Essential girls clothes?

carmina_piranha

What is the size difference between your girls? Can your 4 year old wear your 6 year old's outgrown clothes?

carmina_piranha

I have boys rather than girls. Also for me what counts as essential might be far more than others might need. I have a messy boy who rarely has anything clean enough to wear the following day. I have a tiny house with not enough radiators to dry clothes for 5 people, so it would depend on whether things could be tumble dried.

My youngest has
1 winter coat
1 light jacket
2 hoodie/jumper/cardigan/whatever
wellies
school shoes
trainers
sandals
4 trousers
2 shirts - 1 long sleeved and 1 short
4 shorts
4 long sleeved t-shirts
more short sleeved t-shirts than he could possibly wear, because that's the only clothes that get given as presents!
4 short pyjamas
4 long pyjamas
1 dressing gown and slippers
8 pairs socks
8 pairs pants
2 swimming trunks
extra PE kit for sports activities after school

When going on holiday I usually take his tracksuit out of his PE kit too, but if you don't have a child who falls over into puddles that might not be necessary! Also depends if you can do laundry while there - or are going camping in the rain!

For parties, etc. he wears a shirt with his school trousers or school shorts.

Threebabes

I would say about 4 outfits that you can mix and match. Just to cover school holidays. Mine probably have more than that but they seem to wear the same outfits now they chose what they are wearing themselves.

You can get lovely basics H&M very reasonably priced.

clarryd

I would wash and iron the clothes that are too small for your girls and sell them on Gumtree. The reason I say Gumtree is there is no costs. Ebay charge for selling. You could get the buyer to collect COC instead of going through Paypal.

Then once you have sold the clothing buy new from George at Asda, very good quality and very reasonably priced. Can't go wrong with Asda clothes.

Janepig

Can't go wrong with H&M imo - at this time of year I would get afew plain long sleeved t-shirts which you can put under short sleeved t-shirts or short sleeved dresses. Primark is also an aladdin's cave, particularly if you go to one of the really large stores - I was in Cardiff Primark on Thursday and I think I could have spent the whole day in there!

Of the supermarkets I find the clothes in Asda the best. We've got an Asda Living near us which has a good choice.

Unfortunately DD is getting to an age now where it's got to be Superdry, Hollister or Jack Wills, although I limit that to birthday and Christmas presents, or if she's got her own money to spend. I look back fondly at the days when I could buy her some clothes from the likes of Asda and she'd be content to wear them, no questions asked.

Jx

BigAunty

I buy second hand Boden clothes on ebay for a fraction of the price.

Ebay sellers often sell brand new Boden clothes for all ages with the labels cut out to prevent resale.

Just bought a lovely couple of Boden t-shirts for toddlers (still expensive though at £7-8 a pop but fine as presents).

See if the cost of the second hand Boden clothes is affordable on ebay.

Nicki

Do you need anything much for the 4 year old? Could she not just have what her older sister has just grown out of? Then sell the 4 year olds stuff as others have suggested and buy good quality stuff for big sister so you can pass it all down again to the younger sister.

As well as eBay, if you Google Boden outlet you can get their sale stuff online. For top up basics, I like H and M for kids, or M and S do good basic like t shirts, shorts and underwear.

Kaye1

Mine have a few m&s jumper dresses- wear with tights and then when they get a little short, wear with leggings/trousers. They last much longer then.
I agree with leggings/tops. Sainsburys have those ones where you buy 3 at a time on those funny hangers. I usually do this to buy 3 tops/ 3 bottoms which then can be mixed /matched.
Trousers
Jumpers or cardigans
Good winter coat
Party dress and tights
Skirts (again can wear with leggings when too short.)


Personally, I'd be offended if my Mum told me my children looked scruffy- as long as they are clean and ironed it doesn't matter where the clothes were bought from.

carmina_piranha

I'd be offended if my mum said that to me too, I'd probably invite her round to do my ironing and tell her she was welcome to fill my child's wardrobe with clothes that she approves of!

Maybe she meant that the clothes were getting too short though? On the arms, or on the legs. Short dresses are okay with tights or leggings.

onlyroz

Primark sell excellent quality of jeans in a wide variety of colours, all with adjustable waist bands to fit whatever size child you have. I keep in maybe three pairs of these per child. I don't rate Primark highly for tops and t-shirts for girls. They're really thin fabric and often have inappropriate slogans on. Primark boyswear is excellent, however.
Other good shops for girls are Tesco and H&M. I like Next and M&S as well but they're much more expensive.

For play clothes I go for basic long-sleeved tops, and fleece jackets. It's tempting to fill the wardrobe with gorgeous dresses - but apart from costing a fortune they're not really practical for day-to-day wear.