My daughter and I went shopping today. She’s 13 years old, 5 foot 4 inches tall and a size 2, so she had no trouble finding clothes in the junior department. I was nearly my current height of 5 foot 9½ inches when I was her age. I’ve never shopped in juniors.

As for me, my favorite color combo of blue and white was EVERYWHERE, so I found lots that I wanted to try on. However, it turns out that I know too much about how clothes are supposed to fit to be satisfied with anything — well almost. Among the disheartening fitting issues:

• Knit tops that were too short. (Again, I’m tall.)
• Knit tops that were too narrow in the shoulders. (And I have broad shoulders.)
• Woven tops with bust darts in the totally wrong spot. (The girls aren’t way up next to my clavicle!)
• A dress made for a B-cup. (Ahem. Not since my first pregnancy.)
• A blouse that looked way too easy to make to pay retail for. (Snapped a picture of that one with my phone for future reference.)

So what did I end up with? One Ralph Lauren T-shirt dress 50 percent off. Navy blue with small white horizontal stripes. It comes to a very flattering just-below-the-knee length, and the brushed knit was a good weight and so soft. It has a self tie that provides just enough shape to an essentially waist-less person. With my navy espadrille wedges that tie at the ankle, a few bangles and a broad-brimmed sun hat, it will be a perfect go-to-dinner dress on our Southern California vacation next week that encompasses my birthday and anniversary.

Although I’m really happy with the dress, the ready-to-wear shopping experience was enough to send me screaming back to my sewing machine. I’ll be spending all day there tomorrow working on my skirt project.

Gemini note (because it’s not all about sewing): I just recently found out that the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation is my birthday! I’m desperately looking for Diamond Jubilee memorabilia with June 2 on it. No luck so far …

Tagged: darts, Diamond Jubilee, fitting, Queen Elizabeth