Design for Comfort

This week, we’re describing our most comfortable piece of clothing.

Back when I was young and had a figure, I was comfortable wearing almost any kind of clothing. I could wear clingy dresses and heels, jeans and t-shirts, and even bathing suits that required less material than my father would have liked. The important thing was that I needed to wear things that were fashionable – or at least the kinds of things my friends wore.

Eventually, I graduated with a teaching degree, and I wanted to look professional. Since I looked pretty young, I guess I wanted to distinguish myself from the junior high students I taught. I wore dresses or skirts and blouses and dress shoes each day. I guess I was comfortable in them, because I don’t remember not being comfortable.

Then the children came. Staying home with them was not an option, so I adjusted. Babies spit up and make all sorts of messes, so my clothes had to be washable and easy to care for – no ironing, no dry cleaning, but still semi-professional. I had no time to think about comfort.

The babies grew into busy young ladies. My life became even more hectic. After a few wardrobe malfunctions (mismatched socks, inside-out sweaters and other mishaps that I described last August in THIS POST), I decided I needed to simplify my wardrobe. I packed up or gave away everything that wasn’t navy blue, khaki, or white. The socks in my drawer were either white or navy. Dressing became much simpler. As for comfort, I started wearing what became known as “mom pants” – slacks and jeans with an elastic waist — since my weight started to climb.

My collection of pajama pants all look like the bottoms on this pattern envelope!

Now that I’m semi-retired, it’s comfort over fashion. If I’m not leaving the house in the next half hour, chances are I’m in a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt. I finally managed to lose some weight, so I don’t wear the “mom pants” any more (much to my children’s relief) but if I’m not in public, I’m not going to hold my tummy in. And when I’m writing, I don’t want a snug waistband to remind me about the last snack I ate. I have a go-to pattern for my pajama pants, and I have a drawer of long ones and another of short ones. When a pair wears out, they become part of the rag pile and I raid my fabric stash or the fabric remnant bin at the store to make another.

And now that my post is written, I’m off to cut out another pair or two of short pajama pants. The forecast for next week is sunshine and 60 to 70 degree temps, it’s going to be warm — well, warm for us. I’ve got a lot of writing to do this summer, so I’ll need lots of comfortable clothing!

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