4X maternity patterns

Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote:

From: Trish Brown

When I was pregnant, I found that according to clothing manufacturers no-one
above a size 18 gets pregnant and therefore there are *no* RTW clothes and
especially *no* patterns for larger women! ....

Thankfully, times have changed a bit Trish -- at least this side of the
pond. When DD was preggers last year, I found a lot of stuff for her at
Motherhood Maternity. Fortunately, there is a shop available at the local
outlet mall :-)). They do have clothing in 3X & 4X but there is precious
little!

snip

PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!

Tia Mary, this makes me *so* cranky! You would think plus size people were
virtually non-existent! Even if you can find plus sizes (I'm not just talking
maternity wear here), they're made with a standard figure in mind, so they never
fit properly.

Last night, my DS and I were the musicians in our church. For the *whole*
service, I found myself hoicking and pulling at my top because it utterly
*wanted* to slither down my back and ride up in front - it was made for a person
with a flat stomach and shoulders wide enough to carry the world on! Know what I
mean? Add a large, heavy guitar with strap and it was just awful!

If a person takes a 4x, 5x or whatever size, that person is *highly* unlikely to
have a flat stomach! Likewise, that person is not going to have ordinary
proportional bust or shoulder width. The larger figure *gets* larger because fat
is stored in some places and not in others. If fashion designers can make those
miracles of engineering I saw on the 'Fashion Rocks' show last night, why can't
they make tops for plus size women that don't hang off their shoulders and
cuddle their bosoms/bellies as if there were no tomorrow? And how come they make
humungous wide T-shirts and blouses that are just six inches too short? It's as
if there's a specific amount of fabric that can be used per garment and not an
iota more can be allowed to give that extra required length!

And while I'm on a roll, how come it is that bra manufacturers make plus size
bras with tiny, narrow little straps? Eh? I mean, if you're hoicking around a
pair of 16kg breasts, the strap that holds them up is gonna *do* things to your
flesh if it's only half an inch wide, right? Please don't tell me that plus size
women want dainty little feminine straps that sink into their shoulders and
leave welts like cart-ruts - I won't believe it! If you *do* happen upon a nice,
wide strap in a comfortable cotton bra, you can bet it'll crease in the middle
and become as barbed wire the first time you wash it! If I could have a bra that
had wide straps and no underwire (that cuts!) and a wide back closure, I would
be in heaven!

I dunno whether the situation is different here in Oz, but I imagine plus size
women the world over would share my angst?

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Trish Brown wrote:

[snipped much stuff about the awfulness of plus-sized pattern grading, all
of it true]

And while I'm on a roll, how come it is that bra manufacturers make
plus size bras with tiny, narrow little straps?

The main support for your breasts is supposed to come from the bra band, not
the straps. Problem is, many people go up a band size if the bra's too
small, when they really should go up a cup size (or more). That means that
the shoulder straps have to do the supporting. Over here, assistants in a
fancy lingerie chain are actually taught to go to the biggest cup size
available in the right band size and then, if the bra's still too small, to
go up in band size until the cup fits rather than loose a sale.

Lovely bras he www.bravissimo.com - check out their fitting guide &
advice page, especially the trouble shooter section. They sell a maternity
bra in sizes up to 40L.

Sally H

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 10:43:40 +1100, Trish Brown wrote:

Tia Mary, this makes me *so* cranky! You would think plus size people were
virtually non-existent! Even if you can find plus sizes (I'm not just talking
maternity wear here), they're made with a standard figure in mind, so they never
fit properly.

snip

Kay Lancaster (where are you, Kay?) tells me that a lot of the fitting
problems you mention have been dealt with by Connie Crawford in her
patterns. She has made clever adjustments of quarter-inches where big women
need them, rather than just drafting as if people's bones were getting
larger, which is what most patterns do. Therefore her patterns are said to
have an excellent fit.

As for bras, well ain't that the truth! Most of my larger friends in the UK
used to head for Rigby and Peller and have their bras properly made, at
huge cost. Here in France, most lingerie ranges go up pretty large, but
mostly you'll probably have to get online, since you're in Oz. There is a
mail-order site at www.judymsbest.ogdomains.com which has some
supportive-looking bras.

There's lingerie for big ladies at www.bll.com, including nightwear,
leatherwear, bustiers, etc. The women modelling certainly don't have flat
tummies, and sizes go up to 8X.

Trish