Underwear Woes

[juldea]

Warning: the following post will involve frank and unabashed talk of women's undergarments. If such a topic bothers you (or if the mental images of me in underwear bother you), don't read on. And just to forestall those mental images, I'm putting the picture associated with this post as my fluffy teddybunny and teddymoose, Mr. B and Herbert.

So everyone probably knows that I've been losing weight (whee). School starting has slowed down the rate of loss considerably (inability to wake up early and exercise), but it's still going. I reached 143 yesterday...

I was expecting to stop fitting most of my jeans, and was prepared. I have a stack of (about 5 pairs) pants in increasingly smaller sizes for me to wear as I get smaller and smaller (almost time to grab the next pair actually, yay). What I wasn't prepared for was growing too small for underwear. It's just not something I thought about. How does one grow too small for underwear? Well, I'll tell you.

Oh, and I don't know if any of this applies to men's underwear, or just women's. Obviously they're cut differently.

I've not noticed any problems in the waistbands, actually. They're elastic and made to fit a pretty fair range of sizes, I assume. No, the problem actually is in the crotch. I guess the sizing of underwear is based on how big your butt is and how much fabric is needed to cover it and come out the other side. Therefore, I'm starting to get extra fabric hanging out in uncomfortable places. Sure, I could pull the waistband up higher to take in the slack, but that makes two different discomforts - first, the waistband of my underwear is up around my chest (exaggeration but I'm sure you understand), and second.... well, underwear is cut so that the places that are supposed to be covered have a much wider area of fabric than you'll find for the crotch area, between the legs, so if the underwear is pulled up, the thin crotch area fabric is attempting to cover up areas that must be covered and isn't doing a good job of it. And in the rear, it's attempting to be thong underwear for a few inches and then getting wider - basically it's just a wedgie.

The reason thong underwear does not feel like a wedgie is that it stays less than an inch wide the whole way up, never widening out until, well, it's out (sure I warned you but I don't want to be THAT explicit). It's a little weird at first but very comfortable later. Trust me.

So anyway, increasing amounts of my underwear are way too baggy to wear. One solution I have found (a suggestion from Jason) is just to take them to the sewing machine and sew up the slack from the bottom.... so I don't have to pull up the waistband any. That sounds good... I just have to find the time to get at the sewing machine. I do have many sewing projects hanging around.

Plus, there's another problem with that, which is simply a hangup of mine and everyone will tell me I'm stupid for it, but... I like having matching bra/underwear sets. This is a problem because...

***segue into bra woes post***

Another consequence of losing weight was my bra size changing. Honestly, I didn't think I'd change so much. I've gone from a 38D to a 34C... and actually I might be a 34B. I didn't believe my own measurements, though, and stuck with C. It's been forever since I was smaller than a D and just can't fathom it, even though I'm definitely smaller...

But anyway. Bras are not fitting anymore, either. The bands are rather loose, even on the tightest setting, and the cups are... loose. Since bras are made to support, and not much support can come from baggy bras (women, imagine putting on a too-large bra and expecting it to hold you up, men, imagine I guess too-large briefs and expecting them to hold, um, "you" up... doesn't work does it?)... well, I need new bras. Unfortunately bras aren't so simple that you can take a sewing machine to them and sew up a few places and fix them. I could shrink the bands, yes, but the cups I believe would be too complicated.

So anyway, new bras. Those of you who know me know that there is a lot of happiness at this prospect... in theory. I looovvvvveee shopping for understuffs. However, in practice (at least at the point), this is a bad thing. I am trying to save up money, and such things are expensive. Even at Walmart a single bra is $7ish. I can wear a bra for two days before it smells bad, so even if I did laundry every week I would need 4-5 bras (one to wear while doing laundry)... that's $30-40 (with tax). And I would of course prefer to cater to my non-Walmart-bra tastes ;)

So okay. I need new bras. And new bras probably won't be in the same colors as my old bras. So I will want (yes, I'm aware of the use of "want" there and not "need") new underwear to match. Ohhh, it's a vicious cycle. ;)

But okay. Most likely scenario: I find time to sew up the bagginess in some of my underwear, buy some new bras from walmart andor clearance from places like Victoria's Secret and Frederick's.... and live with unmatched pairs ;)

Comments are welcome, but if they're bad I'll delete them, I'm warning you.

And don't use the "p" word. The synonym for underwear. Unless you want to see my nose wrinkle. ;)

Comments

Re: Undies!

[missderinger.livejournal.com]

but that would involve getting pregnant, and I reallyreally don't want to do that.

The idea of me as a mother really is kind of scary at this point.