Jane - I learned the same thing a few months ago (except in my case "Pennington's" was "Catherine's", though I now definitely fit into the standard 3x at most department and other stores. You are so much taller than me and I am sure you'll be into your new dresses soon!
Well, my package arrived: dress and boots and sweater. Nothing worked! Therefore, I think all y'all spending time looking at 'what will I wear at goal weight' websites are smarter than me. Hah. The dress was WAY too long for me. Had a handkerchief hem, but that mean it basically dropped off the widest part of my body. There was no shaping to it, except for a belt. The belt was TERRIBLE. It went around my upper stomach, the widest part of my body. That was the only way it looked okay, and the only way to keep the dress from being a shapeless mess. but ugh. I tried pulling it upward to make it empire-ish, but that was not attractive either. I will say that it seemed to be made well - there was a lining, which is nice.
Now: the boots. Tooo tall. Meant to be knee-high, they went over my knee. I couldn't zip them past upper-mid-calf. Also: they were leather and suede but the leather was stained. (OTOH: zipped to mid-calf? They looked great. Maybe I will try some other boots, but only shorter styles, not 'knee-high'.)
Finally: sweater. The weave was so loose you could see the skin and/or bra clear as day. Also kinda itchy.
If anything else had worked I would've kept the boots on the belief that in a few months I would have workable thigh-high! boots. But since nothing worked and the boots were stained, all are going back! Good reminder to me that I need to try things on.
car - I think that's a great idea, though. If I am craving something I might go and look at a clothes blog. Or something. Though avoid pictures of the super-skinny women, hah. I heard about some study that compared people who were given journals with a pic of a super-skinny woman on them to women given journals with a neutral pic on them and asked to record their food intake while trying to lose weight, and those who kept looking at the superskinny woman stopped losing and actually gained weight, seriously! When the super-skinny woman was replaced by a more normal size woman on the pages of the journal, weight loss started again. How weird is that?
dgramie - that is so exciting, good job on the exercise! I have also managed it every day this week and I feel brilliant. What sort of dress are you looking for? Something formal? Or is the wedding more garden/informal?
PS -
sassyangies - that is a REAL challenge. Your hubby is lucky to have you. IIII would've told him to make it himself! Hah. Actually, since my dad is retired and my mom still works (and before my dad retired, he taught so had more time off during the holidays), my dad makes the family fruitcakes and cookies at Christmas time.