Putting Outfits Together

Putting together outfits

When the change of seasons happen, so do clothes rotation.  In my home, I rotate my six year old's clothes for spring/summer and fall/winter.  It has taken me days to get the change out done this time.  First, my daughter has grown significantly.  She has outgrown much of the outfits she was wearing a year ago.  I had to change sizes for nearly everything she had been wearing last year.  Second, I found an entire HUGE tub of clothes that I had forgotten about.  They were in the garage... and have been there for years.   I actually had given much of those clothes away to a girl a few years younger than Laura.  After the little girl had worn them, they were given back plus some others.  Since Megan was still very small at the time, the clothes were packed away in the garage.  I had never even opened the lid! 

Finding that tub was almost like Christmas.  Some of the clothes had been my older girls' when they were younger.  Now, many of them fit Megan.  Add to that the clothes that had been given to us by a lovely lady at church from her granddaughter, and Megan has quite a bit of clothes.  It's wonderful!  Not having to stress about how to purchase clothes for her right now.  Oh, she needs some leggings and tights... and SHOES, but that is not near as big a deal as an entire wardrobe.

Sometimes I ask myself, when it seems like such a waste of space, if I am saving much money by keeping plastic tubs of clothes for next size or two.  But, after all of these years, I have been blessed so many times by people that have given me clothes for my children.  Many times, the clothes are in perfect condition.  Often, the lovely lady that gives me her granddaughter's clothes gives me clothes with the tags still on them!  The little girl that wears these clothes has a slim build like my Meggy.  She is an only child, and often receives many more clothes than she can wear.  I am more than happy to accept the "cast offs". 

I am determined to dress my daughters modestly.  I wrote a couple of years ago about modesty after being led by the Lord to research that issue when my oldest girls were teenagers.  Now, a little over two years later, my heart has been led to research a little deeper, to relearn the lessons I researched so deeply two years ago.  Then I had two teenage daughters in my home full time.  Now, I once again have two teenage daughters in my home full time. However, while a bit tomboyish, neither my younger teenager girls feel comfortable showing much "flesh".  And while I wish they were more feminine at times, I pick my battles carefully.  After all, I am often comfortable in a pair of sweats while I'm home, teaching and cleaning.  That doesn't mean I don't LOVE wearing a skirt and feeling feminine and pretty every chance I can.

I am reading the book, Dressing With Dignity by Colleen Hammond.  I'm only a couple of chapters into the book, but it does impact greatly.  While it is written from a Catholic perspective, I don't find that the research and even the opinions shared clash with my Evangelical views.  If anything, I enjoy, at times, reading books from the perspectives of other faiths so that I can actually say that I researched and read more than one point of view, one denomination's opinion.

Anyway.... I was going through this mound of clothes for Megan.  She runs two different sizes, with her shirts and dresses running bigger than her pants/skirts/ or shorts.  I began packing away the summer things, leaving a couple of outfits for warmer days.  I had a pile of skirts and skorts.  In the winter I can usually combine many of these items with leggings or tights and Megan can still wear the "girlie" look she loves without freezing.  I began to coordinate with the leggings she has.  I made several outfits before I ran out of leggings.  I did that before coordinating with pants or jeans.  Why?  Megan loves wearing skirts and dresses.  She has not completely outgrown that girlie nature, that love of twirling a skirt around being the "princess".  I hope she never outgrows that nature.