18 weeks pregnant today…
Everlane cashmere crew (several years old)
Ace & Jig Johnny jumper (small) | some textiles on sale at Garmentory
Use my REFERRAL LINK to Garmentory and sign up for an account for a $20 credit
Golden Goose hi-star sneakers | secondhand options at The Real Real
Transience swing bag (gift for review!)
Wearing/Buying
I am wearing ALL OF THE JUMPSUITS lately. And it’s going to be almost hot today so I’m going to break out my Skye onesie again, yay!! (speaking of Ace & Jig there’s a major launch today – I’m not ordering anything). I did order a pair of Mother maternity jeans from A Pea in the Pod this week because they were 25% off and I wanted to try them. I’m having a hard time wearing any of my “regular” pants lately; the elastic waists are just too constricting. We’ll see how they work and if I think I’ll wear them at all as the weather warms up. I have a feeling I’ll default mostly to dresses and light jumpsuits. Then again, it might be nice to have a pair of jeans for when I want them.
But speaking of maternity-specific clothing…
When I was heavy/bigger it took me a long time to come to terms with dressing my body AS IT WAS RIGHT THEN. I kept things in my closet I couldn’t fit into (skinny pants…) and refused to buy new things THAT FIT because I hated my body all the time. It wasn’t until I finally came to terms with my fluctuating weight and bigger body and started dressing it in clothes that fit and worked for it that I learned to love my body ALL THE TIME. That was ultimately what helped me lose weight and keep it off for the last five years: accepting the reality of my body.
Now, I’m having to accept another changing body and I intend to dress for it. I’ve looked for maternity items I like secondhand and haven’t found anything. I did receive a couple of Hatch long sleeve tops from a very generous reader recently that I’ll wear more as it warms up, but otherwise I’m not finding anything appealing.
I’m going to see how far I can wear a lot of my “normal” clothes into pregnancy, and if I feel like I need to add something that is specifically maternity, I will, and I won’t feel guilty about it. I am glad to be in the position where I CAN do that without too much hardship, and have a great resource for re-selling items I’m ready to pass on, so there’s that too, but I’m really believe we should celebrate all stages of our bodies, pregnancy included.
Reading/Watching
Fashion Retailers Work Together to keep clothing from landfills
Stella McCartney’s Vision for Fall
Is This the End of Recycling? – I’ve been trying to read/learn about this for a while since hearing a show on NPR about it a long time ago. My city takes nearly everything for recycling, including number 5 plastic containers, but I wonder truly what happens to it once it gets to their facility. China’s not taking our garbage anymore, so are cities still recycling things, or telling us they are and then sending them to the landfill anyway? I have the tab open in my browser as we speak to reach out to my city waste management about this. For me, the best solution right now is really trying to cut down a lot on buying things in plastic packaging, and I do the best I can with the resources I have at my disposal, but it is far from good enough.
This New Recycling Innovation Could Help Fix Our Broken Trash System
The Tiny Plastics in your Clothes are Becoming a Big Problem – this is in the WSJ and behind a paywall, but one thing I found very interesting is that Patagonia found that the FIRST wash of an item releases more plastic microbeads than subsequent washes, which means that manufacturers could “capture” some of that themselves if they would pre-wash items.
Also the rep from H&M made a statement in defense of synthetic fabrics that I immediately took issue with, but only because I have experience: “you wouldn’t want to swim in a cotton swimsuit.” Well, of course not, most people would say at first, but for casual swimming and frolicking at the beach, I can say that I have been a HUGE fan of my organic cotton jersey swimsuit by Beklina. No, it’s not appropriate for swimming laps, etc., but it is wonderful for what I do in a swimsuit, which is basically lounge around LOL. Just FYI, as swimsuit season is coming up! No, it doesn’t dry out as quickly as a lycra swimsuit so if you’re going on vacation and need a swimsuit every day, take multiples.
Also this article cites a source that refutes another article I mentioned last week or so ago which stated that tires/tire debris is the major source of ocean plastic. This article references the the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, which found that synthetic textiles lead the bunch at 35% of ocean plastic. Tires come in at 28%, then city dust, road markings, marine coatings, personal care products, and plastic pellets.
Anyway, you can probably tell from all these articles I’m posting that I am fascinated by this problem and apparent lack of any “good” solution aside from drastically reducing purchasing/washing/wearing polyester or other synthetic materials. Of course, clothing manufacturers could also reduce the amount of synthetics they use in clothing, but I don’t see that happening large scale anytime soon – synthetic clothing IS useful for sport, etc., and people do still love their cheap clothes I’m afraid.
Again, I think the burden falls upon those of us who know better (When we know better, we do better, as Oprah channeling Toni Morrison, used to say) to take up the burden of washing our synthetics appropriately, not buying as many new synthetic garments, and passing on this information to others who care to hear it.
Some things I think we can do individually to help:
- Wash synthetic items less, if possible
- I read a long time ago that washing items on delicate cycle reduces the amount of microplastic shedding
- Washing synthetics in a Guppyfriend mesh bag should collect any microplastics released in the wash – I use one, and I count as a small victory that I recently got my husband to use it as well (he was hesitant for the longest time).
- Front load washers are better than top-load washers in terms of the amount of microplastics they release (and water usage, incidentally). There’s not a lot of clarity on this other than I think it has to do with the amount of agitation?
Doing
I got talked into doing a Core Intensive class tomorrow at Pure Barre because it’s sandwiched in between my regular class and the pregnancy workshop I signed up for. Oy. I’m not pushing myself so hard lately, but that’s going to be quite a challenge since I’m having a hard time even finding my abdominal muscles anymore!!
After that I’ll be exhausted so I’ll just lounge around at home the rest of the weekend. Leo’s going to make homemade pizza Saturday night and maybe we’ll find a movie to watch? Although when we try and do that we usually end up LOOKING for a movie to watch for as long as it would take to watch one!!!!
How was your week? What do you have planned this weekend??
I went through 2 pregnancies with only 3 specifically maternity garments (all three were secondhand Gap maternity leggings). The second time was marginally harder because I was more “stretched out” I guess, so I popped earlier, but it’s definitely possible. I was pregnant at the exact same time as you are, last year (from your week count) and I think it’s a great time, season-wise, because you are biggest in summer, when it’s easier to wear dresses and caftans. It does get frustrating by the end, having only a few things you really fit into, because the larger I got, the more afraid I was that I’d stretch out my normal clothes.
What worked for *me* was buying several stretchier skirts in size medium — I’m normally an xs. My favorite for both pregnancies was a secondhand Bailey44 midi-skirt (which I think you actually identified for me, because it didn’t have a tag!) For my first pregnancy, I found a beautiful Tucker silk skirt in a medium, but I got it altered to fit me after pregnancy because I loved it so much, so I didn’t have it for my second. But for me, maternity clothes were not really a good option because I don’t wear jeans much anyway and where we live now I don’t have a great option for reselling. It’s definitely possible to make it through with minimal maternity clothes <3
I love that jumpsuit so much; the color is great for you. I still remember the old but wrong advice that only taller women can wear jumpsuits. I think jumpsuits are quite flattering on petite women. Some of the Mother maternity jeans look really cute! Love the wide legged crop one. Mother is one of my favorite denim lines. The vintage bathing suit is so cute but I likely cannot do a cotton suit, especially one in that style as I need too much support up top (unless ruching would hold up in cotton – most of my suits that I wear the most are Gottex and provide the the support through ruching, not underwire). I do swim as well as wearing casually and I’m in the pool a lot. I don’t wash my swimsuits on a full cycle, just a quick rinse and hang (but of course I’m wearing it for hours in the ocean or pool).
Just a couple of thoughts:
1) I was SOOOO sick of my maternity clothes by the end of my pregnancies that I never wanted to see them again. Plus, I didn’t want people to see me wearing something I’d worn during pregnancy later on and think that I was pregnant again! (That’s just a cautionary tale about wearing favorite non-pregnancy pieces while preggers.)
2) Thanks for the helpful information about micro-plastics. Living by the ocean, I’ve become very aware of all of the dangers to sea life and our precious water. Simple changes added up can make a big difference.
3) Homemade pizza! YUM! Your description of you and Leo taking forever to decide on a movie was so funny because I felt like you were talking about me and Bill!
4)P.S. I finally decided to take everyone’s recommendation and watch “The Detectorists” and I LOVE it! What a great little show. 🙂
My own experience is that jumpsuits can be tough for tall women because of the long-waisted wedgie factor. I think they look great on petite women – a long unbroken line.
This falls under TMI, but if I worse a cotton bathing suit to swim in, I’d end up with a yeast infection!
You’ve inspired me to get a new jumpsuit 🙂
It’s crazy you mentioned the end of recycling and microplastics! I talked to Mother and Tim about it Saturday and they thought I was crazy. Mother not so much but, well, you know… Maybe if they see your blog post, they’ll believe me. 😉
Thank you for the information on microplastics. I’ve always been a bit confused by the Guppybag thing. My understanding is that the bag is made out of synthetic polyamide, apparently chosen because it does not shed very easily…but if that is the case then do we not need to worry much about clothing made out of polyamide shedding microfibres either? Or is this some kind of special polyamide and not like most nylon/polyamide in clothing?