Teaching Vocations: Godly Dress Up Part 2

There are many "nun" costumes out there but, let's be honest, how many are quality ones.  As I looked around for dress up items to include in this post, I was reminded of when Cowgirl wanted a Native American dress up outfit. She has a genuine interest and love for all things Native American. Makes me wonder if somewhere down the line there is some Native American blood in our family tree. When she began asking for an outfit, I showed her some that were online and we discussed why they weren't very realistic or even appropriate. I told her that to do it correctly and learn alot in the process, we would design an outfit systematically.

First, I had Cowgirl decide which tribe she wanted to imitate. She chose the Nimipuu, or Nez Perce, since Kaya is one of her favorite American Girls.  We then looked at photographs and drawings of different outfits and discussed the purpose of each.  Since I couldn't afford real deerskin, she had to settle for felt and pony beads, but we made the outfit as close to the picture she selected as we could. We counted how many beads were in each design and what colors were used. In the end, it would not have won any costuming awards but she had a blast wearing it and had learned much about the real people who wore the similar outfits.

My point is, when getting costumes for dress up, make sure that they have some authenticity to them. You can even do as we did by selecting an order and creating your own outfit. It does not have to be fancy, nor expertly sewn, or even sewn at all. However, if you and your daughter learn about the order it represents and how they serve God it will foster a deeper appreciation of consecrated life and add richness to the pretend play.

Here are my suggestions for girls' dress up in the vocation realm:

Faithfulfindz has a number of saint costumes such as St Therese, Blessed Mother Teresa, and St Rose of Lima that could be used as habit costumes for the respective orders.

Catholic Costumes has a wide array of items and links for many habits and includes information about which saints were from each order.

Our Coat of Many Colors has gorgeous, well made costumes for many saints and orders. They also feature costumes for boys.

Coming next week, Cowgirl and I are going to put together a tutorial on making a dress up habit along with suggestions on how to adapt it for other orders. Please stay tuned. Thanks for visiting.