Varieties of Quaker Jane's Plain Dress

It is a fact that modern Quaker adopters of plain dress face options that approach infinity when it comes to what they will wear and why. It is possible to waste a great deal of time and money coming up with what you are comfortable with, what wears well, what solves your problems. Here is a look at some of the varieties of plain dressing I have explored.

Examples


My first photo in plain dress. Wearing a black Mennonite-style cape dress and Piker Mennonite bonnet. I have ordered all of my dresses from Ruby Roth at AnabaptistBookstore.com. I send her my measurements, she sends me a dress that fits perfectly. Sometimes I alter the gathered sleeve with elastic at the wrist that she makes and make a fitted sleeve.	My second photo in plain dress. Wearing the same black Mennonite-style cape dress and Wenger Mennonite bonnet.


I experimented with different caps, including this stiff conservative Mennonite cap in cotton organdy. It was very comfortable and easy to wear, but in the end problematic because you can't wash it, and is just too entirely Anabaptist and Brethren.	I also tried this old-fashioned Mennonite cap.


I bake in white caps and aprons. Flour. What else need I say. I find my fingers end up at my cap pretty regularly. This style of cap is the first I ever purchased and what I have strayed from only for short periods. It is comfortable, easy to wear, easy to wash, and Quakerly enough for me.	I cook and clean in black caps and black, gray or brown aprons, generally. Hazards from tomato sauce to pomegranate juice to bicycle grease have taught me to be cautious. Again, my fingers end up on my cap and some things are just no fun to try to get out of a white cap.

Me wearing a shockingly festive gray shawl I used to wear. I have much plainer shawls I wear now.	I also tried sort of monochromatic outfits. This is a cap, apron and dress of essentially the same color.

In the Autumn, Winter and Spring, I like to wear kerchiefs, as it is a fairly traditionally Quakerly option and adds warmth. This photo is from a phase I went through where I did not tie the strings of my caps. Tied caps stay on a great deal better, and I almost never leave my ties loose these days.	This is me in the Spring with my electric blue dress and kerchief. I am wearing a Piker Mennonite bonnet that I re-made to look more Quakerly.

Just had to throw in a shot of me playing the banjo.	Summer attire: no kerchief, just a big apron with a bib.

My hiking gear. I can't wear sunscreen on my face, so full coverage is the only solution. And at the altitudes here in Colorado, not such a bad idea. I purchased this corded sunbonnet from Kay Gnagey of Originals by Kay. Her pricing as of 9/4/2006 was $60 + $5 shipping and handling.	This is me in my new solution to cold weather: a second white cap to wear over my first. I purchased the first cap from Prayer Coverings and the outer, second cap I got from Jas. Townsend & Son, Inc.

Going to meeting: my most Quakerly Quakerwear. I swap the kerchief for an apron if I am going to play with the kids. I am wearing a bonnet I ordered from Gohn Brothers' Catalog, and then re-made to look more Quakerly.	Going to meeting, wintertime. I take the black bonnet off if I feel led to speak in meeting.