Your Slip is Showing!

While taking a morning walk in a small town in England, I passed all the young people walking to school. There are 2 private schools in this town and they wear uniforms. I noticed the girls from both schools had their skirts sticking to their legs and riding up. At first, I thought what an unfortunate choice of uniform, then I realized, that's a cute shape for the skirt. but it's sticking to their legs when they walk. Then it hit me, they must not be wearing a slip under their skirts.

When I was growing up my mom had a hard and fast rule that was never to be broken. If we had a dress or a skirt on, we had a slip underneath it. Luckily, I also had a petticoat to wear under my church dresses, it made them poof out and I thought I was a Disney Princess...oh wait, probably just a princess because there was only one Disney Princess at the time and no additional movie marketing dolls.

I still wear a slip when I wear a dress. Even though they are thin, they can add a little warmth to keep you warm on a cool day. Most importantly, however, is they make the dress hang better.

Slips come in all shapes and fabrics. There are 2 basic types: a half slip and a full slip. A half slip is typically for skirts and a full slip for dresses. You want to match the shape of the slip to the shape of the dress or skirt you are wearing. For example, an A line skirt should have an A line slip. Slips are also made from all kinds of fabrics. I am sure you can find a beautiful silk slip from an exclusive design shop, but for everyday most are made from nylon or some various form of man-made fabric. In  most cases you want a slip that is slippery so the fabric of your skirt slips over the undergarment and moves with you. Lycra slips can be useful for a tight wiggle dress, but they can ride up when you walk so you end up with a lump under your dress resulting in less shapely look than you were going for. The alternative for a slip in a wiggle dress would be a nice pair of Spanx. Slips also come in cotton. Cotton is tricky. Typically a cotton slip is batiste or voile- sheer or semi sheer, light weight. Cotton slips would be worn with cotton clothing. I have a couple skirts that are basically 2 layers of cotton batiste with the outer layer a cute print and the inner liner just plain white. I typically don't wear with a slip with those skirts because I wear them in the summer, bare legged with flip flops. The other thing about cotton slips is they have to be ironed.

Silence!

My daughter, Liz came by the other day when I was making a silencer for my dining room table. We are usually fairly casual and don't have room to store table mats, but I wanted a silencer for when I want to use a table cloth. She told me that I should write this so her generation will know about things like silencers. The only kind they've seen, sad to say, are the ones attached to guns in action movies.

A silencer is a heavy cloth to use under a table cloth. It not only protects the table but can help to keep your tablecloth stay on straight. Another benefit is that you don't the noise of glasses, silverware and dishes.

You can use any heavy cloth for a silencer. I made mine from a mattress pad. Yes, of course, it had been sanitized. It was actually a fairly new one that had little use. I have also been known to use a light colored vinyl table cloth under my good table cloth, that way you can protect the table from spills. On for Thanksgiving, we use cafeteria style plastic folding tables. On those I use old quilts that have white backs then put my good linen cloths over them.