Thesaurus Thursday: "Wonted." + Freya Hopscotch Longline Review.

Today's word is "wonted," an adjective meaning, "customary, habitual, or usual."


I recently received my first longline and am now loathe to return to the wonted discomfort of regular bras, despite a few glaring fit issues.

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I have always wanted a longline but been hesitant to purchase one, because I would fall in love with the patterns on Freya's padded half-cup designs, and I knew I needed a 28H, which they did not (and still don't) make.  Right now, though, after some weight shifting around, I'm sitting pretty comfortably at a small-ish 30 band and ~FF cup in most of my bras, so I decided to take the plunge and order this:

Freya Hopscotch Padded Longline

freyalingerie.com

Isn't she adorable?  I'm a sucker for cotton-candy colors and prints that aren't very bold, though; this might be too "sweet" for many people's tastes.  I ordered a 30FF, even though I knew Freya's bands tended toward the stretchier side, because my ribcage flares out a bit beneath an indent where normal bands sit before tapering to my waist, and I wanted to be able to breathe!  I should not have worried; the Hopscotch band is very stretchy. If your ribcage doesn't have a flare anywhere, I'd definitely recommend sizing down in the band if you're between band sizes, especially because there are only two columns of hooks and eyes.*

While a 28 would probably last longer, the 30 is still comfortable for me.  In fact, my first thought was, "Why are all my other bras not this comfortable?"  My next thoughts were, "The gore doesn't quite tack because the cups need to be a bit deeper, and there's some side- and quad-boob, but darn it, I like how my boobs look, so we'll just... not scoop-and-swoop completely, shall we?"

Top is semi-scooped.  Bottom is (er, mostly) scooped.

It should be noted that despite the bad picture quality, 

the colors in real life are more similar to my photos than the stock photo,

slightly more muted.

Yes, I know... I'm setting a terrible example!  A 28GG would likely check off more of the "perfect fit" requirements, but again, Freya's longlines are only made up to G cups.**  I could return this for a 30G, but (shhh!) sometimes I appreciate the extra oomph from slightly-too-small cups.  And I wore it all yesterday without any of the fit issues showing through my clothes. The width of the wires is actually perfect in this size, even though on me, they could stand to be a bit taller. This is a very low-cut bra; I imagine it would be great for those who like semi-wide, low wires, shallower cups, and less coverage. I think it could work for less shallow shapes too, though sizing up in the cup might be necessary.  But if you need a lot of depth and narrower wires a la Comexim or Ewa Michalak, this would not be your best bet.

One thing that many people have complained about with Freya's longlines is the band riding up, scrunching, and/or flipping.  The band did immediately crease right beneath the cups in front (you can see it in the top photo).  This was a minor cosmetic issue for me; it didn't appear to affect the fit. Unfortunately, the flipping band/riding up does happen.  It seems to be a combination of a stretchy band and lack of boning in the front to hold it in place. If it becomes too much of an issue, I'll probably add some flexible boning, an alteration I saw on Fussy Busty's Patsy longline. A tighter band might correct this without boning, but as it is, I'd rather not exchange something that's already comfortable and doesn't bother me, especially when the sister size of 28G wouldn't be a perfect fit anyway.  I know others have said the rolling and flipping can become uncomfortable and itchy, or create weird lumps and bumps.  If you really want the Hopscotch and have sensitive skin or hate it when bands don't stay in place, I'd plan for adding boning to be on the safe side.

So even though the Freya Hopscotch isn't a perfect fit, I'm keeping it, because it is so, so, so comfortable.  ... And also cleavage.  That is all.



*I don't believe any of Freya's longlines have three?  Let me know if I've forgotten one!
**Please, please, please, Freya, could you extend these to at least H cups like with the normal padded half-cup designs?

Thesaurus Thursday: "Beneficent."

Hi everyone!  Today's Thesaurus Thursday is also a general call to help out a good cause:  A Sophisticated Pair is accepting bra donations for Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA).  If you don't have extra bras or prefer to do other things with bras you no longer use*, that's OK, but if you do have any just taking up space and don't know what to do with them, consider sending them over!  They would prefer them in by the 25th of April, but they'll be doing fittings and taking more donations in the future. They can also provide tax receipts including shipping costs.

So today's word is "beneficent," an adjective meaning "generous or doing good."  

Consider being beneficent and sending some bras for TROSA over to A Sophisticated Pair; you can find more information about it here.

* I know I sometimes end up with a few spares in the back of a lingerie drawer.  We all tell ourselves they "might" fit again, right?

Thesaurus Saturday: "Agerasia"

I didn't get around to Thesaurus Thursday on Thursday because it was Mr. Nerd's birthday, but have no fear!  Today's word is "agerasia," meaning "youthful appearance of an old person."

Mr. Nerd claims he had a teacher with agerasia who looked like he was in his mid-thirties even though he was in his sixties, although he apparently also looked like he was in his mid-thirties when he was twelve.  

Thesaurus Thursday: "Finifugal."

Today's word is "finifugal" (adjective, obsolete).  It means fearful of or hating endings, or describes one who tries to prolong stories or relationships in order to delay their endings.

She was a finifugal Harry Potter reader, taking a month to finish Deathly Hallows because she didn't want to stop pretending that she too went to Hogwarts. (I read it the day I bought it and rather regret that :-/.  I still miss it.)

... After all this time? 

Thesaurus Thursday: "Chimerical."

Today's word is "chimerical," an adjective meaning wildly fanciful or visionary.  It can also mean "related to being a chimera."

The Chimera of Arezzo

Chimerical in both senses of the word.

The chimerical idea that humans would eventually be travelling the skies in metal boxes highly amused the society with which the time travelers interacted.

Confessions of a Wannabe Cosplayer: Part II.

Hello readers!  I am so glad to be back to regular posting after a few life changes derailed the previous restarting of the blog.  I missed you all.

You might recall that a year ago, I wrote a post Confessions of a Wannabe Cosplayer.  With the encouragement of a few fellow bloggers, I have decided to turn that post into a recurring series and chronicle my ongoing internal battle between the desire to cosplay and social anxiety, insecurity, and inhibition.  I'm hoping that eventually the series will culminate in attending a con.  I don't want to put myself under too much pressure, so we'll have to see!

Yes, please.

In that first post, I mentioned that I hadn't dressed up for Halloween in eight years. Where I live, Halloween has become more about casual neighborhood cookouts than costume parties, communal bowls of candy rather than trick-or-treating, and even kids seem to dress up far less often than they did when I was little.

I hate it.  I don't know exactly when or why this transition occurred, but stereotypes about adults who dress up started popping up all over the place: They don't want to grow up.  They're self-involved and narcissistic.  They're ridiculous.  (And often, for women: They're s***s... that will have to be another post). And I bought into it.  I bought into the patently absurd idea that dressing up as someone else says something about one's personality besides, "I like this character, and I like dressing up."  Some people who dress up might immerse themselves in fantasy worlds to a degree that others would consider unhealthy.  Some might be narcissistic.  Some might be ridiculous.  But... the same could be said about everyone, including that guy in jeans and a t-shirt at the gas station.

(Image from wikipedia)

Like Mr. Nerd, he dresses up as an extra from Grand Theft Auto, 

every. single. year.

I will never be a professional cosplayer.  That doesn't fit in with my life and schedule.  But I finally decided that my first step toward any sort of cosplaying would be dressing up again for Halloween. I love steampunk costumes and had seen various pictures of steampunk Disney princess ideas, so I settled on Snow White.  Because I don't (aka can't) sew and didn't want to go out spend much money, I just bought a few extra items like a red bow and welder's goggles and used my own clothes, changing an old shirt into a skirt with a pseudo-bustle in the back (courtesy of scissors and duct tape).

I had no party to go to, didn't plan on going trick-or-treating, and am not a club/barhopping type of person.  So I asked the question on Facebook: Adults running errands and doing daily activities in costume on Halloween: awesome or weird?  The response was overwhelmingly positive.  Most people said things like, "I once saw someone dressed up as [character] at the grocery.  It totally made my day!" or even, "YES DO IT."  And you know what?

I did.

I went to the grocery.  Went to the crafts store to buy cake decorating supplies.  Went to the park. Got lunch.  All in costume.  I won't pretend that I felt totally comfortable or at ease; I didn't.  I often felt awkward and scared and was so worried that someone would say, in a tone that made it clear that they thought I was a nutcase, "Um, why are you dressed like that?" that I sometimes had difficulty getting out of my car.

The truth is that other than a friend from a former workplace, no one commented at all.  I only saw two other adults in costume the entire day.  Sometimes I wonder if people assumed that because a lot of my costume was re-purposed everyday clothing, I was just a girl with a very unorthodox sense of style.  Even though I didn't receive any positive reinforcement, I didn't receive any disparaging remarks either.  A few stares and odd looks, sure.  At times I nearly crumbled under those stares.  I had to keep in mind that those looks weren't inherently negative responses.  I was the one assuming that the motivations behind the stares were negative.   But no one came up and berated me for being "too old to dress up."  No one laughed at me.  No one asked me why I wasn't dressed "like a normal person."  I took solace in that.  I even started to have--wait for it--fun.

So this year, when Halloween rolls around, I might just have to do it again.  

**Blog notice: you might have noticed that the "Redefining Sexy" post never happened.  I had it written and ready to publish at the beginning of the year, but then I read it through and realized that I didn't have anything original to add to the discussion that already took place in October 2013.  If you would like a list of the posts other bloggers have done on the topic, see Les Gros Bonnet's Redefining Sexy Round-up.**

Thesaurus Thursday: "Acquiesce."

(Yes!  For once I realized that it is, in fact, Thursday!)

Today's word is "acquiesce," a verb meaning accede, comply or go along with.  If you hadn't heard it before, you might have noticed it in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean:

(t-shirt from skreened.com)

Means "No."

Her brother might acquiesce if she asks to borrow his iPod, but probably only if she agrees to clean his room for a week.