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When my daughter was in Brownies there were patterns available to make the uniforms, and I was fortunate enough to have one gung-ho mom who made vests for all the girls at a fraction of the cost. Now my girls are Juniors and I cannot even get them to wear (or in some cases buy) the green vests to meetings or anywhere else, let alone the entire uniform. I do find that in GS the uniforms are not promoted as much as they are in BSA. I am curious about other GS troops...do the girls choose to wear the uniforms? How can I encourage my girls to wear at least a vest or sash? They always want to work on badges but I fear that when we have our Court of Awards, the badges that are passed out for a lot of them go into a black hole.

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Yha, it's tricky to change a troop's culture if they havn't gotten into wearing the uniform... In our case, most of our families apply for financial aid through the council, and as part of that, their vests and some insignia to start off with are provided free. For our girls, to have something brand new and that represents their accomplishments is a very very cool thing. Also, if you were in GS yourself and have your old sash, etc to show off, the girls really really love this and it can help motivate them to wear theirs.

When we award badges, etc. I always say to the girls, whether or not parents are in attendance, when you get home, give this to the most responsible person in your family - and I go on to describe this type of person - never loses their keys, makes sure the dog gets outside - they're usually laughing by this point - and I always add - and if that most responsible person in your home is you then make sure to put these away in a safe place until you can get them sewn on. (For a lot of our girls, they truly *are* the responsible person in the family - combination of single parent households and the pressures of poverty and inner-city stresses. If that's the role they have to play, they might as well get some positive recognition for it - our troop also provides a safe place where adults *are* acting responsibly and the girls can set down some of the load they carry and just have fun for awhile.)

We also for a very brief time did a points system for wearing their shirt and vest, bringing handbooks and folder...only for a month or so when things were getting a little lax.

From my experience, if the uniform means something to the girls, it gets worn. A lot of families today are literally drowning in material possessions - it becomes harder to feel the significance of the uniform then I think.

Another thought, I know we're now in a phase in GS in which the vest or sash has become the standard uniform piece, but I'm not so sure this is really the right part of uniforming to be emphasized. I'd must rather see a similar shirt, and clean hands and face, shirt tucked in, and pants not torn or decorated with cartoon characters. More emphasis on pride in appearance and wearing the membership pin. Dunno. Talk it over with your girls and see what they have to say about it?

Peace out,

Anne in Mpls

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When my girls were Brownies, the ones that had uniforms thought they were cool and would wear them. Then as they got to the Jr. age, they became less important to them and in fact, some don't want to wear them. Our Council will provide $15 for a girl for financial aid, which will barely get a vest. Our troop has been buying the girls a handbook/badge set when they join, as well as paying for all awards. We try to attach importance to the badges/patches, but if the parent doesn't care about it enough to even try to get a vest (and they all know about the available finanacial aid but no one has ever approached me about it). If I could think of an incentive for them to wear them without hurting the ones who do not have one, I would do it, but too many of them do not have even a vest.

 

When it comes down to it, I'd rather they have the handbook set and participate in the program than have the uniforms. I have a great group of girls and the troop keeps growing , we're very active and the girls are learning a lot of leadership skills.

 

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MomScouter - sounds like you're putting the emphasis in the right place :)

While there's a whole lot I dislike about the way my council does things, we apparently are really blessed to have the financial assistance program we've got - vests, some insignia, and handbooks are all provided for families that apply, and they can also apply for money towards troop dues. Most of our families receive $20-$35 each year towards troop dues - comes as one check that I deposit directly into the troop's bank account.

Do you know whether sewing patterns and fabric are still available for home sewing uniforms? Would be a neat project for the Cadettes to sew the uniform skirts...

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  • 3 weeks later...

FYI- The official Girl Scout Patterns were carried by Simplicity. They were discontiued in February of 2002. Simplicity does allow special orders for a limited (and unpublished) length of time following the discontinuance of a pattern number. When our Bwornie Troop special ordered the pattern they could not tell us whether Simplicity would carry patterns for the new junior uniforms or not. Their number is 1-888-588-2700.

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Maybe I'm just a simple minded man who doesn't understand the complexities of sewing but it doesn't seem that the Girl Scout vest is anything special. It would seem that any simple straight bottomed vest would work along with a simple pleated skirt or skort.

 

In any case ebay has these in Scouting stuff

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3630439111&category=13895

 

and

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3630451753&category=405

 

and try this search in Sewing

 

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=scout+pattern&catref=C3&ht=1&sosortproperty=1&from=R10&sacategory=14339&BasicSearch=

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I have both a Boy Scout and a Junior Girl Scout. I don't necessarily agree that girls Junior-age and up reject uniforms out of hand. If the troop leaders wear uniforms, and if they encourage uniforming, then the girls will be more likely to follow suit. I've also seen more uniforming in troops where the girls have a significant share of the leadership role. I'm not sure why.

 

KS

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