AB's Clothing School

Some of you ask, and I love to talk about, Lila's clothes. I really only have about a tenth of the gene you need to dress your children adorably, but with girls, that's about all you can afford to have anyway! Even when I didn't have a girl, I took great pride, and still do, in Nate's clothing. I love to shop for their clothes, pick out their clothes, and wash their clothes. I don't really like the act of putting on their clothes, or making them put on their clothes, but who does. I like how they look once they are on!

Since having Lila, I've had to get creative, since there are so many cute options out there. Most of them are expensive. These are not my original ideas, I picked them up on mom blogs over the past year. These are 2 that I use with much success.

1. Ebay

I know you are thinking "ewwwwww, used clothes over the internet!" Right. Me too. But here's the deal. Many moms (and grandmas) overbuy for their little girls. And since little kids grow so fast, many of these clothes never get worn, and if they do, it's only 1-2 times. Enter Ebay. Lots of clothing is posted as NWT (New with tags), NWOT (New without tags) and EUC (Excellent used condition). These are items that have never been worn by the seller's little ones or worn very few times. Wash them up and you are on your way. And they are a FRACTION of the cost to buy them new.

So you plan and perfect your bidding strategy and you are off to the races. I've paid on average $10-$15 for smocked, name brand dresses and outfits. The bidding has gotten a little more competitive as more moms have figured this out, but it is still worth your time to logon and check it out.

I search by size and lowest price most often, and sometimes I will put in my favorite, known brands. Or just the word "smocked." 

Another tidbit is that you can also search for monogrammed items.  So I do that every once in a while too (i.e. Monogrammed L 18 month).

2. Facebook has provided the opportunity for many local boutiques to sell their inventory online without the cost of a website, etc...The original prices on the items are not cheap, but I wait for them to clearance out their store. They mark the outfits down to over half price and many come with monogram & shipping.

These small stores don't hang on to their inventory, so at the end of the season, they mark the items down to sell. This is the time to buy and start planning for the next season.

A few of my favorites:

Frogs & Frills
My Bella Bums
Smockaroos

Good luck shopping! If you are into this kind of stuff of course...and if not, consider yourself schooled in the Abatha Boyle way of shopping for kids clothes!