Old-lady BLOOMERS - YOU WILL WANT THEM! (we are 100% serious) - a guide for future LDS Sister Missionaries

I hate slips. I don't like the full-length kind (that is kind of like a slippery dress that you wear under your regular dresses) so I wear the half-slip kind (which is kind of like a slippery skirt that you wear under your regular skirts). They are always riding up or falling off. And I don't feel like they really help that much.

Here are some examples of the traditional slip types

I mean, yes - they're supposed to provide some extra coverage if you have a sheer-ish dress or skirt and I guess they do that. But I always wish that they would give me some better coverage in other ways (like, could they at least stay down when the wind blows instead of just flipping up right along with my skirt? Or how about giving me a little more coverage when I have to get down & up a hundred times on the nursery floor on Sundays?)

I heard from a RM friend that some sister missionaries in her mission had started wear bloomer style slips. Maybe some sisters have been wearing them for a while, but this was the first I had heard of it. Genius! They are a half-slip that has been made into shorts, so they actually provide some REAL coverage if your skirt flips up in the wind. Which is a constant problem for any woman who ever wears a skirt. As a missionary, you will wear a skirt/dress every single day (even part or all of the day on p-days!) so even if you think it's not a big issue right now, this is going to become a greater concern in your life when you are a missionary.

Here are a few examples of bloomer-style slips (sometimes called bloomers, split slips, petti-pants, or culotte slips):

(See the end of this post for a list of places that these can be purchased)

I mean, yikes - they look like they are something that would be worn in a historical re-enactment at Nauvoo or would be part of your costume for Pioneer Trek...right? But before you make up your mind based on looks, lets talk about the positives.

I bought 2 of these bloomer slips for my future missionary daughter (50% because I thought they would be great for her mission, 50% because I secretly wanted to try them). She was not into them. At all. So I wore one of the slips myself to church. It was so comfortable. And I didn't feel like I was flashing everyone everytime I got in/out of the car or bent over to pick something up. Even if someone could see the slip, at least it wasn't my underwear!

I told my daughter about how great it was to wear to church and she was beyond uninterested... I explained that I wish I could time travel back to my mission and give myself a couple of these bad-boys because of all the thousands of times I had to sit on the floor and try to keep my skirt down while I sat down/stood up and the millions of times I would walk down the road trying to keep my dress from flying up to my waist. Not that I would have been able to totally ignore those issues, but at least I would know that I had some lee-way and that I would be covered if the wind really got out of control. My daughter was still not very impressed.

So I happily continued wearing the bloomers to church stuff, and even though I would bring it up from time to time "Are you sure you don't want to try wearing these bloomers?" my daughter kept saying "pass."

The turning point came when my daughter spent the day working with some local sister missionaries. I strongly suggested that she wear a pair of the bloomers that day - at least to try them out and see if they would be helpful to her during her mission (since she would be going to real appointments with the full-time missionaries for the day). You can read all about my daughter's adventures with the Chuukese missionaries that day in her post: "A future Missionary Shares 3 Ways She is Preparing To Serve A Full-time Mission - By Doing Missionary Work NOW!" 

When she came home that night, she said the words that every mother loves to hear: "Mom, you were right!" (Yes!) "I had to sit on the floor so many times, getting up and down over and over...we went up and down a lot of flights of stairs outside in the wind...if I didn't have these bloomers on, I don't know how I would have done it. I NEED these for my mission! The missionaries said that they wear them, too!"

A-HA! So, ya, I think these are pretty great. And I've convinced my daughter, too. Or, actually - doing actual missionary work convinced her!

If you're worried about looking like a little old lady from the Depression Era, then don't worry - nobody is going to see your slip. Your midi-length skirts and dresses will cover the slip. Unless they don't (because a wind storm has attacked you in the middle of a crosswalk) and then you will be happy that you're wearing dorky old-lady bloomers...

Seriously, my daughter just walked by and saw the title of this blog post is "Old-lady Bloomers - You WANT THEM!", and said, "Heck YES I DO!" (remember, before she actually tried them I couldn't even get her to be a tiny bit interested in taking them on her mission!)

A FEW NOTES: 

I bought our 2 pairs of bloomers (that I keep borrowing) on Amazon. I bought 1 black and 1 white of the same brand/size (see bottom of this post for information on where to purchase).

I do not get any type of compensation from Amazon or from the seller or manufacturer of these slips, I'm just giving my honest opinion and review of what we personally bought. Amazon has a great variety of these types of slips, which is nice because they don't sell them in most stores (not a huge demand, I guess!). There are probably other websites and stores where you can buy these bloomers/split slips, especially if you live in an area with stores that especially cater to missionaries. We don't have anything like that in our area, so Amazon it is!

I bought the kind of bloomers that are called "snip-it" which means that you can adjust the length of the legs by cutting off a bottom strip (or multiple strips) of the lace on both legs. My daughter is 5'5 and I am 5'4. We had to cut all of the extra lace strips off of the bottoms of the bloomers we bought because they were hanging out under our midi-length skirts at the length they started with. This is a good thing. I'd rather have a slip that is too long and have to cut off the extra length instead of worrying about them being too short. And you don't have to hem them or anything after you cut off the lace. However, make sure that you don't cut off too much at once, because once the extra strips are cut off, they don't go back on (unless you re-sew them on, I guess).

This is the type of bloomer/split-slip that we bought (see the adjustable length cut-aways)

We were going for knee-length, which is the length that these particular bloomers fall on us with the bottom layers cut off. If you are taller than us (or just want your bloomers to be slightly longer), you can adjust the length accordingly.

I've seen some bloomers like this that fall on the mid-thigh, but personally I want (and I think would be most practical for a missionary) to have knee-length. You'll also want to avoid going TOO long...there are some bloomers that you can buy which are almost ankle-length. I'd just stick to the knee-length bloomers, no matter what the lengths of the outer skirt/dress. You don't want to have long bloomers that can only be worn with one or two outfits. Thats not multi-tasking enough! Save the space in your luggage! You will be able to wear the knee-length bloomers with all of your missionary-appropriate skirts and dresses. If you have questions about what skirt lengths are appropriate for sister missionaries, please see my posts on the subject (look at the right side of this page for a search box and search for "modest" or click on the label "modesty" or "sisters" to see all of the posts on the topic of sister missionary clothing guidelines. 

Here are the links to the examples of bloomers that I've shown in this post: 

Slip A- Velrose Snip-it 26" Culotte Slip (currently $17-$24.38 on Amazon, depending color & size) (available in 3 different colors and sizes S M L XL 2X 3X 4X) here

Slip B & C- Avidlove Women Lingerie Pettipants Snip-It Culottes (currently $5.99-$14.99 on Amazon, depending color & size) (available in 3 different colors and sizes S M L XL 2X) here 

Slip D- Underworks Woven Cotton Batiste Culotte Slips Pettipants (currently $19.99 on Amazon) (available in white only in sizes S M L XL 2X 3X 4X 5X 6X) here 

I bought the style shown in B & C (I bought white & black, though cream & black are shown in the collage) and they are good quality, so I would recommend them. I haven't purchased the other slips listed, but they look like they would be the right length and have good reviews, so might be worth a try!