So, my old body. It was big, but I knew what size it was. I knew what cuts looked good. I knew which didn't work. It wasn't healthy. It wasn't pretty. But I could clothe it fairly competently.

New body? Not so much. Today I tried on a pair of pants that fit PERFECTLY EVERYWHERE, except my knees. Whose pants don't fit at the knees? What the heck is that?

Either the hips fit and the waist is too big, or the waist fits and the butt is way baggy, or the KNEES don't fit, for heavens sake. I can't find any size that works, and the size that I think might work isn't carried in the stores where I used to shop, or some of the other stores I've tried. There is apparently no size that fits my body, and when I find one that gets close, I can't bend my knees.

I found 10 shirts today, all adorable, all which showed off my newly small (compared to before) waist. But not a single pair of pants, except one pair that was merely passable, and then only with a belt.

I'm not prepared to sink money into tailoring these pants when I knew they'll need to be a couple of sizes smaller in a few months, or I'd just get the waist taken in on the pants that fit the hips.

Just VERY frustrated right now and needed to vent. Commisseration?

I'll commiserate, unfortunately I have no answers. If the waist fits they bag in the butt and the hips. If the butt and hips look good I can't button them. I've resorted to stretch jeans, but I don't like them. I did find shorts in the men's section last summer, but khaki shorts are one thing, dress pants are another, ya' know?

I hear your frustrations! I am the opposite through I cannot find a shirt that will fit nice on me, everything looks awful! I see all these cute tops on plus size models and I try them on it ACKKKKKK! Scary *LOL*

Oh DEFINATELY! I'm in school and should be interviewing pretty soon. I dread buying clothes. I don't have the money right now to spend on something good just to know that it won't be worth anything in a few months!

My waist has always been much smaller than my hips and butt, so the problem continues. Now i'm losing faster on top and any kind of jacket just looks odd. If I fit for my hips it falls off my shoulders but they don't make them short enough to fit at my waist and I really wouldn't want them to since I want to cover the hips *sigh*

I'm right there with ya!

I'm with you as well! I find it difficult because I have short legs. My butt (and belly) used to kind of lift my pants up a bit so I could wear regular length pants but not any more. I tried buying pants a few weeks ago but I gave up. I'm also in the smallest size top in Lane Bryant and I don't know what to do when those become too big.

It is so funny you should write this, because I was just thinking about that this morning. I need fall clothes so badly, and I dread going out to look. I have a small waist but bigger thighs, and I love the lower rise jeans but my legs seem to big for them. Plus, I am never quite sure what size I am, so for every cut of jeans I look at, I have to take three pairs into the dressing room to try on.

But, I try to remind myself that there could be way worser things in life and hope that someday I find that perfect cut of jeans...and if that happens, I will just buy 20 pairs.

I know *exactly* what you mean. Another shopping frustration is that it's no longer a no-brainer ... I was a 22 for so long that I could look at a shirt and tell, based on its size and cut, if it would look good on me. Not true any more ... I still grab for the biggest size on the rack, but it's no longer my size.

This is a lot of why I started shopping thrift and consignment stores ... the clothes cost under $10 per item, usually, so tailoring a pair of linen pants is a lot more feasible. Luckily, my tailor is really inexpensive, so for $20 I have a cute pair of second-hand linen pants that will get me through to the next size.

I have the problem of shirts not fitting. If I get them broad enough to fit my shoulders and chest, they are too wide in the stomach area. My jeans have to fit lower on the waist to fit my hips and legs without sagging. But, for some strange reason if they fit perfect in hips and legs, they are tight across the knees. I am always most comfortable in capris but it's too cold here for those now. I do like shopping at consignment stores too, I find some good deals there.

Yay! At least I have friends in my misery.

I think I'm going to start building a large collection of belts.

I haven't bought anything new yet, but when I do I am going to go to the local thrift store. They usually have very nice things I don't want to spend a lot of money on clothes that I hope will be my temporary size. I do have jeans at this point that I wore a while ago that will start fitting me soon, but I want to go down a few sizes from that point.

Regarding jeans, this might be an option:

http://www.landsend.com/cd/index/fp/...74699935109090

Edited to add:
http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/sto...guideId=500685

OMG!! Thanks for the LAUGH! I know you weren't so much in a funny mood, but that "knees" thing just made me giggle out loud & I really needed that!!!!

Otherwise, yes, I SOOOO know how you feel! Altho I've never had trouble with my KNEES not fitting, per se, I have had troubles with my UNUSUALLY LARGE CALVES. It's very difficult to find a good pair of capris that fit right. And I don't like that "flowery-leg" look.

The ratio of my waist compared to my hips is just TOO STUPID. There is NO SUCH THING as a pair of pants that look good on me!!! So whaddya do, eh? Well, I just stick to long flowy skirts. Those seem to work best for me. And they don't "bind" me in "the middle". It's truly about the only comfortable thing I can wear that looks half-way decent. BUT WHEN I'M THIN! - oh I am just the cutest thing ever. So's my clothes! (But that's a good 30 or so pounds away.... whoa. )

Tisha, I used to buy almost all of my jeans at Old Navy, size 20 and they were low-rise. It was the only place that had jeans that fit me well. I am fairly tall and they had them in long lengths so this worked for me. Wishing you the best of luck in finding the jeans that you need.

Old Navy jeans rock. Of course, they were the purveyor of the "knee jeans", as they will henceforth be called. Still, the plus size jeans fit me like a dream when I was still a plus size, and now I fit in their 18 or 20 jeans (size 18 in waist/hips/butt, size 20 in knees...sigh).

Its ok to laugh at my knee problem. In my family, we are "blessed" with -thick- calves - not so much from fat, but from solid muscle. We don't understand it, but I'm starting to get a little worried. I mean, my calves are probably the place on my body that has the least fat...does this mean that when I get to a size 12 or 14 all of my pants are going to have trouble fitting around the knee/calf area?