With two years under my belt, I have picked up on plenty of tips and tricks for outfitting the girls. The first is finding your favorite brands. My top three are Hanna Andersson, Tea Collection, and Baby Gap. I also looove Mini Boden, but I haven't been able to catch their pieces at a good prices, which brings me to my second tip.
Set a hard limit for how much you are willing to spend on clothing items. A hard limit ala red room of pain will help you from being too tempted by the pricier stuff out there. Right now, I aim to keep clothing items at $30 or less. The reason for this is two-fold, first I won't cry if something gets ruined, and secondly we only leave the house about once per week, so it doesn't really matter what they are wearing. In fact, when they are home with Justin he will often keep them in their jammies all day long.
Most of my clothes are much less than the $30 limit though, which brings me to my next tip... buy as much second hand as possible. I am fortunate that I have a few different options for getting awesome gently used clothes, but be sure to check out rummage sales/consignment stores in your area. If you don't have the time or patience to wade through seas of possibilities only to find a few gems, stock up during sales.
Baby Gap is one of the best places to find great sales. I recently bought new jeans for Claire for $5 a pair. The trick is to buy when they have a 40% off everything sale- better yet is when they 40% off is combined with Gap Cash.
Another trick is give consideration to skipping a size- I bought almost no 24 month tops, instead opting for 2T. I've found that the 24 month size is cut a bit wider, and since Claire especially is rather slender, it works better for her. Audrey has been wearing 2T in many things for about a year. I think Claire will get another year out of that size.
And a little bit about why I love the brands that I do... Hanna Andersson clothes are great quality- the fabric is much thicker than that of other brands and it washes extremely well. I have yet to have one of their items pill on me.
The cut is also very generous- the picture above was taken when the girls were about 4 months old. Below, Claire was wearing that same dress at about 19 months. Audrey's matching version was the next size up, which Claire will be able to wear the entire summer.
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The blue dress in the 3 pictures below is also Hanna- it is their size meant for ages 5-12 months, but it still fit Claire great at age 2!
Another thing I love about Hanna is that it is on trend while still allowing little girls to look like little girls. I tend to prefer clothes with prints and patterns and without any writing on them, such as "daddy's princess" and the like.
My next favorite brand is Tea Collection. The quality isn't as fabulous as that of Hanna Andersson, but there is a greater range of choices of styles and prints. Plus Tea items are also more affordable- especially if you stock up during the Black Friday sale.
Here is Audrey wearing a 6-12 month sized Tea shirt when she was 4.5 months old.
Here is Claire wearing the same top at age 2. I realize that having girls on the opposite end of the growth chart helps with the amount of wears I'm able to get out of their clothes, but even if you have just one child you should be able to get a good number of uses out of these brands.
Baby Gap is the most accessible price-wise of my favorites. Above Audrey is wearing 2T jeans (the grey top is 2T as well) from Baby Gap. She was about 10 months old in the picture. She is still able to wear both the jeans and top.
Below, Claire is modeling the jeans at age 2. I'm thinking that they should last her another year or so, which means getting 3 seasons out of one pair of jeans.
Due to my love of shopping and the generosity of family and friends, the girls have a closet that rivals that of any fashionista. However, I am making an attempt at cutting down the number of items I have for them. In a text exchange with my cousin Amanda, we decided that about 30 items (minus jammies) would be adequate for most toddlers. If I were going to go shopping tomorrow, this is how I would break it down for a spring/summer wardrobe (quantities are per child):
-5 Hanna Andersson Play Dress sets (dress and shorts... technically this might be 10 pieces, but it is my rules and purely hypothetical, so I'm counting it as 5).
-2 pairs of skinny jeans (I love Gap's littlest leggings and HA not so skinny jeans)
-5 Tea Collection Dresses
-4 Coordinating leggings
-2 pairs of shorts
- 5 short sleeved t shirts
-2 long sleeved t shirts
-1 cardigan
-1 hoodie
-1 pair Toms
-1 pair Keens
-1 pair metallic sandals
As you can see, we definitely favor dresses in the summer time. Cotton dresses are my favorite, because they are just as comfortable as a t shirt. 30 pieces doesn't seem like a ton, but with over 15 dress/top options, they could go a little over 2 weeks without repeating an outfit. Also, because the girls are able to wear the same sizes in some items, it would give us even more options.
This outfit collection would assume the need to do laundry weekly, which is our current schedule anyway. Throw in 7 pairs of jammies per girl and we would be good to go. I'm not about to go this minimalistic with their wardrobe, but having it all typed out makes it seem more do-able.
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