Creative Mom- Embrace the Girliness

My beautiful daughter, in all her girly glory.

Before I was a mother, I really wanted girl children. I remember distinctly that I wanted girls, and, although I would take whatever I got, not having much choice in the matter after all, I remember that I fervently hoped that I would win the chromosomal lottery and be blessed with a houseful of girls when it came time to breed. I have no idea what I was thinking. I'm really very bad at being a girl myself, and I've never gotten the finer points of girliness. I remember having girl toys when I was little, like My Little Pony, Barbie, Cabbage Patch Kids, and the rest. For awhile, I even remember that my favorite colors were pink and purple. But, despite all of these things, I never really learned the art of truly being a girl. I like dirt, I don't do artifice or subtlety well, and I abhor most typical “girl things” like chick flicks, romance, and fashion. My husband says that he's pretty sure I am allergic to dresses. (My 6 year old actually accused me of not owning any dresses, then when I denied it, asked if I only ever wore a dress to marry his daddy. I actually had to wear a dress a few times to prove that I did, in fact, own, and could wear a dress, if I wanted to. It was horrible.) Now, none of these things are inherently necessary to define me as womanly. I have breasts, a uterus, and 2 X chromosomes, and in many ways I actually enjoy being a woman. I just happen to have no tolerance for the trappings of “girliness” that most people associate with being female.

That being said, I do enjoy many domestic things that many would say are arguably “womanly” arts. I'm a great cook, I like to sew, and I enjoy a huge variety of crafts like crochet. I'm not sure that those things are girly or womanly, since it seems to me that they are mostly just useful and/or creative endeavors, and if you're going to bother doing them, you should try to do them well. Still, even despite my domestication, as it were, I remain somewhat at a loss when it comes to most things truly girl.

Fortunately, my first two children turned out to be boys in spite of my fervent hopes to the contrary, because, as it became all too obvious when my daughter arrived, I really have no clue what to do with a girl who is not only female, but revels in every bit of her girliness. Make it pink, make it frilly, make it sparkly, make it as girly as possible and then make it just a touch more girly and there you have exactly what will appeal to my diva-tastic little princess. Not only that, but... the drama. Oh, the drama.

Of course, fundamentally I realized that boys and girls were different creatures before we had our daughter, but, oh, was she an object lesson in just how different, from birth, they are! From the early days she was far more sensitive and emotional than the boys ever thought about being. She has a flare for the dramatic that boggles the mind. I cannot explain just how girly she is, nor how this happened, given the stock from whence she came. Nevertheless, she is, for all intents and purposes, a girly girl.

I've tried to resist it to no avail, so instead, I've given up and decided to embrace it. Maybe someday she won't be the total girl she is now, and it will be fun to look back on these days and remember how she went full tilt after all the frills, ruffles, pink, glitter, frou-frou girliness that one tiny child could grab. This is why I spent today perched at my sewing machine, churning out skirts for my little diva. Well, not the only reason. My jacked up knee played a huge part in the decision, considering I'm on somewhat limited activity. But, nevertheless, I had a grand time coming up with these girly creations for my girly girl. Even more fun than that, however, was watching her dance, prance, and twirl about in them, thrilled beyond imagining at such glorious new girly duds.  (Forgive the picture quality.  Mr H was either just extremely jealous of the girl, wanted a new skirt as well, or was flying a flag really high in appreciation of special needs animals everywhere.  Sigh.)

Love this double layer pink and brown skirt.  

How adorable is this upcycled skirt, made from an old pair of jeans that were too short in the legs for Ms. Thang?

Another double-layered skirt.  I'm a sucker for paisley anything.  <3

Last, but not least, another upcycled pair of old jeans.  I love the switch from *pink pink pink* everything, but it's just frou-frou enough to keep Ms. Thang happy.  

I didn't really have a pattern for the things I made, because I just sort of made them up as I went, but they were very simple projects, and even for a beginner, a simple skirt like this is a fun and easy project. If you're a newbie to the sewing world and would like to try your hand at making some girly creations of your own, I've trolled the internet to bring you a couple of links to simple tutorials to similar projects to get you started. Have fun, and be sure to post back here with pictures of your girly creations!


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