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 Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress

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Dena

Dena


Posts : 678
Join date : 2011-09-05
Age : 41

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PostSubject: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyThu Sep 22, 2011 6:27 pm

Jewish Forward

I would really like to be able to find cute skirts or dresses. What I have now isn't cute. I HATE shopping. Being so short, wide and wearing size 1 shoes makes it all ridiculous. I really really should learn to make my own clothes then I could wear whatever I like.
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


Posts : 373
Join date : 2011-09-05
Location : Chicagoland

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyFri Sep 23, 2011 2:11 am

Size 1 shoes? Whoa, even my great-grandmother with semi-bound feet had bigger feet than that. (She kept tearing off the bandages as a child and her family didn't insist, so they weren't quite as small as they were supposed to be.) That must be really hard because the only shoes in that size are not only children's shoes, but made for young children. An online shoe chart lists size 1-3 for children aged 6-7.

Have you ever bought clothes in the closest size you can find and then just pay to have a seamstress re-size? Rather expensive, but it maybe worth it just to have one or two things that you like. When my daughter was a flower girl for one of my sister's weddings, my mom found a beautiful dress that was like a size 10, whereas my daughter was only a small-for-her age 5 year old. My mom found a seamstress who took out all the seams and re-sewed them to shrink it down. She charged $80 and I believe her when she said that the cost was far below her usual per hour charges, but that she did it because it was for a special purpose.

You might also try to find someone who can teach you how to alter your own clothes, which is easier than making them from scratch. I have a nursing dress that I like so much that I still wear it more than a decade after my second child was weaned. You can't tell that there are access slits, although maybe I should sew them up anyway. It was about 2 sizes too big, but I used a sewing machine to take up a couple inches on the shoulder (to raise the waistline and hemline) and a few inches in on the sides of the bodice (to make it thinner).

I bet you hate it like I do when clothes say "one size fits all". I've seen labels that say more accurately "one size fits most". I joke that those labels say to me "this size won't fit you".
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Dena

Dena


Posts : 678
Join date : 2011-09-05
Age : 41

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyFri Sep 23, 2011 12:47 pm

Debbie B. wrote:
Size 1 shoes? Whoa, even my great-grandmother with semi-bound feet had bigger feet than that. (She kept tearing off the bandages as a child and her family didn't insist, so they weren't quite as small as they were supposed to be.) That must be really hard because the only shoes in that size are not only children's shoes, but made for young children. An online shoe chart lists size 1-3 for children aged 6-7.

Yep, my cousin's daughter is 7 and she's almost caught up with me. These days you can find some very adult looking dress shoes but it isn't easy. Casual shoes are more difficult because with kids it's either dressy, sandles or gym shoes. Every once in a while I visit Nordstrom or their Nordstrom Rack to see if they have any 4's that might fit. Nothing so far.

Debbie B. wrote:
Have you ever bought clothes in the closest size you can find and then just pay to have a seamstress re-size?

I have my pants hemmed and taken in at the waist, dresses and skirts hemmed but I've never had other alterations. My mom used to do those things for me but now we live an hour apart so it isn't as easy to ask her to help me. We have a very good tailor near our home but yes you are correct when you say it gets expensive. I have though thought about buy something and trying to have it re-made for me. I need sweaters for winter which aren't something that can easily be altered. If I lost more weight it might be a little easier (not much) to find clothes. Maybe. I've already lost some weight though and I'm not having much luck.


Debbie B. wrote:
I bet you hate it like I do when clothes say "one size fits all". I've seen labels that say more accurately "one size fits most". I joke that those labels say to me "this size won't fit you".

Definitely. One size fits most never makes it to the dressing room. Laughing

I've always liked the idea of making my own clothes and when I was in highschool I made two very simple dresses. I would love to be able whip up anything I like, on my own, made just to fit me. I know it wouldn't be easy since my mom always struggled to make patterns fit me (I have about 4 sizes difference between tops and bottoms in addition to only be 4'9") but it might be fun. Or, I might go insane. Razz Now of course, I have time for that sort of thing whereas everyone who is super petite doesn't have that kind of extra time.
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Dena

Dena


Posts : 678
Join date : 2011-09-05
Age : 41

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyFri Sep 23, 2011 12:53 pm

Has anyone ever tried buying shells to make clothes more modest? In the colder months here it's fairly easy to find modest clothing. However in the summer everything is sleeveless. I managed to find some cardigans that come down to my elbow but if I wasn't so short the sleeves wouldn't even be that long. I'm wondering if the shells are comfortable or even useful?
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Mychal

Mychal


Posts : 277
Join date : 2011-09-23
Location : Tennessee

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyMon Oct 03, 2011 3:47 pm

Go to Wal-Mart. I happened to walk past the children's shoes and found myself saying, damnit, why don't they have those boots and flats in adult sizes? (Or, in my case, boat size; I wear a 9.5-10.)

I make mine and my husband's medival clothes and I occasionally make myself regular clothes too (I have long legs, wide, high hips, and a short waist; I can almost never wear a suit). I drafted a dress pattern from an empire-waist dress that I bought at the thrift store, and you can't get any more simple to sew than that. I was looking at a commercial pattern that my mother had that made basically the same dress, and I was surprised at how complicated it was. A lot of commerical patterns are needlessly complicated. My medieval dress is only four seams, plus sleeves (which do not ease in). I can whip out a dress in a day, minus the eyelets or buttons (I put a lot of those on a dress, so that takes more time).
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


Posts : 373
Join date : 2011-09-05
Location : Chicagoland

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyMon Oct 03, 2011 6:15 pm

Dena,

I wear a lightweight silk T-shirt under a fancy top with an open collar that is too low for my tastes and my figure (I don't have enough bust to have much "cleavage" to show off) let alone "tzniut".

The other way to cover shoulders is to use a "shrug" which are available in both short sleeve and 3/4 or long sleeve versions. In a similar way, I wore a "bolero"-style jacket with a strapless long gown I wore many years ago. (I wouldn't be able to get into it these days and my daughter is bigger than I am.) My daughter wore the foldover two-way skirt I got her as a strapless dress at camp along with a shrug that she borrowed from a cabin-mate. The other girls at the Reform camp simply wore strapless dresses, but my daughter would not feel comfortable doing that, particularly for Shabbat.
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Dena

Dena


Posts : 678
Join date : 2011-09-05
Age : 41

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyMon Oct 03, 2011 6:42 pm

Mychal I am trying to feel sorry for you with your long legs but it's very difficult. Wink and Smile

I found some nice sweaters at Dillards today (I can't remember which areas have Dillards but it's similar to Macy's). Their petite section had some really nice, very soft turtle neck sweaters. They are perfect! Not baggy and the sleeves are even the right length. I loved the first one so much I went back for a second and yesterday I asked my husband if he would mind me getting a third. He thinks they look cute so he said go ahead. They are a little form fitting around the bust so that might not be modest enough for everyone. After losing 25lbs I was just getting tired of baggy clothes and shirts that didn't seem to be made for women with waists.

I did find a shrug over the summer too at Target. I think they were supposed to be short sleeved but on me they go to the elbow. I bought two since they were so useful. When I find something that really fits well and I can use I buy multiples. I think my mom must have taught me that when I was a kid. She's on the shorter side too (though taller than me).

Debbie, are you children much taller than you? My husband is 6'5" so I figure it's likely I will have children that tower over me!
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


Posts : 373
Join date : 2011-09-05
Location : Chicagoland

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PostSubject: Re: Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress   Pushing the Limits of Modest Dress EmptyMon Oct 03, 2011 9:15 pm

My children are currently close in height to me. My 17 year old daughter has reached her adult height and is almost exactly as tall as I am. My son is only 14 and is now slightly taller than me, but is currently growing like a weed. I have gone ahead and bought the next size up in clothes and shoes for him while I can get sale prices since I expect that he'll be needing them in a few months anyway. I do hope he takes after my husband who is just under 6' or even after the genes that are expressed in my parents tall cousins (my mom has a female Chinese cousin who is nearly 6' tall---she insists she's only 5'11" and that the rest is just her bouffant hairdo) even though they themselves are short like their own parents. I joke that I got the "runt" genes from my parents, although at just under 5'3" I'm only a little shorter than usual, but in my more athletically active skinnier days I weighed just over 100 lbs. We sized my son's tallit with the expectation that he would not end up too much shorter than average. He has developed his own way of folding and gathering it over his shoulders, but it is somewhat big for him right now.
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