I can’t believe the month of May is already half way over. It has gone by so quickly, but then again my life has been pretty fast paced lately.
I just thought I’d check in and see if anyone else is still hanging in with the dress dare and is still wearing skirts and dresses!
I have been doing pretty good at the dare. I’ve worn a skirt or dress everyday this month so far. The only times I’ve worn pants have been to weed the yard and when we went salmon fishing in Oregon last week– I figured those counted as “sports” in my book.
I’ve learned several things so far about myself and about dress wearing the last few weeks:
- I don’t like having to wear a skirt. In the weeks leading up to this dress dare I was already wearing skirts and dresses several times a week and I was loving it. In fact, I didn’t have any desire to wear pants or shorts at all. Yet as soon as I made it a rule that I couldn’t wear pants I started to resent wearing skirts. I’ve found myself cursing my skirts this week and wishing I could wear pants. I think what discovered is that I like having the choice. While I think that after this I will wear skirts much more than I did before, I like knowing that if I wanted I could wear pants. Besides there are times when wearing pants is really just easier. For
example, I thought it would be fun to wear a big flowing skirt on the
beach while we were in Oregon. Wrong. I ended up having to safety pin it
together in about 10 places and even then it still wanted to fly above
my head. That was when I was cursing this dress dare the most.
- When I wear a skirt everyday it makes getting dressed for church different. Before when I got dressed for church any old skirt would do– denim, casual, fancy, frilly– it didn’t matter what type it was because a skirt was a skirt. Now that I am wearing skirts I’ve divided them into “day dresses” and “church dresses”. I selected my nicest and fanciest skirts and dresses and set them apart as my church dresses and wear my more causal ones during the week. As a result I’ve found that I have been much more dressed up and “formal” at church than I was before. I like it a lot. It really makes me feel like I am putting on my “Sunday Best” and I think it has helped me keep the Sabbath day better than I did before.
- The fuller the skirt the more comfortable and easier it is to wear. I now completely understand why women wore full length dresses. When your dress is long enough, and the skirt isn’t very tight, you have a HUGE range of motion. You can sit cross legged, climb trees, chase around little kids on the floor and just about everything else you want to do (except for walking on the beach in the wind) without reducing your range of motion or worry about being immodest. I am finding that some of my favorite skirts are the ones that hit me about mid-calf and have full wide skirts. They are pretty much like wearing pants, except much more comfy.
- I haven’t ONCE been asked why I was wearing a skirt. I have found this
odd, my only explanations are that 1) maybe no one notices, 2) everyone
reads my blog ( I wish!) and so they know what I am up to, or 3) they
already know that I am a bit of an odd fish and just chalk it up as one of my strange qualities.
Overall, I am still finding that I like wearing skirts and that I like how they make me feel. There is something about doing more “manly” things– say, mowing the lawn or loading couches into a moving van– in a skirt that brings me a lot of joy. But then again I am an odd fish.
I am still pondering and researching on the questions I had but I will share those insights later. In the meantime I’d love to hear how the dress dare is going for you!
Way to go for keeping up on the challenge! I really want to get more skirts and dresses because they are comfy and cool. But the wind- yeah. I live in a VERY windy area and it just. doesn't. work. Ugh. I've always liked having separate "nicer" dresses for church too. It helps me feel more formal when I don't wear just any old denim skirt and t-shirt to church. And yes- long, wide or flowing skirts seem to be the easiest!
What a fun challenge!!! I am not doing the challenge per se, but I wear skirts probably 5/7 days anyway because I enjoy them so much.
I work in IT which is a predominantly male profession and wearing skirts makes me feel more feminine in an otherwise masculine environment.
My favorite skirts are stretchy-ish pencil skirts. You still have a lot of mobility but look really good too. And of course I love the more flowy skirts you talk about too!
I've been doing it! Since having my fourth child, my body shape changed quite a bit, so jeans have NOT been fitting me right… skirts are actually way more comfortable. So I've been adding to my skirt collection and have started sewing a few skirts for myself! This is exciting because I never sew for myself. 🙂
People compliment what I'm wearing a LOT more, even if it's a casual outfit. That's nice.
As far as feeling more feminine or any deeper meaning to wearing skirts… maybe. I just like feeling comfortable in what I'm wearing. No more hitching up my trousers or worrying about wedgies.
I've done it, and though I have had a couple of days where I yearned to wear my capris, I've enjoyed the skirts. I definitely agree with the longer-flowy-er skirts, and have been wishing to expand my wardrobe to include two more of those and maybe a 50's-style house dress.
I've not had anyone other than children ask why I've been wearing a skirt everyday, but I did have a woman at the park approach me and tell me that I always look so feminine and she complimented me on that. 🙂
I sunburn VERY easily, so rather than put sunscreen and a big hat on everytime I go out I just grab my parasol, a pretty flowery Chinese-Style one. That, coupled with a skirt, makes me feel so feminine and and lovely.
I've had such fun wearing dresses all the time, though I've had the opposite experience from you in one way: People are constantly asking me why I'm wearing a dress.
I'm not much of a seamstress, but I'm working on making myself a couple of dresses. I'm trying to modify a pattern to make nursing dresses. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't! We'll see…
I have been doing the dare because being this pregnant, my skirts are all that fit comfortably. 🙂 Actually, I MUCH prefer skirts to pants. I am short, and all I have to do is find skirts that are meant to go to the knee or a bit above, and VOILA! I have a perfectly fitting modest skirt, unlike with pants, where I have to hem or roll them up. So, LOVE the skirts. Because I am lazy. 🙂
Deeper meaning? Yes, skirts make me feel more ladylike. And, yes, I think they are more modest overall and love to see my girls wearing them. They have worn more since I have been, so YEA!
I was doing really good with this until a few days ago when we got some baby lambs that we needed to bottle feed. It just wasn't working out to feed them in a skirt, they kept getting lost underneath! It was also a hassle to have to change back and forth every couple of hours. I still love wearing skirts and my favorite ones are ones that used to be a pair of pants that I turned into a full length skirt. Because they are mostly denim they are heavier and stay down, they are full length so I can do all kinds of things in them, and depending on what material I choose to fill in the middles with they can be more or less fancy. I treat them as work skirts.
I agree, re-made jean skirts are great. One of my favorites is one that I amde too– I hadn't thought about putting different colored material in it! Great idea.
Hey, Heather. Just thought I'd mention that I did end up doing the dress dare, mostly anyway. It was fun, but I confess that I don't think it made any major changes to my feelings about womanhood. I think jeans are a huge blessing, even though I love dresses too. 🙂
http://stayfoo.blogspot.com/2012/06/25ish-dresses.html
I haven't done the challenge, but after the "pants to church" thing I included some thoughts about skirts in my post about it: http://asdeckerfamily.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/my-thoughts-on-the-pants-to-church-silliness/