Favorites Week: The Best T-Shirt
Apr 26, 2022
Maternity sizing makes no sense. Â It’s based on your pre-pregnancy size, but I have yet to find a single brand that wasn’t too big or too small. Â I feel like Goldilocks, but instead of porridge, I’m hunting for clothes made for pregnant women (not clothes made for models wearing fake pregnancy bellies). Â But maybe the sizing failures of one of the most popular maternity lines can be good for misses-size women?
This scoop neck t-shirt from Ingrid & Isabel is incredible. Â It’s like the t-shirts we bought in the 90s. Â The material is thick, not sheer at all. Â The length is perfect. Â The comfort is on point. Â I haven’t seen a t-shirt made this well since I was still listening to music on a Discman.
I wore it for the first time last week. Â I bought two more on my lunch break — one bigger, one the same size. Â So let’s talk about sizing.
I wear a size-6, maybe a small size-8 on bottom. Â The medium t-shirt is supposed to fit my pregnancy body through my entire pregnancy. Â I’ll be lucky if it fits through week 24. Â To say that the clothes run small is an almost laughable understatement. Â But my loss is your gain.
An Ingrid & Isabel medium fits like a size 8-10. Â Adjust accordingly. Â And buy this t-shirt. Â I promise, what you’re getting is thick, soft, fitted magic. Â So ignore the maternity tag, and snap up this under-$50 t-shirt in a hurry.
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I think a lot of pregnancy sizing also assumes that you will gain nowhere but the bump throughout your pregnancy. I think for a lot of women though, that is not the case (I know it’s never been for me). At minimum most also gain in the bust, which makes a pre-pregnancy S need to be at least a pregnancy M in tops. I’ve taken to sizing up at least 2 sizes for this pregnancy on anything stretchy or fitted, and it’s helped a lot. A couple things ran too big, but even then, I’ll “grow” into them 🙂
I am up a band and cup size, and everything is thicker. What is this bulls**t that they think we only gain weight up front? And I too am holding onto some pants that were too big last month, but will probably fit in two weeks.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on different pregnancy clothes! My husband and I are hoping to start our family soon so I will be grateful for any reviews you or other readers have!
pregnancy sizing was impossible for me. and you don’t have time to figure it out because by the time you figure it out you have a baby and then you have a whole new set of problems.
what I would have KILLED for was a guide that was like “I was X size pre pregnancy. I gained X lbs during my pregnancy. This is is the size I wore in ____ brand. ____ brand. and ____ brand during pregnancy. and had photos of the women participating.
probably would have paid good money for it considering the amount of time and money I spent buying returning feeling like crap with no cloths and then just wearing lulu lemon aligns the whole time.
This. So much this.
This is why I just wore loose dresses or maternity leggings literally my entire pregnancy.
It’s so grim out there for maternity styles!
Maternity clothes are so difficult. I found some success with Seraphine, they have a work edit in their maternity section.
I am going to caveat this with the statement that different maternity brands and styles seem to work for different people (and no one can tell you what the secret sauce is). But I was a 12P pre-pregnancy, have gained 20-25 pounds at 31 weeks, and I have been very pleased with my Seraphine jeans and trousers.
This Canadian company makes THE BEST tank tops and tshirts for pregnancy that will last into post-partum and breastfeeding. I loved them because you simply pull down the neckline of the stretchy fabric over the boob to breastfeed (thus no exposure of the back or belly, and no snaps or weird folds or buttons). The fabric is a good thickness and stretches nicely over pregnancy bellies too. I actually still wear the tank tops I bought from them sometimes, even though my kids are school-aged now, because they are so comfy.
https://aufaitmama.com/
Get the Ingrid and Isabel tank tops too! I loved them during my pregnancy. They were thick, not see through, long enough to cover the growing belly and grew with you. They lasted through both of my pregnancies and I still wear them a year later. I would wear them under other items but also by themselves.
I was also a big fan of the athleta Speedlight t-shirt for both workouts and just hot days. It has ruching already built in, I was able to size up from my normal size and it had enough stretch that even though its not a maternity shirt it worked well.
I rented maternity clothes from Le Tote (3 years ago…so I can’t speak to the selection today) but really loved it! I got to wear more expensive clothes than I ever would have purchased for my ever-changing body and wasn’t left with a whole bunch of maternity clothes after my son arrived. Granted, this was when I was going to the office every day so I needed a bigger wardrobe.I just hated the idea of buying items that were only good for a month or so!
This Ingrid and Isabel shirt from Target is a great short sleeve option! Thick and soft! I hated the look of shirred tops, and this was one of the few I could find that wasn’t. I packed them a few months postpartum but think about pulling them out all (and stocking up) all the time.
https://www.target.com/p/short-sleeve-non-shirred-maternity-t-shirt-isabel-maternity-by-ingrid-isabel/-/A-52450121?preselect=52313702#lnk=sametab