{"id":10012,"date":"2014-10-11T09:32:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T16:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=10012"},"modified":"2018-03-06T10:34:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:34:12","slug":"modesty-is-a-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2014\/10\/modesty-is-a-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Modesty is a mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1-DSC_1157\"<\/a>
We shopped at probably 20 stores before finding this dress. It didn’t require any alterations to make it modest. Hooray!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I made alterations to Paige’s most recent\u00a0school dance dress, I thought, “There must be a special reward in heaven for this work to keep my daughter covered.” I’m hoping for a comfortable room where there are endless romantic comedies playing and the chocolate is without calories. \ud83d\ude09 Modesty is a huge topic, but today, I’m just talking about dresses.<\/p>\n

An invitation to a dance means that\u00a0we will spend a lot of time looking for a dress which will need some alterations after we find it. \u00a0Formal dresses rarely have\u00a0sleeves, backs, or adequate fronts. Short dresses are too short. Always. This means that it will take some significant effort to find or make something nice. Young men need to understand this and ask young women\u00a0several weeks before the dance.<\/p>\n

It is easier to find a modest dress in Utah than in other states that I have lived, but they are rarely flattering. At one store in our mall, there is whole wall of the same dress\u00a0in a variety of\u00a0colors. They have sleeves, but the dresses\u00a0are expensive and boring. Most often, the solution is to buy something that your daughter is not comfortable wearing and then fix it so it covers her. These are the strategies that I have seen to fix a sleeveless or short dress:<\/p>\n

Wear a\u00a0t-shirt<\/strong>: the girl will wear a cap sleeve t-shirt beneath the dress in an (almost) matching color or contrasting color. The problem with this is that cotton jersey knit isn’t in the same league with satin or chiffon. It’s really awkward looking. But if I see a girl who has decided that this is the best way for her to feel covered and comfortable, I say it’s better than nothing! Paige wore a satin shirt under a dress once and it was a nicer solution than a t-shirt.<\/p>\n

Wear a\u00a0bolero<\/strong>: the girl will simply place a bolero jacket over the sleeveless or strapless dress, and voila! She is covered. The problem with this is that it’s not original and bolero jackets don’t always match the style of the dress.<\/p>\n

Make\u00a0sleeves or inserts from fabric that doesn’t quite match<\/strong>: It’s impossible to match dress fabric\u00a0perfectly. The sheen or the shade will be slightly off, and that’s annoying. One year we bought an inexpensive dress at Ross and put an insert in the front. The insert didn’t quite match, but it reflected 5 hours of shopping, so we called it a triumph.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_9721\"<\/a>
It’s difficult to find fabric to match your dress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Make sleeves\u00a0from fabric from the dress<\/strong>: If you are lucky, you might have some pockets or a few extra inches of fabric you can remove from the sides or bottom of the dress with which you can construct sleeves. This is my favorite solution because no one can tell that you have reworked the dress.<\/p>\n

\"1-!cid_part1_01010606_05040807@angelaross\"<\/a>
We bought this dress even though it was sleeveless and 12 sizes too big because it was a good length and we could make sleeves with the extra fabric after alterations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Buy the dress several sizes too big so its length is adequate<\/strong>. It means you need to alter the dress, but as I mentioned earlier, 99% of short dresses are too short, so this is a real solution.<\/p>\n

Wear a lacy underskirt<\/strong>: For short dresses, one\u00a0trend is to wear a lacy underskirt that extends below the hemline of the dress, making it\u00a0look like a\u00a0slip is showing. I’ve also seen how girls have\u00a0sewn wide ribbons\u00a0to\u00a0the hem to lengthen the hemline. It was pretty.<\/p>\n

Make the dress yourself:<\/strong>\u00a0Sewing skills are a blessing. If it’s not your thing and you have someone in your life\u00a0who can\u00a0make something from scratch, hooray!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Modest dresses are not easy to find, even for young girls. I made this dress in Arizona because we couldn’t find anything in stores. While shopping for patterns, I met another mother who was trying to teach herself how to make sleeves for her daughter’s strapless prom dress. We shared a moment of camaraderie and panic, but then we got brave and sewed. I got to see the finished prom dress from a distance\u00a0and gave a silent cheer for the mother who made it work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All complaining\u00a0aside, the effort and frustrations are worth it<\/strong> when you see your daughter look beautiful, intelligent, and refined. That’s what modesty is about. It’s a mirror to reflect how she\u00a0feels about herself and her Creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I made alterations to Paige’s most recent\u00a0school dance dress, I thought, “There must be a special reward in heaven for this work to keep my daughter covered.” I’m hoping for a comfortable room where there are endless romantic comedies playing and the chocolate is without calories. \ud83d\ude09 Modesty is a huge topic, but today, … Continue reading Modesty is a mirror<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motherhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10012"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14651,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10012\/revisions\/14651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}