Budget-Busters: Maternity Clothes

As my younger daughter goes forward in her pregnancy, she’s soon going to grow right out of her wardrobe. It’s inevitable, of course. In this age of anorexia, how can a woman look beautiful or capable or womanly while sporting a watermelon-size belly?

She has always been fashion conscious, won’t enjoy muu-muus or tent dresses, or any of those ridiculously ‘cutesy’ outfits with the lace or Peter Pan collars, big belly-pointing arrows, or such. And since she and her hubby are young and not rich (the way of things, I think), they don’t have much money to purchase $100 outfits that serve for three months or so and then are never worn again.

So I’m going to go shopping here with my elder daughter the Professionally Creative Thrifter and Fashion Icon, ship her a maternity “Care Package.”

She’s already gaining weight that probably won’t go away when the baby’s born - not “baby-weight.” I can’t help her with bras or underwear, as those are things she’ll want to purchase new and well-fitted. What I can find are well-tailored, sensibly fashionable, comfortable maternity clothes at a bargain price.

There are entire consignment shops that specialize in maternity wear, because women do tend to get rid of their maternity wear once they’re not pregnant anymore. The usual thrifting outlets (Catholic Charities, Goodwill, Salvation Army) also have entire maternity sections. Since designers have been producing really nice looking pantsuits, dresses and work suits, it’s not difficult to put together a very serviceable wardrobe that should get my daughter through the watermelon stages.

For work I think the tunic styles are nice. Particularly if fairly plain, and with nice open jackets over slacks or skirt. Regular fashion sense should prevail here, though I’ll bear in mind my daughter’s usual color and pattern preferences. I figure that 3 or 4 basic tunic tops, 2 mix-and-match jackets and 3 neutral skirts and pairs of slacks will serve her for such occasions through the few months.

Around the house and out and about the choices should be more casual. She’ll want some denim pants with the front stretch panels, maybe some cords and khakis as well. There are plenty of nice T-shirts with full-cut bodies that should be about a buck-fifty at Goodwill or CC. She can of course use any bulky sweaters and sweatshirts all the way through her pregnancy as casual wear. And sweat pants can fit over a pretty good belly, so I’ll be looking for some of those matched sweatsuits with matching jackets. She’ll be going through the big-belly stage from December to March, so she won’t need swimwear, tank tops or brief shorts to keep cool.

I figure we should be able to put a suitable wardrobe together for less than a hundred bucks, and it’ll make her feel much prettier than she would if she just had to make do with moo-moos, ugly stretch pants and X-large men’s T-shirts. While looking around for maternity fashions, I did notice that there are some spectacular dressy-dresses that not only look beautiful on the woman, but enable reverent belly-worship from all onlookers.

If she doesn’t have to buy the daily wear, she can splurge on one of these and make hubby take her someplace nice for a date and dancing. I highly encourage not becoming a self-conscious hermit while pregnant. Of course, that’s because I think most all pregnant women are shiningly beautiful, all the way through.

Oh, and yes, I will be sending a muu-muu or two. Just because it’ll make her smile in remembrance of our many “Muu-Muu” parties when we’d all dress in those many my Mom and sisters kept giving me every Christmas for years (I never did figure out why). Even made Grandpa wear one, he looked really silly but wore it with pride anyway.

Check out some of the advice and styles in the following, excellent resource links for how to save money on good clothes, and how to look spectacular when you most feel like a cow. Pregnant women ARE beautiful. But the wardrobe is, for most, temporary. Pass them along when you’re done, someone else will thank you kindly for it when their months of watermelon-belly loom!

Links

Inexpensive Maternity Clothing (check the internal links for great styles)

How to Find Inexpensive Maternity Clothes

How to Buy Maternity Wear

RainbowHawaii: Muu-Muus

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Filed under Budgeting, Maternity Wear, Clothing, Pregnancy |