Maternity Clothes for Less
If you are pregnant and the thought of having to buy maternity clothes that you will only wear for a short period of time makes your wallet cringe, here's a few tips to help get you through.

** Try to borrow whatever you can from friends and family. Chances are they will be happy to give you their old clothes as they may not be using them again either.

** If you know how to sew, you can save money on your maternity clothes and also, get exactly what you want. I couldnt find a "holiday" outfit for a Christmas party I was attending and ending up making a shimmery green top and wore black slacks with it. I liked it so much, I made a red one for Valentine's Day. The other advantage to making the clothing yourself is that you can get the size that FITS you. At the time I was pregnant, I was a plus size woman and quickly found that plus size maternity clothes were pretty hard to find. A 1X or 3X wasnt *exactly* as I had assumed it would be. The maternity patterns that I found were for actual sizes and I could increase or decrease as I saw fit. As a result, I had clothes that fit, that I was very comfortable in.

** This brings us to the point that if you are pregnant, and especially working outside the home, black slacks are your best friend! They will go with everything.

** When you find out your a pregnant, since you have 9 months worth of clothing to think about, you might be able to shop the sales that may still have last season's clothes on sale at greatly reduced prices. Say for example you find out you are pregnant in February, you would be due about October. You may be able to find some bargains on Fall clothing still in February.

** Some plus size clothing will work as maternity clothing as well. Keep in mind though that it is not designed for pregnancy, but many things will work pretty nicely during pregnancy too. When I was pregnant, my sleeping attire was mostly just plus size clothing.

Please share any maternity clothing tips you have...