How to Dress Daily for the Home & the Homestead

Ladies,

Do you rarely leave your home? Maybe you, like me, love working, resting, and just being at home. Moreso, country women tend to be at home a lot more than someone in town because we space out grocery shopping trips just for the fact that we drive much further to stores. Infrequent outings seem limited to people who wake up to leave the house every day. But if you are a woman who views full days at home as being wonderful instead of having “nowhere to go” or being “stuck at home”, you are in good company.

Dressing for the Day at Home

There is this misconception in the modern day that dressing for the day is done because we are seen by others outside of the house. Historically, dressing for the day was done simply because it was what one did to be ready for the day like an adult. Dressing for the day was a mature thing to do to order the day as starting. Dressing for the day was merely a way to be ready to work. This was a signal of the dignity of the woman working in the home regardless of anyone outside of the family seeing her.

Beauty Ma Ingalls Style

In Little House on the Prairie, Ma Ingalls routinely brushed her hair, carefully coiffed it into a style, and dressed nicely for each day using the few items she owned. She dressed because it was a part of her duty to present herself with dignity. Dressing for the day was no different than doing the dishes and preparing dinner. None of it was trivial because it was nourishment to a day lived with joy and purpose. She imparted dignity to her daughters by showing them that daily living was best lived with the best standard of cleanliness and beauty that she could achieve for her family. You have the unique responsibility to provide your household with your blessing of work in the home and that includes the work you do on yourself to be presentable and dignified.

A Few Things that You Love

To dress your best for the home and homestead, it only takes collecting a small wardrobe that you love. I love dresses and they are the easiest and quickest way to dress for the day. A dress is just one piece, and it can be paired over base layers if it’s cold or just alone if it’s hot. The right dress will look instantly polished in any season.

What Makes a Dress Work Best

If you spend any time outdoors, with pets or children, making food…. basically life outside of a sterile office in the city, you quickly learn that patterns are the most forgiving for daily dirt and mess. I focus on wearing dresses that hide things by choosing colors other than white and finding patterns that I find beautiful.

A-line cuts that flow away from the waist are especially flattering and I make sure the length is mid-calf or beneath the knees as it is short enough to not collect dirt, grass, dew and ticks but long enough to move and bend with modesty.

Accessories are Practical & Beautiful

A belt cinches in a waistline on a dress and gives it just enough shape to make it even nicer looking. But I also just prefer the way it feels for flowy fabric to be just a bit reined in for when I’m moving around. Belts can hold things together and help keep things secure while also giving a simple dress a finished look.

Make Your Outerwear Beautiful

Since we need to bundle up for cold weather, choose the most beautiful outerwear possible. Hats and scarves that prove to be the most worn are the ones in a color that goes with the variety of items in your wardrobe. Maybe that is a neutral color, but it does not have to be. You may find that red, purple, or peacock blue goes with your most worn items and pairs together beautifully.

Real Boots

A pair of real boots goes far in a homestead wardrobe. These genuine leather boots lasted over 7 years and not only looked beautiful but were comfortable and sturdy. Fashion boots may be cheap up front but good real boots that are made well will carry you through many working days at home and keep you looking nice. The scuffs on real leather give character to your wardrobe and can be buffed and polished to keep the hide strong whereas plastic faux leather just shreds and looks terrible and there is no way to give it longevity. Ma Ingalls did not wear cheap fake leather boots but relied on well-made shoes to get her across the US as a pioneer woman and working at home in all kinds of weather.

Practical is Beautiful

Things like beautiful colors and prints of fabric for a dress, genuine leather for boots, knitted hat and scarves, these are practical items that give a woman style too. The pioneer women cared to look their best as hard as they worked, they did what they could with what they had to look nice and be comfortable. Practical can be beautiful, it’s a matter of choosing nice things that work for you.

If you are home and around your family, you are somewhere special and important and you are the one who helps make it that way.

Have a blessed day at home!

WHATEVERLOVELY.com

CHRISTIAN LIVING – FASHION – HOME