If you look at historical clothing, they’re usually basically square garments with a belt or an apron around it to add some shape. Most women would make their own without the luxury of pre-printed patterns so the patterns would have to be quite simple.
I suppose I already have shape shifting clothing - I’ve never been pregnant but my menstrual cycle and health issues cause me to go up and down in weight and shape all the time. I think most of my clothing can accommodate weight gain and loss, maybe 5 kgs each way. I usually wear pretty simple A-line dresses, skirts with a stretchy waist, or fairly loose jeans and a t-shirt or sweater. I don’t like tight clothing. I usually gain and lose weight on my thighs and the lower part of my stomach, so from the waist up I don’t change much. No one ever really notices if I lose or gain weight.
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I remember when they sold stretchy panels for skirts and pants that could be inserted into garments and then removed later. I agree…the fashion industry is not interested in flexible clothing. When I was in college, I had a huge black t-shirt dress that I could wear in hundreds of ways. I would layer wrap skirts over it, belt it, wear pants under it, throw on a shirt, etc. I wore it until it was almost in rags!
I think such a garment is perfect for all sorts of shapes and changes in the body.
I have often wondered (and then not looked into it at all) when it was that trousers pattern pieces started having the shape we are familiar with now, because it seems like they first looked more like a child’s drawing of pants with front and back being one piece and pretty much the same. I feel like somewhat recently I watched a movie or TV show that was either historical or fantasy where it seems like some trousers were made to look more like this and I was impressed with what I interpreted as accuracy.
It’s already been downgraded from bed pillow to cat pillow so I sewed it together and stuffed it in a worn pillowcase. No one will see my wonky seam, and the cats will not care. Next time it gets grimy we’ll just toss it I think.
Once I lived in a place that had fleas from every neighbour having at least 2 pets. We had to hot launder everything while the place was fumigated so I put the very expensive buckwheat pillows in the dryer. Of course a zipper came open and one machine at the laundromat was filled with buckwheat husks! Embarrassing & wasteful to say the least.
I would be equally disappointed to find a machine full of feathers I’m sure!
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I started donating my comforters and bedspreads to a local pet shelter. Volunteers but them into manageable sizes to make beds for the animals. They have commercial washers as well. I’ve had feathers and buckwheat almost ruin my washers! I do have coverslips now on my down pillows, so I just wash the covers. I fluff the feathers in the dryer with a rag soaked in fabric softner. It just makes them smell better, but I am sure somewhere along the way, they need to be thrown out.
Our feather pillows are feeling sort of crushed. I think they only last a year at most, to be honest. A duvet is different since it’s only laying on top of the bed. Pillows get squished & flattened, the feathers broken up. I fluff ours every day but they flatten as soon as they are layed on.
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Yeah, they are organic so you have to expect them to start breaking down…I had a feather mattress cover that I loved but when it got so flat, it was way too expensive to replace. I wish I had the forethought to save some of the feathers, but back then, I was not in that space so it got tossed.
When we cleared my mom’s house all the bedding whent to a dog rescue place. Boy did they get a haul. Felt good.
My DW is allergic to feathers, so the last pilliw was made into a couch pillow. Then we forgot it was a feather pillow and she couldn’t figure out why she always sneezed and got stuffed up when laying on the couch. Whoops! Finally tossed the thing.
Um not exactly sure this fits as mending OR maintaining, but I thought I’d post it anyway.
I made a crochet hanging basket a while ago (I have no idea of the movement of time since COVID) to use as a hanging bin in our ensuite bathroom to save floor and bench space. It never quite hung right, was ‘full’ very quickly and I was ready to find another pattern to try.
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I like @Animegirlie 's idea of taking two years off our ages for that time…I wonder if people who went through the WW’s felt the same way about the passage of time? I really have no concept of it anymore either…I really don’t want to get in the mindset of pre and post…
@mellybelly81 — what a clever idea to make that hanging basket sturdier! I’ve made a couple and don’t like the “droop”. On smaller ones, I can use a deli container.
Husband jokingly calls anything pre-covid “the before times.” Its hard not to with a major, global event. I do think our parents, grandparents, and great grand parents must have felt something similar after the world wars.
My grandparents definitely always talked about “before the war” and “after the war”. One of them was always complaining about those young whippersnappers born after the war who know nothing.
I’ve lost over 25 lbs because I did not want to enter another decade of life at an uncomfortable weight.
Now my jeans don’t fit. Surprise? But when I went to order new ones (because I donated the smaller jeans a year ago, silly me) my favorite jeans are all out of stock. I love Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda Longs. They have so many styles and the ones I love are out of stock everywhere. I finally found one pair on Amazon that was not overpriced and in a color I could live with. But…
I need more than one pair. And hitching up my pants every time I move was annoying and I hate belts. So I created a half belt!
It’s a piece of strong 1" elastic covered in black fabric and a couple of snaps. It snaps to the belt loop on the side, goes through the back loop and snaps to the other side. It works brilliantly? They may be baggy, but they are comfortable and they stay up.
I’m on the journey to loose more, so maybe one new pair of jeans is OK.
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lol I bought myself three half belts…duh, never thought about making my own! They do keep the pants on, especially jeans that are made with some stretch…they seem to stretch and bag at the waist the most!
