A letter from a reader

At 62, I wanted to cover my middle without wearing a tent

I have never written to a shop before, and I did not expect my first letter to be about a cardigan.

Somewhere in my fifties my middle arrived and decided to stay. After that, getting dressed became a game of hide and seek. Anything fitted clung in all the wrong places, and the buttons pulled across my tummy. So I went the other way and bought everything two sizes too big, and then I just looked like I was wearing a tent.

I wanted something that covered me up without swallowing me whole, and I had started to think it did not exist.

So I made do, and tugged my cardigans down every time I stood up.

Then I saw it on my friend at quiz night

Linda is about my shape, and at the village hall quiz she was wearing a soft green cardigan, worn open over a white top, that fell straight down past her hips. It covered everything I worry about, but it still looked like it had been made for her. I asked her where it was from, and she told me it was the Julie, from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I ordered mine that evening.

What happened at my grandson's birthday party

On Saturday I spent the whole afternoon at my grandson's birthday party, up and down, bending to help with the candles and the presents, and not once did I tug at my clothes. Three different women asked me about my cardigan, and my friend Sue told me I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment. My daughter took a photo of me with the birthday boy, and for once I did not ask her to delete it.

It is a small thing, a cardigan that covers you kindly. I had forgotten how nice it is to stop thinking about my middle.

Three things I have learned since

One. Open is kinder than buttons. There are no buttons at all, so there is nothing to pull across your tummy. It just falls neatly down the front over a top or a dress.

Two. The shape does the work. It is gently oversized and long enough to cover your hips, but it skims rather than clings, so you look covered rather than hidden.

Three. The pockets are proper pockets. Two roomy patch pockets at the front, big enough for keys, a phone or cold hands. The knit is soft and cosy and light enough to wear all day.

About the price

I had assumed something this soft would cost a fortune.

The Julie is £38.95. It was £78.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on and delivery is free. Mine is the military green, and it also comes in pink, grey, black and navy, from a UK 8 up to a UK 20.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, "I have bought it in three colours. It covers my tummy and bottom and I still feel smart in it." That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you came round and we sat out on the porch with a cup of tea, this is what I would tell you.

If you have been dressing around your middle, you do not have to choose between clingy and baggy. Find the piece that covers you and still looks like it was made for you.

It does not look like it was made for somebody half my age, and it does not look like I have given up either.

Caroline