So I’m nearly 20 weeks pregnant now and definitely showing somewhat.

When trying to find maternity clothes, I hit a strange roadblock in the form of modesty. Nearly everything was skin-tight and usually short or extremely low-cut, if not all three. I try to avoid those things in my wardrobe in general. But this was even more of a problem, since nearly all maternity clothes seem to fit that mold, whereas ordinarily I can find at least some clothing that is outside those categories without having to make it myself.

What made my options even more slim is the fact that I only wear skirts and dresses not pants. Worse, I’m tall and definitely not petite. For example, things that tend to fit other girls at the knee tend to fit me mid-thigh at best, even before getting pregnant. I could only imagine that pregnancy would make that even worse.

I was starting to get concerned that I was going to have to forgo my usual modesty standards during pregnancy. As an added note, I dress the way I do because it makes me feel both comfortable and beautiful. So I wasn’t happy at the thought of having to stray out of my comfort zone this way. But I was seeing very little options.

The other issue I ran up against was the fact that a lot of maternity clothing, especially the more affordable stuff, tended to look a bit frumpy to me. I like to dress a little fancy and I didn’t want to have to sacrifice that either if I could help it.

So my mom and I started to a little research.

Basically, we had to get a bit creative, but here’s a few places we looked and things we found that may help anyone else having a similar struggle.

NOTE: You’ll likely have more options if you have a bigger budget than I did, which is why I didn’t buy all the suggestions on my list but since they’re helpful I wanted to list them anyway.

NOTE 2: I also was trying to multitask and look for things that would be good for breastfeeding down the line, since that is what I plan to do after the baby is born.

Skirts – https://newcreationapparel.com

First things first. We realized it would be easier to find maternity shirts the way I wanted and pair them with a couple of skirts.

There are a wealth of maternity shirts online, especially sweaters that were more in line with what I wanted to buy. It helps that I was also mainly looking for winter clothes, but there are actually still a good amount of maternity shirts that are modest for any season.

Skirts, however, were an issue until we found this place.

The link above is the site that we found to get skirts from. They have other modest skirts as well as maternity, if you’re interested. The pricing was also fairly reasonable compared to what else I’ve seen.

I bought two. One denim and one black. (For your reference, since the picture is kinda funky, the denim one is more casual, though still slightly dressy, and the black one looks more dressy, like you could wear it to church.) I felt this would be the best way to pair multiple shirts with each skirt, even beyond winter. Neither skirt is particularly thick, but since they’re long, they’re still fairly good for winter or fall. And if needed, maternity tights could be paired with them for a little extra warmth. Plus, since both are so neutral in color, they could be used in multiple seasons throughout the year.

Full skirts can also be good if they have an elastic waistline. I had a couple of these already, so I didn’t do any searching for where to get them myself, but they don’t have to be maternity skirts to fit.

Sweaters – https://www.pinkblushmaternity.com

So for shirts, I chose Pink Blush. They have a lot of good stuff, though somewhat less if you need a size XL like I do. That narrowed my selection a bit. Plus, I was looking to match specific skirts that I already owned (besides the two I bought), so that also narrowed what I was looking for. If you’re starting from scratch, there’s definitely more you can find.

Since I was looking for winter clothes, I bought sweaters. I bought this one in red (burgundy). I got two different colors in the same sweater: one in purple and one in ivory. Fair warning, the ivory one is a bit thin so I’ll probably wear something under it since I don’t like clothing that’s even a little see through. It’s also closer to pure white than an off white, but that’s what I wanted. All in all, I haven’t gotten a chance to wear all these yet, since the weather is still too warm, but I like them all from what I can tell so far.

Previously, I had also bought this shirt as well. These tend to be quite long, just as pictured and I like these as well.

I would try to get coupons for Pink Blush, since they are a bit on the expensive side, though not as bad as a lot of places.

Empire Waist

So I don’t have a link for this one, since I didn’t buy anything under this category.

However, this is great for either dresses or shirts. The waistline on it should fit above your baby bump, almost no matter how far along you are.

You may have a harder time finding dresses you can nurse in, but if you’re not going to nurse, that isn’t a problem.

Plus, the benefit of these is the dresses or shirts with this waistline tend to have a fun, old-timey look, which I personally enjoy.

Nursing

If you’re looking for nursing friendly clothes, skirts and shirts may actually be a good idea for you. Also, the shirts don’t necessarily have to be nursing specific shirts. You probably would have to get slightly looser shirts if they aren’t nursing specific.

But during my search, I did also come across another place to find lovely nursing dresses. Not as many of these can double as maternity dresses, but I thought I would add the link to this site anyway. They have a lot of lovely dresses that are nursing friendly and are somewhat more moderately priced, though still a bit on the expensive side.

Hopefully this has been helpful! It took hours of looking for my mom and I to find all this, so I wanted to share it with anyone else who might need it.