Anyways! That season is over now and I am going to be selling my maternity clothes. I could have consigned them but thought I would try my hand at a little instagram sale instead. I also thought it would be cool to be able to pass on my clothes to people that aren't total strangers. (even if I don't know you, you might feel like you kind of know me from following along here, and I just think it would be special to pass on my maternity clothes to friends and YOU!)
First of all, though, I want to tell you a bit about why I loved specific maternity clothing and why I had a completely separate wardrobe for my pregnancies.
I loved watching my body grow and I loved getting to wear maternity clothing. Contrary to what seems to be the overall concession among a lot of pregnant women, (ie "I hate how I look, I have nothing to wear, I can't wait to have this baby and be done with this body") I personally LOVED my maternity wardrobe. The clothes I'm wearing in these following pictures are some of my favorite pieces I’ve ever worn! I loved how I looked pregnant and dressing the bump was so much fun for me. I think there are a couple of reasons why women in general talk about not liking how they look during pregnancy, and I want to share those and some tips with you all today!
1) Do not just wear your husband's tee shirts with sweats or leggings the entire pregnancy. Not only is that just not a great look in general, but it automatically adds extra pounds and "frump" to a pregnant mama. Also, I'm going to guess that if you actually ask your guy for his honest opinion..that look isn't a husband's favorite look on his wife either. =)
2) Buy some maternity clothes! Yes, a lot of them are expensive. But you do not have to break the bank to put together a fun little wardrobe for this special season of life. My favorite places to find my maternity clothing were thrift stores like Savers, Goodwill, and City Thrift, and consignment stores like Once Upon a Child, Clothes Mentor, Ditto Consignment, and my local favorite, Little Stories Boutique. I’ve had the best success with Savers personally; not sure why but they always seem to have tons of maternity stuff and the last two times I bought maternity there I hit the jackpot! A couple other used options I've found online are Maternity Traders and Poshmark. Maternity Traders is basically like an online thrift store website, and you can also sell your maternity clothes there. Poshmark is handy because you can search the exact brand/size you are wanting and come up with tons of options! Online thrift is definitely more expensive than in-store thrift since you have to pay for shipping and the cost of someone else doing the buying/reselling, but sometimes you can find really nice brands for a fraction of the retail price, even with shipping costs.
I have also found that getting on an email list and watching for sales is a great way to get maternity clothing for discounted prices. My favorite maternity brands were probably Old Navy and Gap, so I got on their email list. As a result of that, I would receive their emails any time they had special sales. I was amazed at some of the awesome deals I was able to find on stuff there, especially maternity tees! Lots of stores nowadays have free shipping on $50+ orders, and free returns, so you can try out a few different sizes and styles and then return whatever you don't want to keep.
Another tip is to watch for deals even if you aren't currently pregnant. Sure, it's a bit of a gamble, as no pregnancy is ever guaranteed, but for some reason I always seemed to find the best deals at times when I wasn't pregnant. Buying them then and popping them in my maternity totes for a someday, if needed, worked great for me!
I liked how I looked in fitted clothing, and actual fitted maternity clothing is much more flattering than just "sizing up" in regular clothes, so I did wear almost exclusively maternity items for all of my pregnancies. It was always fun to pack away my regular clothes and get out the new wardrobe, each time I got pregnant. When I wasn't pregnant, I loved loaning my maternity totes to my pregnant sister/sisters in law.
For pants/shorts/skirts, I found that I did not like those little "waist extender" maternity bands, as they add extra bulk and I don't think clothes lay as smoothly with those. Plus, I felt like I'd always be worried if my shirt rode up and there was an awkward gap somewhere. I highly advise figuring out if you prefer the over belly or under belly style waists for actual maternity bottoms (both are available) and finding even a few staple pieces that you love, instead of trying the maternity band with your regular bottoms. When I was pregnant with Axton, I could not stand the over-belly styles, so all of my maternity bottoms were the under-belly band style. With Watson, it was the other way around-I really preferred the over-belly style, especially for pants! I have no idea why my comfort level was different but it was!
Hopefully you fellow mamas and mamas-to-be can find some inspiration and ideas from these pictures and this post. Growing a bump is one of the coolest experiences and it can be SO much fun to dress the new look! Looking in the mirror and feeling beautiful is a game changer in pregnancy! If you haven't thought of maternity fashion before in this way, I'd encourage you to change your mindset and give it a shot!
Now for a bit about my clothes that are maybe about to become YOURS!! This collection of clothing that I'm selling is in excellent shape. I feel very strongly about not selling clothing that is stained, faded, or worn. (I really dislike wearing clothing like that anyways, so almost anytime I had something that wore out I got rid of it right away. Just ask my husband. He is not a fan of how quickly his clothes "disappear" when they get worn, ha!) As a result, all of the items I am selling (unless a few specifically noted otherwise) are in awesome condition. The pictures aren't professional and items aren't perfectly ironed or steamed; I'd rather spend that extra time loving on my babies these days. As a result, I'm starting nearly all of the bids quite low. My main goal with this is not to make a boatload of money; my goal is for happy mamas and mamas-to-be to get my maternity clothes and to feel beautiful in them, just like I felt!
Not all of these clothes are from my closet. I loved picking up additional pieces here and there at thrift stores and garage sales. I either gave them as gifts to friends or have been saving them for this project. Who knows, if this is a grand success I might even continue to do little maternity sales on my new page, from time to time. I love finding and buying good maternity pieces, and from what I hear it’s not that way for everyone, so maybe I can still get the fun of buying maternity clothes and some of YOU can suddenly have your maternity shopping get a whole lot easier!
I didn't announce my pregnancy online this last time, until after Watson was actually born, so I never got to share all these bump pictures!
Here are a few of my favorite outfits, in no particular order, from last year! Most of the clothes worn in these pictures will be sold in the upcoming sale; a few are worn out or otherwise un-sellable, but most pieces will be available. Visit @maternitystylesbychelsy on instagram to shop this weekend!
Love all these pictures Chels, I am currently expecting my second baby so will definitely be checking these out! I've read your blog for around 10 years, starting when i was about 14, and always thought you were one of the prettiest and sweetest young woman. You still are!! Praying for your health and that God will grant you strength for each day! 💖
ReplyDeleteThankyou so much; you are so kind!! I hope you can find something you like to wear during your pregnancy!❤️
DeleteThank you for sharing all of these Chelsy! They all look so nice, and cute and elegant in that last photo! Btw, I've been noticing... you and your baby sister (not so baby=) Rebecca sort of look alike:)
ReplyDeleteThankyou so much!❤️
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