Hey y'all!

In my last post, I related to you my journey to modesty, which in case you missed it, is HERE. I want to thank every single one of you who commented on that post, your support means a lot to me!

As promised, I'm going to share my personal modesty standards. Be advised, I go into a lot more detail than a lot of other people do!

As a rule of thumb, I use the standard Catholic guidelines for modest dress, which are as follows:

Necklines cannot be lower than 2 inches (or 2 fingers) below the pit of the throat. (Your collarbone is a good indicator of where this lies.)
Sleeves cannot be shorter than quarter-sleeve (it originally was elbow, but the Vatican allows quarter-sleeves as a concession to the market).
Skirts need to be at least 2 inches below the knee (preferably 8 inches below the knee).

Avoid the following:
Sheer/transparent clothing (unless it has sufficient backing)
Nude color fabrics
Clingy or tight clothing
Masculine clothing

Most Church fathers heavily frowned the wearing of pants by women. It was never banned directly, but it has never been really regarded as a feminine article of clothing until recently. As I explained in my last post, I grew uncomfortable wearing pants by themselves after seeing what effects it had on men and society. I'm not totally adverse to the tunic-over-jeans approach, but I view it as a last resort in case more modest options aren't open to me.


Shirts:

• Sleeve length

All of my shirt sleeves are at least quarter-sleeve (ends midway between the elbow and the shoulder). Basically, I'm looking for the sleeve to cover my armpit completely.

• Opacity

I'll think twice about buying a shirt that I can see my underwear through. But, because a lot of my blouses are old hand-me-downs from my grandmother and my great-grandmothers, there are quite a few that wear a little on the sheer side. I've found that if I wear either a camisole or, preferably, a plain white undershirt underneath, it will fix the sheerness problem wonderfully.

• The Fit

If I discover that a casual button-down shirt in my wardrobe is too tight fully buttoned but doesn't hug me when open, I'll wear a modest T-shirt underneath. But otherwise, if clings too tight...it gets either packed or given away.

Length matter to me as well. It has to be past my waist a fair bit in order for it to pass. Otherwise my shirt will pop up and expose my stomach area when I'm *trying* to be productive. As Duluth commercials point out very well, it's not exactly productive to keep tugging on your shirt.

• Style

Color does not matter as much as the design and how the shirt is cut. I tend to avoid shirts that have similar patterns to men's dress shirts. Because women are curvy, I look for blouses that are cut that way (darts, princess seams, etc.). My favorite look in a blouse is the simple classy look instead of the frilly or lacy.

I'll wear almost any color (I do have to be careful with black as it tends to wash me out) except for peach and other skin tone colors (unless it's an undergarment).


Skirts/Dresses:

•  Above all, NO SLITS!

Many women (Catholic, and non-Catholic alike) often wear skirts with slits in them, varying in size from 2 inches to almost the entire skirt-length. Most of the time, a slit is put into the skirt so that the woman can move more comfortably. Slits reveal, especially with movement; which is something that a skirt is not supposed to do.

• Style and fit matters. 

I'm a stickler for how my skirts are draped over my figure. This is not because I'm self-conscious about how bad my figure looks - quite the opposite, actually.

To get a sense of what I mean, take a look at this photo that I snagged from Pixabay after almost an hour of pulling my hair out trying to find suitable photos.....  




See how the back of the skirt on the left hugs the derriere?

I can't stand that. It draws the attention to the derriere and not the face, where it truly belongs. This skirt is also tight enough that every line of her leg will be revealed as she walks.

The back of the skirt on the right, on the other hand, descends and flairs gently way from the woman's figure. There is enough fabric to have a curtain effect, which also helps to hide the figure.

I believe that the wider the skirt, the better. Being an active woman with a fairly long stride, I need room to MOVE. Especially since I still have to practically pole-vault into my bed at night....yes, my room is still that much of a mess. I'm working on it....

• Opacity

I'll avoid garments made solely of lace and other sheer materials (like that outer layer of the skirt on the left of that picture). Most of the time, that isn't a problem when I'm shopping.

• Undergarments

I also tend to be a stickler about wearing shorts and/or tights under my skirts. This is so, in case any unforeseen circumstances arise that cause parting with a skirt, I still have some protection from eyes. Footless tights (yes, there is such a thing) are my favorite to wear everyday.

I do wear petticoats with my skirts, but I'm not a stickler for them as much as the shorts/tights.


Modest dressing doesn't mean that you have to spend all of your days in prairie dresses or a potato sack. As old-fashioned as I am, my entire wardrobe is not made up of dresses from the Amish or centuries past. My style of clothing would probably be considered "Southern Country Girl Contemporary" because I like denim, flowers/calico, and plaid. 

Soooo, what is a typical ordinary outfit for me?

T-Shirt
Hoodie - zippered, usually
Long skirt (usually denim)
Tights/shorts - usually footless
White Socks

Hey y'all!

So I was inspired by my dear friend Emma @ Gloria in Excelsis Deo to write about my own modesty story from reading hers. Please go and check out her blog, she's a gem in the Catholic blogosphere!

And now, allow me to take you back in time to a little Catherine....

As a child, I wore mostly pants. I know that I wore dresses and skirts to church - most of the time - as well as some formal occasions (the occasional wedding, birthday party, etc.).

My modesty journey started when I was about 11, unbeknowest to me at the time.

I had just joined my local 4-H Sewing club - a club that I stayed in for the next decade or so. That is where I learned how to sew, in case anyone was wondering.

My first project? I chose to make a skirt.

I remember reasoning at the time that I had little to no "play skirts" at the time. And I thought it was time to expand that particular part of my wardrobe.

I made a beautiful (fairly long) skirt with Winnie-The-Pooh fabric. I still have it - it is now stored away for my (future) daughter.

2 years later, I was more or less pressured into making a pair of pants. I remember not liking them nearly as much as my skirt. Though I think it had more to do with the difficulty of actually making them than anything else.

Fast forward to when I was 15. 

I had just recently "converted" to the Faith. I say this because I was baptized as a Catholic at 5 months but never received full instruction or was received into the Sacraments because of the fact that my mom is (and always has been) Protestant. Not that I hold it or anything else against her by any means. It just bears a lot on my story, so I feel the need to disclose it.

After I received the Sacraments, I was kinda thrown into kind of an identity crisis of sorts. I knew how to act as a woman in the general sense of the world. But....how was I supposed to act and dress as a Catholic woman?? This may seem like a silly question to ask, but I knew that the Faith was not just a religion but a way of life. And I wanted to live it right - being the perfectionist that I am.

I had no example at home to fall back on. My father was going to be no help in this situation (no offense to him, of course, but....)

So, I began observing other women at church. As I befriended a lot of them, I picked up on their examples and copied them. My Junior Sodality at church was also a tremendous help, as it gave me the example of Catholic girls. It was through their example in dress that I made the decision to wear only skirts to Mass, any Mass whether it was the Ordinary (Norvus Ordo/English) or the Extraordinary (Latin) Mass, as well as veil my head.

At 15, I was still wearing pants in my daily life and functions outside of church. I went to a church picnic around that time, again watching other Catholic women. I noticed that even then, that most still wore skirts!

At 16, I found a book lying around my parent's bedroom. It had a beautiful cover on it, and it was called Dressing with Dignity. With my father's permission, I read it. I'm fairly certain that he bought it with me in mind. Why else would he have it around?

Goodreads

Anyways, like many other Catholic women, that book changed my life.

I will admit that the book bothered me at first. I was horrified at what the effects of immodesty on men really were. I began boning up on what exactly modesty in dress really was - via modesty talks, sermons, and other books on the subject. I felt this distinct "call" if you will, to lay aside my pants for good, especially in the light that I was dealing with a horrible vice of impurity at the time.

I started slowly - I stared wearing them all day on Sunday first for a few weeks, and then started wearing them on weekdays.

There was one distinct problem though - at the age of 16, not counting all of my good skirts for church, I had maybe 3 skirts. And not all of them good.

Hence, I sought to remedy that problem via my sewing skills. I did make several of my skirts, but my wardrobe was supplemented by hand-me-downs from the ages of 16-17.

Now, from the sounds of things, you think everything is going smoothly, right?

Not exactly.

I faced some family opposition to my new dressing habit.

Mostly, I'm sorry to say, from my mother.

I'm still not 100% sure why it bothered her. Maybe it had to do with my conversion, maybe not. Whatever the case, there were a few instances where she insisted that I wear pants for - things like driving (for the first couple of lessons, which really mystified and annoyed me), horseback riding, etc. She also made a point of buying me a couple pairs of jeans before college (my old ones were getting too small).

Being stubborn as my mother, I stuck hard to my new principles. After several heart-to-heart talks between me, her and my grandmother, my mom accepted my position. Now, my modesty doesn't bother her anymore, I'm happy to say.

My maternal grandmother helped a lot in outfitting, as she introduced me to the world of thrift stores and what wonderful finds existed in them. A lot of my wardrobe has come from thrift store finds that I've either altered or done over. I also received several old outfits of hers - outfits from the 50s and 60s that she couldn't wear anymore. But like my mother, she was worried about my safety in a long skirt. A worry that I laid to rest when I proved that I could climb rock cliffs in Hawaii in a long white skirt and not get a spot on it. I did have to weather a little ribbing when I started wearing modest swimwear, but again, example quieted that.

Things took an interesting turn at the age of 18. Now I was going to college - which doesn't have a lot of skirt-wearing or modest women around.

It took only two days on campus for the question to come up - why only skirts?? I had expected the question to come up sooner or later, but I was surprised at the speed that it came! That question would crop up occasionally over the four years of college, but most accepted it as a part of me fairly quickly.

But, I was going for agriculture. A field not exactly known for skirt-wearing women.

I had made one denim skirt that was pretty durable. Granted, the thing is ugly as sin....

Anyways, I fully expected to be required to wear jeans during the hands-on labs. On the first time out there, I got the surprise of my life when the barn manager basically gave us free rein on what we could wear in the barn - besides the safety boots of course. With the fact that I only had one denim skirt, I made one more - one that worked a lot better and that I kept modifying to figure out what worked and what didn't. I did (and still do) wear the jeans underneath my long denim skirts for protection against barn filth and in case an accident did happen.

The skirt that I made and heavily modified throughout college. It probably could use a few more...

I did have to have a brief stint of wearing jeans for a riding class I took, but besides that, I wore skirts 99.99% of the time I was in school. In fact, I became known for my classy style and my lady-like behavior. I suddenly realized what fruits could be gained from modest dress - compliments from acidic professors, doors being held open, co-workers offering assistance.

I spent those four years exploring modesty more and figuring it out from sheer experience how to become modest in different situations: farm work, outdoor recreation, professional dress and even swimming! I blogged about each of them - just look at the bottom of the page in my labels section and click on the "modesty" label to find them!

I can now pretty much safely say that my journey to being a 100% modest dresser is complete!

With the exception of one thing....

I still haven't figured out how to ride horseback with a skirt.....

As I compose this, I suddenly have realized that my story is much longer than I had thought! For the sake of my dear readers, I'll relate my personal modesty standards in the next post.

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Source: Family Live Council Inc.

As you can see, this post is rather somber, in view of the fact that today is the 45th anniversary of one of the most heinous Supreme Court decisions ever decided.


A priest that I knew likened every abortion to a slap in the Creator's Face. With good reason.

Each abortion is a deliberate destruction of life, an innocent life. A sin that is not only classified as mortal, but also classified by the Catholic Church as a "sin that cries to Heaven for Vengeance."

So, with each abortion, we reject and destroy a great gift and blessing - a human being created in the image and likeness of God Himself.

And, their soul - that soul that He labored and crafted over - is denied the privilege of even seeing Him. Because that soul was unable to receive Baptism, they face the consequences of Original Sin. To say that this saddens the Creator would be putting it mildly....very mildly.

If you are an artist or a writer or have created anything, you know what kind of pride and joy you had when you created that original, unreplacable creation. Now imagine it torn to pieces, irrepairably damaged. You feel sorrowful, don't you? Now take that sorrow and magnify it 100 million times, and you might come close to what God feels after an abortion.

Could you imagine being slapped in the face 60 million times over 45 years????    

Our nation is the one that started this whole mess of legalized abortions. We can and SHOULD be the first to put a stop to it.

And I believe that we are on the road to doing so.

President Trump made history on January 19 at the March for Life when he made a public speech in support of the pro-life movement....something that no other president has done since Roe v. Wade was put into practice. They say that actions speak louder than words. In the latter half of this article is a list of all the pro-life actions that President Trump has done in the past year alone.

To see the full speech, please click here.

Pro-life legislature is also making it's way through D.C. As the March for Life was passing along the streets of Washington, House representatives passed H.R. 4712 - The Born Alive Infant Protection Act. As soon as this bill is signed into law, it will be illegal to kill a baby that survived an attempted abortion.

There have been some naysayers and some unbelief that such actions have been taking place, especially of the people that are pushing the legislature through.

I think those same people forgot that JANE ROE HERSELF became a PRO-LIFE ADVOCATE.

You think I'm crazy right? If you don't believe me, just look her up under her true name, Norma McCorvey. This woman went from being a lesbian, pro-abortion non-Christian to a Catholic who spoke before Congress multiple times to advocate for pro-life legislature.

She died almost a year ago, still active in the political fight. She never aborted that baby that she was pregnant with at the time of the case.

From Jane Roe's story, I think we can all take hope and marvel at the workings of God. If she was brave enough to stand up to all of her former supporters and denounce them, we have no excuse not to use our own voices.

Outside the political arena, Christians are also speaking out in other ways. Sidewalk counseling, pro-life rallies, contributing to pregnancy centers are all ways that many people use to help the unborn.

There are also more unconventional ways of supporting this movement.

There is a young lady that I met through Goodreads that is currently writing a story that I believe needs to be told. It is set in a future America - which has turned into a left-wing woman's paradise. We follow a typical young woman named Ember as she becomes a Caretaker - a person who takes care of the unborn ward....which includes aborting the weak ones. After being forced to kill a baby that she tried to save, Ember realizes that she can't condone abortion, or the society that raised her, anymore. You can view the ongoing story via the Wattpad Link.

The silent majority has finally found it's voice and defending the defenseless.

We pray in reparation for all the "slaps" to the Creator's Face.

We pray today in memoriam for all the bleeding hearts that have been sacrificed to the idols of personal irresponsibility, racial and economic purity, and the false idea of "choice".

We pray that America may be a nation that lives up to it's first principle as declared in 1776 that all persons have the right to LIFE.

We pray for all the women who have been harmed by abortion, and for their continued healing.

And we pray for all unborn children, that they may be born healthy and their souls may be saved.

Our Lady, Protectoress of the Unborn, PRAY FOR US!!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine