One of my Blessings is a darling, precious girl!!! After three males, we were over the moon to have a girl and I immediately set out to dress her as beautifully(and modestly) as I could. Everything was fine until Lil Girl outgrew size 6x. If you are not a Momma to lil girls then you might not be aware of this but after size 6x, the mass retailers would like you to start dressing your precious Pearl, your Gem, as a Vegas showgirl. This is the most polite way that I can express what the retailers would have you put your daughter in.
Since my Lil Girl is ten years old now - we are no longer in the world of smocked dresses and sunbonnets. So given that I felt no need to prepare Lil Girl for the Vegas Strip - I began to sew.
Since then I have discovered that even for someone like me, who is by no stretch of the imagination a seamstress - you can make modest, cute, modern clothes for your daughter (and even your son!) for about the same or even less than retail prices. I have hit upon a pattern that looks great on Lil Girl (empire waist, gathered skirt, zips up the back) and I have the pattern in all the size ranges. I make her several dresses per season and in the Spring and Summer she wears "spanky" pants under them for ease of play. She has learned over the years to read, and cut out a pattern, and now she is ready to start sewing on my machine.
We are very lucky that we have even found a doll dress pattern that is an exact replica of Lil Girls, so there are many "matching" outfits for "baby" and "Momma".
I know that I am only one voice in the huge retail market - but I refuse to allow my child to become part of a large social experiment on how young we can sexualize girls. No thanks, we will keep sewing.............
2 comments:
I could not agree more- i have just started sewing again after many years for this very reason. My 3yo DD is NOT going to wear hipster jeans or spaghetti straps with bra inserts showing.
ps sooo exciting to see your blog :) BIG HUGS, C
I so understand what you are saying about the difficulty to find modest clothes for girls after they hit a certain size. My 13 year old daughter got most of her clothes as hand me downs from a friend at church. My little ones are 3, 2 and 2 months so we do not have a problem yet. And we have been getting hand me downs again and we go to the thrift shop. I am not a seamstress at all, no clue how to sew, so I am extremely thankful for the hand me downs from friends as I didn't save the clothes my 13 year old had.
Just stopped over from the Completing Him challenge.
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