Dressing our daughters modestly

In the last post about this topic, Sara brought up some issues I thought I would address in a new post. First, for anyone that hasn't followed me in this venture through my other blog, I wear skirts/dresses only when going out of the house. Most of the time at home I wear skirts as well, but there are occasions I wear jeans or sweats around the house. This is just my own conviction right now, this is how I think I can best dress modestly, by wearing skirts. My daughter is four (I also have three sons, ages 6, 8 and 10) and I have discussed with all my children why I have started wearing skirts, because I believe it is pleasing to God. Yes, I went into a little more detail with them but that is the basic reason. I do encourage my daughter to wear dresses and when we go to church, she doesn't get a choice. However, it really isn't a battle because she loves dressing in skirts, unless she is in the mood to be a cowgirl :) I didn't want to spend alot of money buying skirts for either of us, so I started hitting garage sales, goodwill and making my own from used jeans. I was also given several after people realized I was wearing them all the time. It is harder for my daughter because it is just hard to find long, modest skirts for girls. I have made her two from old pairs of jeans, one from an old short skirt of mine, one from scratch and found 2-3 at goodwill. (I did discover that I had to buy a couple sizes bigger to make them long enough though but that works fine with jumpers) She also has a couple we have just gotten lucky enough to come across along the way. She still wears jeans around the house quite a bit but when we go out, she is usually in a skirt. I think you can help your daughters to dress modestly even if they can't wear skirts/dresses all of the time. My girlie knows that if a shirt shows her belly when she raises her arms, it is not modest and she can't wear it. She also knows that she is not allowed to wear short skirts out of the house and alot of the time she wears leggins or shorts under her skirts for even more modesty (you know how girls play and their dresses can come up). As far as slowing her down, not a bit. She still plays right alongside her brothers when she has a skirt on. She has figured out if the skirt is a little tighter, that when she goes up stairs (a slide) to just hold it up a bit. They definitely don't slow her down. Other ways she dresses modestly is that she is not allowed to wear any pants that have writing across the backside, nor any shirts that have inappropriate sayings across the front. An example of a shirt I am referring too is this, I have seen several that have sayings referring to boyfriends, hotties, or some other rude comment about brothers or parents. There are so many of those these days it just sickens me. I don't approve of the ones demeaning her brothers, that encourages a lack of respect and love within the family. Oh, I am sorry I am digressing.

Other ways that may help you to use some of the clothing that has been given to you is to get matching material for those short skirts and lengthen them. You can also add coordinating material to t-shirts to make dresses. It is very simple to turn pants or jeans into skirts and doesn't cost very much at all. I hope these ideas help with dressing your daughters modestly and I can't wait to read some other responses, suggestions from all of you.

Blessings,
Rashel