I thought I had gotten used to doing things I said I’d never do, but I managed to surprise myself today.
In an act of unbridled frugality, I added fabric to the bottom of Zoe’s favorite pants. They were the perfect kind of soft and not “too jean-sy” as so many pants are dubbed. They have pockets. And they don’t fall down from her lack of waist. They were also such high-waters that I was embarrassed for her to be seen in them–and it really takes a lot to embarrass me.
When I was young and growing about as fast as Zoe is now, my mom added fabric to the bottom of my pants. Not just straight fabric either. Ruffles. NO ONE had ruffles on the bottom of their pants. There was no question as to how uncool ruffles on the bottoms of one’s pants were. I hated them. As I wore the Laura Ingalls-esque prairie dresses that went back and forth from Becki to me with ruffles added and removed to adjust lengths (see, now it’s knee-length, it’s a whole new dress!), and tugged on the pants with their unsightly hems, I stewed in my hand-me-downs and shook a proverbial fist “I will never make my daughter wear something like this! Never!”
Heh, heh. Well, I am. And I, like my mom, think it’s perfectly cute.
Mom, you may now gloat.
6 replies on “never say never”
Hey…I wore hand me down “home-made” bathing suits from my 3 years older cousin from the UP Prisilla……Auntie Miriam made them. They were hideous! Puffy bottoms and ridiculous patterns and fabrics…not the cool Adidas one piece suits my friends were wearing with the awesome stripes and little logos.
When I had Travis I vowed to never have him wear garage sale clothes or hand me downs……Funny how things work, Taylor wore nothing but for years…now one of our favorite places to shop first is goodwill/salvation army and Platos Closet before hitting the clearance sales racks at the malls.
Our Moms (and Aunties) were WAY cool as well as smart…no one could stretch a dollar further than my Auntie Miriam!
but ruffles??? you poor child!
when i was a kid, my mom used to stretch the life of my too-short dresses by having me wear pants underneath them – which also proved to be pretty warm during Ottawa winters. i remember how embarrassed i was – but guess what’s hip with my high-school students right now? (not to mention shorts with leggings – which, in my opinion, should NEVER come back.)
i’m sure the lengthened pants are very cute. Zoe’s such a style maven, she wouldn’t wear them otherwise…
it’s still gotta be better than the olive green toughskins with knee patches that i had to wear after my two brothers.
so what kind of fabric did you add–a funky Amy Butler??
No Amy Butler fabric. I actually cut another outgrown pair of pants into shorts and used the fabric from those to lengthen the others. Voila! Does that make me even cheaper than my mom?
And, honey, green toughskins! I suppose the kneepatches were ironed on pre-emptively like my mom did too? Yikes.
I think toughskins actually had the knee patches in them when you bought them didnt they? I had a maroon pair….garage sale purchase of course, oh and the best part…
they were “huskie” sized!
Now wait a minute from the mom’s era comes this… Toughskins were very wonderful STYLISH boys pants with double knees so that they didn’t have holes in after one day of play. They came from Sears- also a great place in that era.