I have a wardrobe quite literally bursting with clothes and yet when challenged what to wear for a meal out pretty much all of them are out of bounds. It's frustrating to say the least; I wish that I could just go out wearing anything that should take my fancy but it's just not practical. I have a bigger appetite than you might assume for my size and on most occasions I bloat like mad. Walking into an eatery looking one way and waddling out looking heavily pregnant has been known... In fact Chris once insisted I did a pregnancy test as he just couldn't believe it. Awkward.

It's not always the case, sometimes I'm fine and other times I'm not; I haven't found a common denominator and if I'm honest I love food too much to spend weeks doing food diaries to eliminate something I love from my diet. I'll just put up with the bloat.

On this occasion for a family meal out – more to come on that at some point maybe- I wore this simple vintage dress which has plenty of room for expansion along with a stretchy belt for comfort. The dress itself is one I imagine to be old-ish with an unusual high neck and almost capped sleeves. You may be able to see that there are metallic stripes which make it so much more that just a plain black dress (and I really struggle with plain colours, goodness knows why). This autumn I'm embracing the colour-that's-not-a-colour-at-all; black so I opted for knitted black tights and my practical moderate heeled black buckled boots. Jewellery-wise, I wore an armful of bangles, a handful of rings and a charmed necklace because they are my go-to never fail to go with anything and always make an excellent level of jangling to alert others to my presence.

Do you have to dress in eating-out appropriate clothes too?

Sophie