I was quite happy to read this article on every hypochondriac’s best friend, WebMD. Basically, I can blame my fat @$$ on the huge volume of Diet Coke I’ve ingested in recent months. The (most likely coincidental) fact that I’ve also happened to make all my weight gain in that time is all the correlation my lazy scientific thinking needs. Seriously, at one point I did have my doctor check my thyroid, etc. I’m borderline, but it was no fast explanation for why I’ve gained about 20 pounds this year. To be honest though, I sort of prefer my body this way. All of that skin that my babies so lovingly stretched out (there are disadvantages to having your kids before you’ve gained your ‘freshman 15’) is, well, more filled out. Slight Buddha belly beats deflated balloon, have to say. Same goes up top, though I’ll spare you the metaphorical language for the various states of my rack. While I’m not impressed with my ankles, which now look permanently pre-menstrual, weight gain has given me an excuse to donate all of those clothing I really should have gotten rid of anyway, whether they fit or not.
One money tip if you too are moving the way of the Buddha–the current fashion of clothing with exposed or inverted seams and fraying of edges means that you can often get away with cutting some inches off the waist of your skirts. For a fitted skirt you can either just sew around the perimeter and let the top fray, which is exactly what I did to the denim skirt I’m wearing this very moment, or make a proper hem. Other more loosely-styled or stretchy skirts you can just cut and hem, leaving room for elastic. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of skirts that I could do this with without it looking completely crap. If you don’t wear form-fitting tops or tuck your tops in, you really don’t have to be persnickety at all.
Here’s an ethics question for you crafty ladies–is it wrong to cannibalize clothing for fabric when it’s good enough to donate to a charity shop? On the one hand, that’s less fabric that my husband will have to pay for. That’s the theory anyway. (Rasjane is probably laughing ruefully at this point.) On the other..well there’s just no guarantee that even if I manage to get the fabric out for a project that it will result in anything remotely useful or wearable. My imagination outreaches my skill-set, you see. What do you think? By that of course you realize I’m looking for validation of my desire to hack apart my clothes. 😉
Rosgen's Blog 
February 27, 2008 at 9:50 pm |
Hack and whack, Baby–Everything not quite useful hits the sewing room first. It lives there until it finds a new life. Or until the room gets so cluttered I go on a murderous, tossing rampage. If it’s good fabric and I bought it, I have the right to use it until it shreds into oblivion.
In fact I just turned some too-small-for-M pj’s into soakers for diapers. And G has had lots of pants made from too-small-for-dad work pants. It’s all good. No guilt!