I’m firmly convinced one thing that undercut me and made it a lot easier to regain some of the weight I lost first time round was the fact that I continued to wear a lot of my old size 12 knock around clothes when I was quite comfortable in size 8. I guess this notion gives a new twist to the phrase, “Penny wise and pound foolish.”

Next week, despite the fact that I really detest shopping, I’m going out there to buy some new jeans and maybe a pair of khakis. I’m about 12 pounds from my final goal and whatever I buy now may have a little extra room when I’m done but it’s time.

Meanwhile I’ve been stunned to discover how much of my old clothing I can get into. I’m not at the point where everything is comfortable or looks great but I’m gobsmacked to find I can button everything I’ve tried on so far even this fitted silk gabardine jacket I made with a pattern designed by Chloé.



A lot of my old clothes I made myself. I stopped sewing when I began to gain weight thinking I would get back down someday in the not-too-distant future and, more important, thinking I didn’t want to put all that time and effort into making something if it wasn’t going fit that someday. Where did the time go…

I’m actually thinking about sewing again which leads me to thinking about sizing. I knew sizing had changed over the years but, wow, the change has been HUGE!

As sewers know, patterns have always been sized smaller than off-the-rack but while they’ve stayed the same, off-the-rack has gotten much, much larger. The clothes I made for myself when my BMI was 21 were size 12 and usually had to be taken in a bit at the waste for a fitted item. At the same time I was buying ready-made size 10, once in awhile an 8.

Now size 12 in a pattern is made for the same measurements as off-the-rack 6 with an extra 1½ inches in the hips!!

What have we done to ourselves?