Exam is done.

Charlotte commented on finding dresses. Yes, I do think I might go shopping for clothes sometime soon. Maybe this weekend, if I can complete the seemingly-crushing load of tasks for this week (I have another exam to write for next Friday).

I did look in my closet more carefully last night. I have one dress - it's tan, with flowers, and some of the flowers are close enough in color to the new sweater that it should work. And I have a black dress and a black jumper, both of which would look acceptable with the sweater.

(And oh, I have a cotton striped jumper where one of the stripes might just work. I'll have to try it).

I did try doing some clothes-shopping when I visited my parents last but was somewhat disappointed in the lack of dresses. It seems to be a year when dresses are not so much in vogue. Which makes me sad, because I like dresses. I probably wear them more to work than any other set-up (pants and top, or skirt and top, or even jumper and top). The reason is, dresses are EASY. You put it on and you only have to worry about accessories or jewelry. And for me, they're comfortable. And I do think, when a person is a bit heavier (especially in the way that I am - where a lot of it is around the hips and thighs), a properly fitted dress can be more flattering than slacks.

I've bought dresses through the mail but that's always a crapshoot, especially since so many of the places have gone to s-m-l-xl sizing rather than numbered sizes (including Coldwater Creek, for some of their things, and I think really if you're charging $99 for a dress, it should at least come in more nuanced sizes than s-m-l-xl. There's a considerable difference between m and l, just as there is between l and xl). Depending on the cut, I take either an l or an xl. And for more "nuanced" sizes, it's even more complex: depending on the cut and how "vanity" the sizing is, I can wear anything from a 12 to an 18. (Though I don't like to admit to the 18, and it's actually rare I require that in a dress).

I bought a dress from Deva Lifewear, and I really like it - except, I had to take the hips in. I bought it to fit on top, and that was an xl. Through the waist and hips, in their stuff, I'm an l. So though I love their dresses, they don't work straight out of the box for me, I have to alter them.

And I didn't see any dresses in Vermont Country Store that I liked.

I'm thinking of going in-person and shopping: in Sherman there is a Kohl's (though the last time I shopped there, last fall, they made me cry, because their blouses were sized freakishly small) and a Penney's and a Lane Bryant (they made me feel better after the Kohl's debacle because their smallest-size blouse fit me perfectly - and in fact, because it had bust darts, fit better and more attractively than most blouses I have).

If I had more time (and more space, and more patience to fit patterns to myself), I'd go to a fabric store and buy a couple large pieces of nice fabric and MAKE dresses. But as I still have fabric for a skirt and fabric for a dress (neither of which match the sweater that lead to this contemplation) sitting in my supply closet, uncut, I think making clothes is out, except on extended vacations.