Modesty in dress

[w2bp88]

This is a wonderful article about women dressing modestly.

olrl.org/virtues/modesty.shtml

 

[Miss_Linda]

What a wonderful article! Thank you so much for posting this link!

 

[ljubim]

A good article. It is just SO hard to find decent dresses… I think it takes years to build up a good stock of them I’m trying right now, and all of the dresses seem to be too short.:banghead:

 

[Miss_Linda]

I have had the same problem in locating modest, feminine dress, so I am teaching myself to sew. Finding lovely patterns and learning to alter them for modesty has been a blessing and a wonderful journey!

 

[w2bp88]

I can understand the struggle of finding modest attire. I keep looking for dresses or skirts to wear to mass but it has been difficult because I am tall and everything is too short on me! I’ve been wanting to learn how to sew too, maybe I should seriously look into it.

 

[fabricdragon]

i am tall also, and ummmmm… not thin. so finding modest clothes that dont look like “Omar the tent maker” ads is a trial.

may i suggest a few sources? please bear in mind that my spelling is terrible! and that not EVERY item on all these sites will be modest.

in stores:
Catherine’s a plus size women’s chain store here in the USA, has a LOT of longer skirts. i get the majority of my long skirts there and i am 5 foot 9/10. right now a lot of long skirts are on clearance and they were having an extra discount on all clearance items. (i just got an ankle length opaque black “peasant style” full skirt for 7 dollars)

Macy’s while most of their skirts are too short, sometimes has long skirts in their dressy department.

Coldwater Creek
upscale womens casual wear. in their stores they do not carry dresses, the (very nice) long dresses are usually ONLY available online… but i have found many skirts and tops in stores. their prices are high… sign up on their mailing list and they send you coupons. also haunt their clearance sale online. you find incredible bargains there.
they have an excellent return policy.

Kohls
Kohls often has very nice long skirts in between rack after rack of “who wears that?” and if you sign up on their mailing list you get frequent sale announcements.
their return policy is incredibly good. when i found a top i bought over a year ago, with the tags still on it, they looked it up on my Kohls charge and let me return it!.

For those of you who live in Jewish or Muslim heavy areas, do a search for Muslim /Jewish womens clothing + your city to find long skirts…

online (or in stores in one area only plus online)

www.tznius.com
i know i talk about their scarves all the time, but i own three of their skirts. the “corduroy wrap skirt” my mom thought was velvet… its lovely!
their wrap skirts fit up to size 16 without any modesty issues, but after that you need a slip. and on ME their wrap skirts range from brush the tops of my shoes to ankle length

artizara.com
one of my favorite Muslim clothing stores. gorgeous stuff, if a bit dressy for me

shukronline.com/womens.html
Muslim store, but has nice long things

tiendaholics.com/moroccan_dresses.php
many of these skirts (and dresses) are very modest! but not all, read the length given! and look at where the sewn seams are in the diagram. some of the skirts are “petal style” and can show leg.
ps. the blonde lady? in the model photos? she is 5 foot 2. and the owner…just let her know how tall you are and she can pick the right length, as they are all hand made and vary a few inches…say hi for me

Specialty stores online and etc

www.wildwestmercantile.com
yup a “costume store” .they sell to the re-enactors and etc. BUT their clothes are solidly made, last, and you can always get a skirt to wear with modern tops. bear in mind they show period underthings also on line.

www.thornyrose.com
a friend of mine runs this store. they sell to the SCA and renaissance fair crowd, but she also does Celtic dance and wedding dresses. her ten gore dresses can be hemmed to ANY length, i have three… real linen and silk and some cotton

revivalclothing.com/
i own four of their back lace dresses. yes this is all for historical re-enactors… but REAL linen and silk… and good customer service. yes their prices are kind of high.

Sewing
for a tall girl, we often find that just turning the material sideways from selvage to selvage its the right length… but this isnt so easy if you are shorter.

i suggest you look for SCA links, (www.sca.org) as they post many sewing tutorials… and “historical patterns” for long skirts.

modestclothes.com/simple/dept/christian-women-modest-dresses-patterns.html

pastpatterns.com/

hope this helps!

 

[w2bp88]

Great, thanks so much for all of these links. I’m not thin either and when I do find a long dress I look like a big sack lol. I’m going to try your suggestions.

 

[Monica4316]

it’s a good article

the only question I have is about women wearing pants… what do you all think of that? is this a sin? I know it says in the Bible men and women should wear different clothing, but in Biblical times didn’t men wear robes and such, not pants like today… ? I’m kind of confused.

I was also wondering,

do so many souls really go to hell? is this because of unrepentance? because we know if a sinner repents, they’ll be forgiven, no matter how many sins they have…

 

[Shin]

olrl.org/virtues/pants.shtml
catholicmodesty.com/PadrePio.html

There’s a book called “Dressing With Dignity” by Colleen Hammond that addresses some of this too.

Modesty is so important! And dressing gender appropriately rather than with the times!

I think it can simply be said that the reason many go to Hell, and fewer to Heaven, is that few repent, and that the way people live their lives is the way they die. Many most likely, at the end of their lives, truly love their own ways more than God and that is their choice.

Many people live the way the world lives rather than with “the few” (Matthew 22:14).

We must pray and make sacrifices for many souls, and make sacrifices in the way we live for our own soul’s sake!

I was watching souls going down into the abyss as thick and fast as snowflakes falling in the winter mist.

St. Benedict Joseph Labre, Mendicant

O Jesus! . . . Remember the sadness that Thou didst experience when, contemplating in the light of Thy divinity the predestination of those who would be saved by the merits of Thy sacred passion, thou didst see at the same time the great multitude of reprobates who would be damned for their sins, and Thou didst complain bitterly of those hopeless, lost, and unfortunate sinners.

St. Bridget of Sweden, Abbess

 

[ljubim]

Wow, thanks fabric dragon! And thanks Mrs Linda

I think I will look into making my own dresses… I’m really tall and sort of thin, and I prefer the dresses and skirts which do not show my knees (Not just for modesty… I used to play volleyball… perhaps that’s the reason My knees are not so nice )

There’s a lot of beautiful patterns at stores like H&M and Charlotte Russe, just not everything is long enough… and the local sewing store has fabric fit for curtains, not for a dress

I guess the question is… anybody know where to order nice fabric online?

 

[Monica4316]

olrl.org/virtues/pants.shtml
catholicmodesty.com/PadrePio.html

There’s a book called “Dressing With Dignity” by Colleen Hammond that addresses some of this too.

Modesty is so important! And dressing gender appropriately rather than with the times!

thanks =)
well my concern is that although I like skirts and dresses, it’s really hard to find good ones out there. I’m 23 and I shop at the mall… one thing I do sometimes is I wear jeans or black pants, but combine them with a long sweater or short dress… so this way everything is covered, but without the clothing being really tight. (I hope this is alright and not “dressing in men’s clothing”, cause essentially I’m just using jeans instead of tights ?)

I want to go to the store and look up some good skirts, but it’s hard to find modest ones that fit my age group. I think if I dressed like an Amish person, this would only bring attention to myself anyway and would defeat the purpose…

I think it can simply be said that the reason many go to Hell, and fewer to Heaven, is that few repent, and that the way people live their lives is the way they die. Many most likely, at the end of their lives, truly love their own ways more than God and that is their choice.

that is true I think it is possible for a person to repent right at the end of their life, but it would take much grace and prayer and sacrifice (Mary told us to pray for sinners at Fatima, so it must be important =))

Many people live the way the world lives rather than with “the few” (Matthew 22:14).

We must pray and make sacrifices for many souls, and make sacrifices in the way we live for our own soul’s sake!

I was watching souls going down into the abyss as thick and fast as snowflakes falling in the winter mist.

St. Benedict Joseph Labre, Mendicant

O Jesus! . . . Remember the sadness that Thou didst experience when, contemplating in the light of Thy divinity the predestination of those who would be saved by the merits of Thy sacred passion, thou didst see at the same time the great multitude of reprobates who would be damned for their sins, and Thou didst complain bitterly of those hopeless, lost, and unfortunate sinners.

St. Bridget of Sweden, Abbess

that is so sad

Wow, thanks fabric dragon! And thanks Mrs Linda

I think I will look into making my own dresses… I’m really tall and sort of thin, and I prefer the dresses and skirts which do not show my knees (Not just for modesty… I used to play volleyball… perhaps that’s the reason My knees are not so nice )

There’s a lot of beautiful patterns at stores like H&M and Charlotte Russe, just not everything is long enough… and the local sewing store has fabric fit for curtains, not for a dress

I guess the question is… anybody know where to order nice fabric online?

I wish I did!!

 

[Monica4316]

I think maybe one good way to dress modestly is to ask ourselves the question, “would our Blessed Mother approve of this?” and if the answers is ‘no’, don’t wear it

 

[Monica4316]

Okay so my question is… if you wear a dress or a long sweater, but with jeans rather than tights, is that still “dressing in man’s clothing”? cause to me it seems more modest than tights, if the dress is rather short

and if it’s a knee length/ankle length skirt, then it’s alright to wear it with tights (and maybe add boots to that, for this cold weather!! )

 

[Miss_Linda]

I am 5’ 7", so not extremely tall, but tall enough that most ready-to-wear professional skirt suits are far too short. When I decided I had to make my own clothes in order to dress modestly, I started out with simple, easy-to-sew patterns and bought some sewing instruction books which helped tremendously.

I use patterns from the “Big Four” pattern makers: Vogue, Butterick, McCall’s, and Simplicity. I use their skirt patterns and add several inches to the length.

I am fortunate to live in an area with quite a few fabric stores, but I have also found some very good on-line fabric sources. Some of my favorites are: www.VogueFabricsStore.com, www.fabric.com, and www.FabricMart.com.

 

[James924]

This may sound strange, but thank God for Mormons (at least in this regard.). They have really taken tothe front lines on this battle in the U.S. Tried to find a modest wedding dress for my fiancée. Don’t exist at mainstream stores anymore. Only thing we could find was a bunch of modest wedding dress websites that all turned out to be Mormon. Let’s start converting some of THEM. We’ve got the fiery zeal of Tim Staples and the like from
Protestantism. Now let’s compliment it with some Mormon modesty. To Utah, with haste!!!

 

[consecrated_one]

Hello!
I LOVE it! My 14 yr old daughter only gets to look at the wedding dresses from the Mormon web sites! I have myself and her on a "dresses only " plan but when she goes to school she does get to wear pants, it’s snow and 9 degrees! I hate to be inconsistent but it becomes a health issue. During Christmas break and to the Church it’s back to dresses. She told me, “I wish we (Catholics) were more like the Mormons” because they are all alike (to her way of thinking). Pretty much all Mormons don’t drink or gamble and at her H.S. they dress modestly, where as us Catholics can be widely different. I get pretty lonely as far as no one seeming to share my concerns at my parish. I had her (and I) wearing head coverings (she had a cute cap), came to pick her up from the Church and it’s off. How to enforce things most people don’t even believe in? I guess I’m a bit old fashioned and have perhaps too high of standards?

 

[James924]

Hello!
I guess I’m a bit old fashioned and have perhaps too high of standards?

nope, you’re right on target.

 

[w2bp88]

Hello!
How to enforce things most people don’t even believe in? I guess I’m a bit old fashioned and have perhaps too high of standards?

You are definitely not old fashioned. I am 21 and I have been feeling the call to headcover lately. I go to TLM so it’s pretty much the norm to headcover there but this week I started covering at daily NO mass. I feel so pure and connected to Mary when I wear my white veil, I love it!

Don’t give up and never lower your standards to fit in with the immoral society of today!

 

[consecrated_one]

Thank you everyone, thank you very much. It’s so great to not feel alone
God Bless us all with the gift of His Son on this glorious day!

 

[Elsport1]

Is anyone reading this using a headcovering everyday? If so what are your experiences? I’ve been thinking and praying about this for a few weeks now, and am pretty convicted that this is something I should do. Just a little nervous about calling so much attention to myself. Any suggestions on how to explain this practice to those with a much more mainstream view of modesty?

Also does anyone here only wear 3/4 sleeves or long sleeves year round? I’ve always thought that I dressed modestly to only recently realize that my standards have been way to low.