For the first three weeks after baby was born, I was sewing up a storm. She was sleeping when she wasn´t eating and I was happy to be able to sew clothes that weren´t maternity wear. But the last week or two, she´s been sleeping less and crying more so I´ve been spending less and less time in my sewing room. Not in the least because exhaustion of nursing 15 times a day is wearing me down and I just want to lie on the couch. Nothing wrong with that 5 weeks post partum but it´s not really what I want to do.
Obviously, lying on the couch, you start thinking. (My husband constantly tells me that I shouldn´t think as much, but being a woman, that´s an impossible thing to ask.) I started wondering why clothes I really liked making or really liked on others, like my latest Linden, didn´t make me look like I wanted them too. I couldn´t pinpoint the problem.
Until Jodi wrote about her Linden. It really got me thinking about the stuff I want to sew because I like the look and the stuff I end up wearing and feeling good in. Those things don´t really match.
For instance, I absolutely adore Grainline Studio patterns. I love the relaxed look of their designs but they never end up looking as good on me as they do on other people. Reading about Jodi´s Linden made me realise that the way I view myself when I plan clothes and the way my body looks is totally different. Up until now my goal was to sew clothes that made me look like I did when I was 18.
I wish I hadn´t thrown out that dress!
But I´m not 18 anymore. I´ll never look like that again and that´s okay. My 30th birthday is coming up, I´ve had 2 kids, nobody expects me to look like I did back then. Nobody but me.
I realised that there is a big difference between looking skinny and looking good. I´ll never be as skinny as I was back then, but I can still look that good, even with a few extra pounds (or 40).
Everyone would agree that the girl above isn´t skinny but I would kill to look that good. I told my husband about this and he totally agrees. He thinks I look good whatever size I am and he doesn´t get what all the fuss is about. He´s a sweetie 🙂
So from now on I´m done focusing on looking skinny, I´m going to focus on looking good. And feeling great along the way!
Does this mean I´m going to stop sewing Lindens? Ofcourse not, they´re soooo very comfy but I´m no longer going to feel disappointed that I don´t look like a perfect size 0 wearing them. I´m going to accept my body as it is, although I still want to lose the extra baby weight 😉
What does this imply for my sewing? I went through my old blogposts and thought back about all makes that I ended up really loving and wearing to death. Here´s a small selection:
It´s clear that I like dresses and I like wearing belts to accentuate my waist (which is my smallest part), so I should just focus on sewing and wearing those. I like skirts as well, but I have to avoid high waisted and/or gathered skirts because they add bulk to my tummy area and stop right below my boobs… They really make me look like a fat toddler 🙂
It´s time I started showing off my hourglass shape!
