Tightwad Maternity Clothing

By: Susan Godfrey
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:22:29
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With this pregnancy, we were on a really tight budget and to make matters worse, I had started wearing dresses only, so many of my old maternity clothing wouldn't work for me. These are ideas that I used to expand my maternity clothing wardrobe without breaking the bank!

1. When you HAVE to purchase maternity clothing, look first at garage sales, thrift shops, re-sale shops and then eBay…in that order. Your best deals will be found at garage sales, while purchasing in re-sale shops or eBay will lead you to higher priced items.

2. Only buy new when you REALLY have to and then purchase items that are versatile and classic in design. For example, a denim, khaki or black skirt, pants or jumper will match nearly anything. Keep your eyes open for clearance racks. I got several cute maternity shirts at Wal-Mart, Target & K-Mart for under $5.00.

3. Borrow maternity clothing when possible. Ask recently pregnant ladies at your church, family members and friends. For example, I got several cute maternity dresses from an online friend…all I had to do was pay for shipping (less than $10). All I did was ask and the offers came rolling it!

4. Borrow some items from your husband's wardrobe. Go for more fitted items so they don't look too manly.

5. Skirts & pants that button can still be used by using these simple gadgets called the Belly Belt or the Bella Band. It costs about $25 but it's a great investment when you consider that you can wear your regular clothing instead of purchasing expensive maternity clothing. Even cheaper is to sew buttonholes on to both ends of a piece of elastic (whatever size you want/need). One end of the elastic fits over the existing button on the pants. Sew another button on the opposite side of the article of clothing and attaching the other end of the elastic to that button. This is a really inexpensive "fix"

6. For those of you that sew, you can also purchase pre-made "maternity panels" to sew into your existing skirts & pants.

7. If you wear dresses/skirts only, you can turn maternity jeans into skirts. You can find instructions at The Family Homestead, http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/denimskirts.htm.

8. If you own jumpers, you will most likely be able to wear them throughout most of your pregnancy.

9. You can wear your regular button up shirts under jumpers by leaving the last few buttons at the bottom unbuttoned. Since they're under a jumper, no one will know! If you want to wear them with skirts or pants, just wear them unbuttoned over a T-shirt.

10. If you have maternity clothing that's out of season, you can alter the items. Long sleeves can be shortened and pants and be altered into shorts.

11. Larger women's sizes can be purchased much cheaper than Maternity clothing. This is a great source for T-shirts, blouses and elastic wasted pants. I found most of these on the clearance rack at Wal-Mart or other discount stores.

12. If you sew, you can sew your own maternity clothing for pretty reasonable prices. Choose 1-2 patterns and continue to reuse them. Most maternity patterns contain at least a combination of items. For example the one I bought had patterns for a jumper, shirt, skirt and shorts/pants all in one envelope. You can nearly always find inexpensive fabric at Wal-Mart starting at about $2.00 per yard or you use fabric from your stash.

13. If you live near an outlet mall, check out their maternity clothing. You can find some really inexpensive items that are factory seconds and on the clearance rack. We use to have a Motherhood Outlet Store at the one close by me and with my last pregnancy, I was able to get some cute things for between $5-$10. I was able to get shirts, jeans, skirts & dresses for these prices.

14. If the pants or skirt is tight enough in the hips, you can wear skirts or pants by leaving them unzipped. A long shirt will cover it.

15. Elastic waist pants & skirts can be worn "under the belly" with a long shirt to cover it. Just make sure they're snug enough to stay up!

As you can see from these ideas, you can establish you maternity wardrobe without breaking the bank!

~ Susan Godfrey is a Christian wife, mom and homemaker. She is also the owner of Homekeeper's Heart, http://www.freewebtown.com/homekeepersheart, a Titus 2 Ministry to encourage Christian women to be the wives, mothers and homemakers that God wants them to be! She has her own blog at http://www.susangodfrey.blogspot.com and also is the owner of the Homesteader's Heart Blog at http://www.homesteadersheart.blogspot.com where she shares homesteading, gardening and country living articles.

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