The Piny

If you pay attention to fashion or sewing trends, the pinafore is having a Moment.  Beloved by toddlers everywhere, they've made their way back into adult women's fashion.  I admit, when pinafores first came back in, I wasn't a fan.  The styles seemed boxy and unflattering to an adult woman's body, or they seemed too young for me, so I put it out of my head.  (Can I also just say: all the clothes in the stores right now are from the mid-1990s.  Are we really recycling fashion from my high school years already?  Sheesh.  I appreciate the nostalgia trip, but I am nearly 40 and don't really want to go back to high school, thankyouverymuch). 

In the past year or so, there have been a few brilliant sewing patterns for a pinafore, plus lots of great styling on Instagram that made me curious to try the style.  I thought Jennifer Lauren's Ivy Pinafore and Pippi Pinafore were the best of the lot.  There are other indie pattern makers who have come out with pinafore patterns too (Collette, Victory Patterns, and Tilly and the Buttons all have versions), but I didn't think they would work for my body type. 

So imagine my delight when I happened to find just the thing in Target this week!  Ignore the creepy-weird styling on the website.  I think I would have passed it over if I hadn't seen it in person on the rack.  I wasn't too keen to spend a bunch of money on an untried pattern, a new style for me, and fabric and notions, so at less than $30, this Target pinny is the perfect way to try out the style.

I actually like this a lot--it ticks a lot of boxes on the pinny front: bust darts on the bib, semi-fitted silhouette, fitted waist band, side zip, right length, good denim in a nice dark wash.  It is very close in silhouette to the Pippi Pinafore, which was the pattern that most interested me style-wise.  I'm still trying new things right now, and this felt new to me.  (I guess I'm digging toddler styles?)

My only complaint is that I'm going to have to take in the bodice at some point--it is slightly too big, but in order to get a good fit on the skirt, I had to take a slightly larger than ideal size for the top.  (Such is the basic problem of pinafores on an adult pear-shaped body).  I bought a 14 for reference.  I think a 10 or 12 would have been about right on top, but too tight on the bottom as the 14 fits just right below the waist.  So I'll have a go at alterations soon.

In other news, I'm down four pounds this week, so I will take it.  (To recap: I gained 10 pounds in the past month and am trying to lose it, plus another 10 or so to get to where I'd ultimately like to be).  I'm still not sure what I think about Noom (an app that helps with weight loss).  Sometimes I think, yes, this is a great tool, and other times, I think: I hate this thing and am not going to pay money for it (I'm still in the 14 day trial period).  I do like that the app eases you into good habits, a little piece at a time, which is helpful.  And I've given myself permission to not be super precise with logging (I'm not measuring all my food; just eyeballing.  I've done enough measuring in the past few years to have a good sense of how much something is by looking).

I like the way the food log is set up--it is better than My Fitness Pal, which is totally neutral about what foods you log; I find MFP can become a sort of game about numbers rather than the quality of what you eat.  (As in: you can still meet your calorie goal for the day on Milky Way bars, but that's not really a great way to do so).  Noom flags your foods by color and tells you what percentage of your food day should be in each color.  The colors help you make less calorie dense food decisions (i.e grapes instead of raisins).  Some of their classifications make no sense to me, but I'm going with it for now.  I want to eat some carbs in my day and not feel like I'm getting totally derailed, and I also need to eat better in general.  Baby spinach is going down well lately, and doesn't seem to bother my GI tract (shocker!), so I'm trying to get at least one salad in per day.  I also need to quit eating in the evening.  My dinners are usually kind of a mess, so I spend the evening trying to make up for it.  I just need to get into a habit of making myself a proper dinner and eating it with the rest of my family and then be done for the day. (I often cannot eat what I make for my family, so am having to scramble to make a separate plate for myself.  After working for 45 or more minutes on a different meal, it is hard to then make myself do a proper meal for one at the end of it).

So that's that!  I'm hoping that with school in session, and things starting to get into the school year rhythm, I"ll be able to put better habits in place.