Maternity Fashion

I feel compelled to say immediately  #ThisIsNotAnAnnouncement.

Ok? Ok.

Moving on.

I do maternity fashion by NOT doing maternity fashion. I have a general policy against having clothes that I never wear - spare for a short time. I like my regular clothes and I feel so much more like a regular person if they're not off limits for the better part of a year.

Obviously, this only works if your regular clothes are, or can be made to be, maternity friendly.

Got ya covered!

Here's how I do that.

Pick pieces with adaptable waistlines

I look for empire-waists, flowing lines, elastic waists, or shift dresses that can be easily belted.

Layers

Dresses and skirts work really well for maternity until about the 3rd/late 2nd trimesters, and then suddenly everything starts to get a little high on the leg.

My trick for that is to either wear a skirt under a dress to extend the hem or wear a skirt on top of a skirt as a dress!

On the left is short sundress over maxi skirt. I changed this up later in the day by pulling the maxi skirt high enough to act as a tank under the sun dress. I threw a lighter sweater over that and belted. Done!

On the right is a skirt over skirt = dress! This was taken very late after Ballet. Can you tell my toes still hurt?

It's a fun way to get more outfit options out of your closet, and allows you to pair colors and textures from items that would not normally be worn together.

Get the Pieces that *do* need to be maternity

For me, these are maternity yoga pants and dress pants.

Yes, just pants.

The yoga pants are really needed for chiropractor visits towards the end of pregnancy (yea hyper-flexibility....).

Maternity dress pants are awesome - like I wear them when I'm not pregnant. 

They actually lay flat! 

And are comfy! 

They're like PJs you can reasonably wear to meetings!

Most women's dress pants, at least in my price range, are atrociously designed. These stay up, stay closed, and lay right. Win!

I'm pretty anti-maternity jeans. I find denim to be too heavy of a fabric to be held up by spandex alone. I have found a video about how to make your regular jeans into maternity jeans, which I might give a go if I found a type of jeans I really like.

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Here was My Sunday Best this week!
Which was really my Saturday best. We did the vigil mass because my husband is running the San Francisco Half Marathon this morning!

Skirt: Amazon (was for a dance costume but works well for everyday too!)
Sweater: Target
Camisole: Thrifted (aka probably used to be my sister's...)
Belt: JCPenney
Not Pictured: Infinity Veil in Charcoal Blue from Veils by Lily

Thanks for following along for Pants-Free July everyone!

I'm going to keep on wearing almost exclusively dresses and skirts. You can follow the hashtag on Facebook and Instagram to see more outfits other people put together this month, and hear how it went.