Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sartorially Speaking

Well, this has been a doozy of a week (our house on the market! pink eye!) so I shall distract myself from its more disagreeable details with some tales of fashion and clothes and whatnot.

I recently took Grace for her FIRST EVER shoe fitting. I hadn't ever taken her in before because I have bought shoes in the next size up when I see them on sale, online mostly. (What? People shop in STORES still?!) In the past I have just moved her up to the next size of shoes (which I have stashed in the top of her closet) whenever her shoes start to seem tight. She had been wearing size 8 shoes for about a year and they were starting to seem a touch small, so for her birthday last month I wrapped up the three pairs of size 9 shoes I had and had her open them as birthday presents. We packed away the old shoes that were still in good enough shape for Violet to wear later and went along our merry shoe-wearing ways, but I felt puzzled by the fact that the new size 9 shoes seemed, somehow, difficult to get on and, upon further reflection, too small. Not any bigger than the size 8 shoes, actually. I guess the smaller sized ones had been gradually stretched out by her foot growing? I didn't have any bigger shoes, though, so I was reduced to going to an actual shoe store and paying *gasp* full price. When they measured her, they said she needed a 10.5, which makes me quite shocked that she had been wearing the size 8 ones without complaint but a few weeks before. Grace fell in love with the whole shoe-buying process. She loved the little foot-measuring thingie and walking around choosing which shoes she would try on and having the lady bring out the shoes for her. We came down to two that fit well and were what we were looking for (casual sneaker-ish type of shoe) and then I was confronted with the pitfall of shopping with your child-- Grace didn't want the ones I wanted her to get. I wanted her to get the adorable brown suede sneakers with flowers, but she wanted the shiny pink and white ones. I swallowed my innate desire to GET MY WAY and bought the shiny sneakers for her, although not until after trying to convince her the brown ones were better. (They were! Way cuter!) Sheesh, it's like she's her own person and I can't control her or something...

Violet has started the great toddler slim-down, where the discovery of walking and related physical activities results in the shockingly quick transformation of a chubby baby body to a slimmer toddler physique. She has been wearing the same size of clothes since last autumn sometime, which is at least twice as long as any other size has lasted, and the items she is outgrowing are too small in the length or the neck, not the width. (Side note: Before having children, I never would have expected that a person could outgrow an item of clothing because his/her HEAD was too big to get through the neckline.) It is remarkable how much babies change, and then how much their change changes. One reason that motherhood has been so good for me is that it has pushed me to accept change and to welcome the mercurial unsteadiness that is life.

I am currently sewing Easter dresses for Grace and Violet. This is the first time I have ever done matchy-matchy dresses for them, and I am feeling pleased with how they are turning out. My mom, who is also a sewing type, always did beautiful Easter dresses for my sister and me that matched or coordinated and I feel a bit nostalgic about doing it now for my little ones. I am using this fabric for both dresses (I feel obliged to point out that I did not pay that much for it, as I procured it through a Japanese fabric co-op I'm part of) and it is this gorgeous watercolor-esque sponge-y cotton double gauze. Grace's dress (which is finished) is this one, mostly like the purple version on the cover, and Violet's (which is about 2/3 done) is design #4 from the Spring 2010 issue of Ottobre. Cute cute cute! Dressing little girls is so fun.

Dressing myself is not quite as fun, but the advent of warmer weather does open up new possibilities. I love weather where I can wear skirts with bare legs and sandals; I think that is my favorite way to dress. I am also starting to feel enthused about dresses, now that Violet is nursing less. She's cut down on nursing a lot (although I expect she won't be done for good for another number of months) so I don't have to dress every day for easy nursing access with the layered cami to pull DOWN and knit top to pull UP and so forth. I am not ready to wear a dress with a back zipper or anything (she does still want to nurse a few times during the day, after all) but it's pretty much never when we're out and about so I am excited about button-front shirtdresses and woven tops of the more fitted variety and such. Yay! Now I've just got to get some of them sewn up and/or purchased. I would love to get a pretty new dress done for Easter but I don't know if that is going to happen next week.

I also recently went down two cup sizes thanks to Violet's gradual weaning. My temporary visit to the land of the well-endowed is drawing to a close, I think, which has its ups and downs. On the one hand, all my shirts fit better, especially the V-neck and scoop-neck ones, and I think I look thinner in the new bras. On the other hand, I do miss my fabulous breastfeeding curves.

4 comments:

Eva said...

I have always taken mental notes of your motherhood experiences (I told you at some point, I think), but now I am doing it in a much more conscious way. What am I going to do to avoid shiny pink shoes??? Unfortunately, I don't think I will suddenly develop sewing abilities, so I'll have to be smart about shopping, I guess.

Christy@pipandsqueak said...

Unfortunately I have not noticed a changing cup size but maybe Caroline has not dropped her feedings enough. I look forward to the thinner look. My goal is to have her weaned in 3 weeks as I plan to leave town for 4 days only with katherine.

Joanna Hise said...

Those sweet girls are going to look precious!

Carlie said...

Love your Easter dress plans! How exciting!

I remember that joy that comes from the newly slimmed near weaning figure.