• Replies 31 replies
  • Subscribers 40 subscribers
  • Views 3324 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Argh, clothes shopping

TheCatWoman

Looking through my wardrobe the other day, I realised most of my warmer weather clothes are falling apart and worn out. So I need to start the dreaded process of getting new ones, I hate clothes shopping, it's such a depressing experience, I rarely find anything that fits, what is it with sizing these days and who really has arms like broomsticks? I rarely find anything long enough in the body with many tops ending just below my boobs and leaving me not only feeling a bit chilly, but like a walking offence against public decency. I hate the nasty fabrics, and they all seem so poorly made. I've looked offline, online in charity shops even at ethical clothing stores because they usually have nicer fabrics, but I'm too big to be ecological, too tall and big generally, it seems you have to be child size to be either ethical or ecological. Vile, eye popping migraine inducing colours and patterns seem popular too.

I can't use a sewing machine either because they hate me and a good choice of fabrics is getting harder to find too, help! Please tell me I'm not the only one who wonder if she'll be stuck indoors because of not having any clothes to wear.

Parents

  • You're not alone in some of those problems! Quite a few years ago I decided to opt out of fast fashion. I started with charity shops but I ended up with a huge collection of nearly but not quite right clothes and a few I do actually wear. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to work out I never wore the nearlies and have sent most of them back to charity shops, many still with their labels. I also wear a lot of really old clothes that I have had for decades.

    Then I took up sewing, as I do not have your problems with sewing machines and fortunately for me the kind of clothes I like to wear are easy to make. Is it only electric machines that don't like you? I used to love sewing on my old hand cranked Singer, much less to go wrong and they can still be found in working order, some people enjoy refurbishing them. Or even hand sewing can be quite relaxing - before the 1850s all clothes were made that way! I struggle with hand sewing now, arthritis, but I used to enjoy it.

    If you have enough budget you could pay someone to make clothes for you? Or to mend the ones you have if you can't mend them yourself. Mending, visible or otherwise, is virtually a craft hobby in its own right at the moment!

Reply

  • You're not alone in some of those problems! Quite a few years ago I decided to opt out of fast fashion. I started with charity shops but I ended up with a huge collection of nearly but not quite right clothes and a few I do actually wear. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to work out I never wore the nearlies and have sent most of them back to charity shops, many still with their labels. I also wear a lot of really old clothes that I have had for decades.

    Then I took up sewing, as I do not have your problems with sewing machines and fortunately for me the kind of clothes I like to wear are easy to make. Is it only electric machines that don't like you? I used to love sewing on my old hand cranked Singer, much less to go wrong and they can still be found in working order, some people enjoy refurbishing them. Or even hand sewing can be quite relaxing - before the 1850s all clothes were made that way! I struggle with hand sewing now, arthritis, but I used to enjoy it.

    If you have enough budget you could pay someone to make clothes for you? Or to mend the ones you have if you can't mend them yourself. Mending, visible or otherwise, is virtually a craft hobby in its own right at the moment!

Children
  • in reply to AuTriker

    I don't get on with any sewing machines, they all hate me, I'm not sure I would be able to afford to get someone to make clothes for me, the clothes I have are beyond mending. I have very few clothes and fast fashion isn't and has never been an option for me as I'm to tall, I'm 5'10" with a 33" inside leg measurement. I've been given tops that are huge in the shoulders and don't fit around my bust and the arms are for broomsticks not people.

    I get told to try mens stuff, but I'm woman shaped and mens trousers dont' fit me even if I can get them long enough, I have to get them so big in the waist to fit my hips that when I sit down the front rides up and swallows my boobs whilst the back slips down under my bum, they wear me rather than me wearing them!. My son and step son have similar problems both being well over 6' tall, my son has two shops he can relaible get trousers from because the longest most mens trousers go is a 31" leg.

    It seems that with the internet where you're supposed to be able to get anything from anywhere in the world, we've actually got even less choice, you can get the same dozen things from any country in the world and this seems to go for anything, not just clothes.