I love to look at pictures of celebrity babies and see what stylish
ensembles they are wearing. It provides inspiration to a small-town
girl who wants her kid to look cute. I wish I had the money they had to
spend on those cute clothes, but I am a woman working on a Goodwill
budget so those items have to come second-hand or have to be invented
by me.
Here are a few ideas for dressing your kids like stylish
stars.. or at least getting them to the fashionable point where they
don't stand out.
- I love iron-on transfers. I scored a great
deal at Michael's where I got some really cute iron-on transfers for my
son to be placed on t-shirts. The black t-shirt was $2.50 at the craft
store and the iron-on was $1.00. Super cool, "Rock Star" t-shirt cost
me $3.50. If you have a knack for design, you could actually design the
transfer yourself and then get the transfer paper from the craft store.
Same idea, except an "original" that no celebrity baby will ever have.
The
t-shirt pictured here was a hit with my son and his mom & dad. He
said he can't be a rock star until he is ten or a hundred though. At
least he can look like one in the meantime.
- Check your thrift
stores and try and buy when they run sales on specific items. I keep a
closet of clothes that actually don't fit our son…just yet. Look for
basic items that will never go out of style and start stocking up for
the years ahead. Make sure to thoroughly check the items before
purchasing them though. Items that are donated could be donated for a
reason. Check under the arms of shirts, the seams on the item, the
knees of the pants, the bottoms of the pants, make sure the zippers
zip, and buttons and clasps are intact. Nothing is more disappointing
than bringing home a "deal" and then finding out is, in fact, a dud.
-
Make old items new again by embellishing them. Boys jeans can be
quickly converted into a little girl pair with a cute heart applique or
a little beading or pink buttons sewn on the pockets. A little boys
shirt can be made into a girls shirt with a sweet pink shirt underneath
it. Try to think outside of the box.
- Work out a deal with
friends. I have a great friend who shares her bounty of clothes with me
before taking them to resale. I am able to get quality name-brand
clothing without having to hunt for it. She sells it to me dirt-cheap
and she avoids the consignment shops while I avoid the hassle of
running from store to store. Don't hesitate to ask if one of your
girlfriends has children that are bigger than yours what they do with
their clothing. You might be surprised that they just donate the items
and would be willing to pass them off to you or could sell them to you.
-
Outlet shop, but make sure it really is an outlet. Have you ever been
to an outlet store that had the same or higher prices than the regular
store? I have and what a disappointment that is. Know what regular
pricing is versus the factory store before doing your shopping.
-
Shop the end of seasons, but hold out until the bitter end for the
really good deals. At the end of the season, I purchase winter coats
for the following year. I never fail to have an amazing jacket for our
son, but rarely do I pay more than twenty dollars for it. Check stores
that you don't normally shop and hit the clearance section to get a
quality jacket for a fraction of the price.
- Garage sales are
great for scoring cute clothes for your children. We hit the garage
sales all summer and stock up on clothing for our kids. No one knows
that the Baby Gap shirt my daughter wore once was purchased in a garage.
How do you make your kid look like a star? Any tips to share with our readers?
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I rarely pay full retail for clothes for my girls and they wear GAP, Gymboree, Children's Place, etc.
There are a ton of consignment sales here in Nashville and I love to hit the last day half-off sale. I always walk out with name brand "play clothes" but no one will ever know I only paid $1 or $2 for the cute GAP t-shirt, as opposed to $10 or more.
Our Goodwill also has a lot of special sale days where kids' clothing is marked down further. They post the info on their website.
My husband has taught me the absolute GENIUS of clearance racks. We troll the likes of Target and Nordstrom Rack. For our "rock star" baby, we've had amazing luck at Children's Place outlets. At the end of the season, you can get really great stuff for just a few bucks! I think our biggest splurge was a brown velour jacket for her, that still fits a year later! It was $12.
However, for true RockStar good looks…a pillow case would look great, with the right hairdo!
hey, cool blog. You can get cool name brand clothes from ebay; I get most stuff for around $5 and that's including shipping; watch out it becomes addictive.
Check out http://www.jbfsale.com. for a massive consignment event in your area. They have higher percentage rates for sales, and many items are half price on the last day. I just sold my breast pump there.
Our church has several lending circles for childrens clothes. These have been a real blessing. We had our "bonus baby" after almost all the big brother clothes had been passed on.(He was 10!) Our middle child was a girl, BB was a boy. Our pastor's wife had children in the opposite order – so we have been swapping. Girl items to them, boy items to me.
Her next one is also a girl, so I was charged with passing on the boys clothing. 6 boxes went to families with different ages last Sunday. My instruction, "Use what you want. Pass on the rest." I don't know the needs of many younger couples, so I asked if one or two of them could pass on the infant winter clothes to the next lucky family. (It is a little early to know whether boys or girls are coming at this early date.)
It is fun to see old favorite outfits wandering the halls at church. An aunt of mine said her church even had "swap meets" with adult clothes periodically.