OTOT fashion whine

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
...
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
http://concreteloop.com/2008/05/news...rom-handcuffed

Rita L.


Polly Esther wrote:
It has always been difficult to be a junior high size - at 18, 21, 41, 61
... well, Always. Today it became even worse. I puzzled that all the
women on the tv news, weather and whatnot were wearing low-cut New Year's
Eve party clothes and their WonderBras. Today it hit home.
I ordered a nice tunic for a very special graduation ceremony.
FedEx.
Tracking it, it went from MO to MS to KS to TN back to MO back to TN
back to MS and finally here. Twelve days. I showed the delivery guy the
tracking chart. He said they must smoke a lot of the fun stuff at the
center.
I tried on the tunic. Lovely. Elegant. Understated. Unless, of
course, you consider the concern that I don't have a new ring for my
bellybutton.
Had to remove the sleeve caps, take out about 3" from the neckline
and replace the sleeves. Not a big deal. Easy, actually. Good grief.
Where do we buy clothes if we are not wanting to look like a Happy
Hooker? with apology to my crocheting friends, Polly

Rita L. in MA wrote:
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!

The insane prom thing is happeninghere too. Madness!

Meanwhile, check out the latest in prom dresses
http://concreteloop.com/2008/05/news...rom-handcuffed


'Tie a yellow ribbon...'



--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Polly Esther wrote:
It has always been difficult to be a junior high size - at 18, 21, 41, 61
... well, Always. Today it became even worse. I puzzled that all the
women on the tv news, weather and whatnot were wearing low-cut New Year's
Eve party clothes and their WonderBras. Today it hit home.
I ordered a nice tunic for a very special graduation ceremony.
FedEx.
Tracking it, it went from MO to MS to KS to TN back to MO back to TN
back to MS and finally here. Twelve days. I showed the delivery guy the
tracking chart. He said they must smoke a lot of the fun stuff at the
center.
I tried on the tunic. Lovely. Elegant. Understated. Unless, of
course, you consider the concern that I don't have a new ring for my
bellybutton.
Had to remove the sleeve caps, take out about 3" from the neckline and
replace the sleeves. Not a big deal. Easy, actually. Good grief. Where
do we buy clothes if we are not wanting to look like a Happy Hooker? with
apology to my crocheting friends, Polly


I go to these folk for bought clothes:

http://www.weekenders.com/

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!

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

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Pauline wrote:
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!!!

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



--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

"amy in CNY" wrote in message
...
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?


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.

Please excuse my snipping:

L wrote:
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).

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.

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.

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

I can tell you, as a mom of a budding (and I mean BUDDING) teenage girl (13,
though she looks 16 -- and she doesn't even wear make-up -- too tomboy-ish)
it's almost impossible to shop for her. Me, I don't shop for clothes often.
I like t-shirts and jeans ...

But I can tell you it OUR fault (meaning, the mothers of teenage girls) that
the selection is what it is. Enough of us ARE buying this crap that the
stores are confident enough that they can sell it.

We stop buying that skankwear and they won't stock it.

But I'll mention this, just to scare ya'll ... I got into an argument with
another mother when our school system went to uniforms (EVERYONE, it seemed,
was furious over that). One mother came into the school while I was there
volunteering and screamed bloody murder at the secretary about the uniform
policy. She screamed, whined, yelled, hollered and made an ass of herself
over the "school stifling her daughter's sense of self-expression." The
school was "violating her daughter's right to freedom of expression." That
nutcase even threatened to get the ACLU involved.

The secretary was seconds away from calling security, her face was red, and
she looked like she was about to cry. That made ME mad, but I didn't say
anything until I saw the mother's daughter walk in the door:
Cut-off shorts (we're talking above the butt-cheek, here, folks),
bare middy t-shirt that said "Slut,"
fingernails long enough to kill someone three rooms over (how do you think
she did homework with those things???!! Boy, I'd feel really sorry for her
if she ever happened to pick her nose -- she'd hit brain matter!!),
and enough makeup to make a prossie choke.

So I said, in as nice a voice as I could (which I think, knowing me, was
actually pretty damn nice): Well, maybe if you didn't dress your kid like a
slut MY daughter would still have the freedom of "self-expression."

And then the cat-fight began. I got asked to leave (though with thank-you's
from the staff) for a little while, while everyone calmed down, SHE got
banned. VBEG

And her precious kid STILL had to wear the uniform!

--
Connie :-)
FREE patterns n' FREE eZine at my blog:
http://sewverycreative.blogspot.com
"Carolyn McCarty" wrote in message
m...
I totally agree, Polly. It seems the clothing departments are all stocked
by Sluts R Us. Everywhere I look, the clothing is something to be worn by
an underage streetwalker. Target and Wal-Mart seem to be the worst, at
least here in Tucson. I see prepubescent girls going to school in clothes
that would make a prostitute blush. What their parents are thinking, I
can't imagine. And finally, when did it become fashionable to wear clothes
so tight and so low/high cut that every roll of fat and every inch of
cellulite is exposed to the world?

Makes me think of the woman at the beach who blushed at the way bikinis
expose skin, then saw a young lady in a one-piece with the back cut in a
very deep V. Her comment was, "Lordy! What they don't show, they point
to!!"

Sorry, folks, my R&R chip kicked in early this morning.

--
Carolyn in The Old Pueblo

If it ain't broke, you're not trying. --Red Green
If it ain't broke, it ain't mine. --Carolyn McCarty

If at first you don't succeed, switch to power tools. --Red Green
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer. --Carolyn McCarty

"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
It has always been difficult to be a junior high size - at 18, 21, 41, 61
... well, Always. Today it became even worse. I puzzled that all the
women on the tv news, weather and whatnot were wearing low-cut New Year's
Eve party clothes and their WonderBras. Today it hit home.
I ordered a nice tunic for a very special graduation ceremony.
FedEx.
Tracking it, it went from MO to MS to KS to TN back to MO back to TN
back to MS and finally here. Twelve days. I showed the delivery guy the
tracking chart. He said they must smoke a lot of the fun stuff at the
center.
I tried on the tunic. Lovely. Elegant. Understated. Unless, of
course, you consider the concern that I don't have a new ring for my
bellybutton.
Had to remove the sleeve caps, take out about 3" from the neckline and
replace the sleeves. Not a big deal. Easy, actually. Good grief.
Where do we buy clothes if we are not wanting to look like a Happy
Hooker? with apology to my crocheting friends, Polly

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?
--
Michelle in NV
http://community.webshots.com/user/desert_quilter


"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
It has always been difficult to be a junior high size - at 18, 21, 41, 61
... well, Always. Today it became even worse. I puzzled that all the
women on the tv news, weather and whatnot were wearing low-cut New Year's
Eve party clothes and their WonderBras. Today it hit home.
I ordered a nice tunic for a very special graduation ceremony.
FedEx.
Tracking it, it went from MO to MS to KS to TN back to MO back to TN
back to MS and finally here. Twelve days. I showed the delivery guy the
tracking chart. He said they must smoke a lot of the fun stuff at the
center.
I tried on the tunic. Lovely. Elegant. Understated. Unless, of
course, you consider the concern that I don't have a new ring for my
bellybutton.
Had to remove the sleeve caps, take out about 3" from the neckline and
replace the sleeves. Not a big deal. Easy, actually. Good grief. Where
do we buy clothes if we are not wanting to look like a Happy Hooker? with
apology to my crocheting friends, Polly

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!
--
Michelle in NV
http://community.webshots.com/user/desert_quilter


"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
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" wroteI 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

"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
It has always been difficult to be a junior high size - at 18, 21, 41,
61 ... well, Always. Today it became even worse. I puzzled that all
the women on the tv news, weather and whatnot were wearing low-cut New
Year's Eve party clothes and their WonderBras. Today it hit home.
I ordered a nice tunic for a very special graduation ceremony.
FedEx.
Tracking it, it went from MO to MS to KS to TN back to MO back to TN
back to MS and finally here. Twelve days. I showed the delivery guy
the tracking chart. He said they must smoke a lot of the fun stuff at
the center.
I tried on the tunic. Lovely. Elegant. Understated. Unless, of
course, you consider the concern that I don't have a new ring for my
bellybutton.
Had to remove the sleeve caps, take out about 3" from the neckline
and replace the sleeves. Not a big deal. Easy, actually. Good grief.
Where do we buy clothes if we are not wanting to look like a Happy
Hooker? with apology to my crocheting friends, Polly