatures) they get a detention. If they don't have the card with them, that's automatically a detention. If James gets detained after school, I extract the taxi fare from his EARNED pocket money. At £7.50 a shot, that's an expnsive uniform infringement!

I've just been looking for a nice basic warm weather dress -- not a sun dress, not a clingy poly/spandex knit. I can't just wear my old stuff -- it's all too big since I lost weight over winter. Not really a bad problem to have, though a bit frustrating to shop. I finally ended up ordering a nice shirtwaist style from Eddie Bauer. I hope I like the fit when it comes.

Julia > I feel your pain Polly. I've been looking for a nice dress to wear to