Building a baby girl wardrobe from scratch.

[bisous]

I know this is obnoxious but I've never bought baby clothes for that first year. Ever. With my first boy, I was given 4 showers (different audiences) and had more clothes than that baby could EVER wear. With each subsequent baby, they were the same gender and again, I never had to buy clothes.

Now I'm having a girl and I gave away almost all of my boy clothes. And the baby will be here in less than six weeks and I have nothing for her to wear! Like, she'll be naked. On the one hand, it is daunting. On the other, it is kind of fun. But I'm finding myself very clueless about all things girl.

I know myself well enough to know that she'll need onesies and footed sleepers and that for the first little while this is the most practical and comfortable outfits for her to wear, maybe even for most of the first year!
But I know I'll want to have SOME outfits. That's where it gets tricky. I know what I like, what I'll use and what is good value for boys clothes. I'm so confused by girl options. Confused and afraid for my wallet, lol.

With my baby boys, I would get a couple of cute soft outfit to wear places if we were really "showing up" IYKWIM. I want to do the same for each size for my girl, but what is out there? What do you like? What would YOU buy if you could build a baby girl wardrobe from scratch?

TIA!

[swissair81]

I have 4 girls. By the time I got to number 4 I had tried pretty much everything. My recommendation for the first year are sleepers, onesies, and then a wardrobe entirely made up of one piece outfits, two piece stretchy pjs that double as outfits, and onesie shirts with pull on pants (and not too many of those). Also I started tapering the snap pjs when she started getting wiggly in favor of two piece pjs or zipper pjs. I don't think I owned a single dress for her until recently. I'm not sorry.

[swissair81]

Also if you need anything dressy, I tended toward the two piece knits. They were cozy, they looked nice, and so sweet. In the summer, I went for sleeveless one pieces.

[bisous]

Thank you, Swissair81. That is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for!

[Tenasparkl]

I agree about the dresses. We had some when DD was a little baby and it always seemed like she'd be more comfortable in onesies, pants etc. When they learn to crawl dresses are hard to manage and get caught under knees a lot. My DD wore only dresses for a long time (and still wears a dress or skirt about 95% of the time) so the lack of dresses in her first year didn't keep her from liking them at all!

There are so many cute baby girl clothes that are functional at every price point. I like Carter's (the sets at Costco are great and cheap!)Baby Gap, Old Navy, Hanna Andersson, Gymboree, American Apparel etc.

[lizzywednesday]

I actually did dresses, but mine was an end-of-winter baby with a very warm spring, so I needed things that were cute & cool.

For cold-weather, I loved skirted leggings, which I typically got at OshKosh.

For special occasions, I did dresses & knit tights, which I do admit were a bit of a pain, but it instilled a deep-seated and profound love for Hanna tights.

[MommyAllison]

I found that my style and preferences changed quite a bit between my two girls (6 yr age gap). With Dd1 I put her in lots of jeans with onesies or tees when went out, and dresses for church (our church is really not dressy - I wear jeans - but it gave me an excuse to use her cute stuff!).

With Dd2, she wore lots of leggings and tees/tunics, and tons of one piece rompers. Though she had jeans, I didn't use them much, but we still used quite a few dresses and skirts. Have fun shopping!

[Philly Mom]

I would buy slowly because I was surprised by what I was putting DD in during her first year. I did not do dresses except on a couple rare occassions. Until girls can walk, the dresses get in the way. A couple times when she was truly little, I borrowed a dress (Lily Pulitzer) from my SIL but that was mainly because we took a trip to Florida and had no other warm weather clothing because it was cold up north. For the first 9 months, I did a lot of onesies both short and long sleeve with a pair of pants on top when needed. I prefer carters and often bought the sets at Costco. When it was warm, I just did not use pants. I used sleepers for bed time only after the first month. I found them to be too warm (DD was an August baby) and annoying to redo after a diaper change. A onesie is just three snaps and done. When it was cold or if I wanted to dress up her outfit, I would put a white sleeveless onesie on underneath and a cute shirt on top, with a pair of leggings or pants. By 9 months, DD did not do well laying down for diaper changes. At that point, I put her in t-shirts (short and long) and pants, leggings or shorts. We had stuff from baby gap, Target and Carters for the most part.

[swissair81]

Thank you, Swissair81. That is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for!

Feel free to pm me if you need anymore help. I love Mini Boden, Baby Gap, Tea, J&J (for dressy), and Carter's/Baby Gap pjs. I have fallen off the Gymbo wagon. I don't like most of the cutesy matchy matchiness. Also I found that jeans are too stiff for little babies. I'm much more enamoured with leggings or jeggings.

[queenmama]

We got a ton of clothing for DD that she didn't end up wearing. I didn't decide to use cloth diapers until the 11th hour and I used wool covers and leggings which served as her bottoms. If she wasn't wearing those with some type of tee (and the occasional dress/MB pinnie) she was in pajamas or gowns.

I also like Next, Zara, H&M, and Ruum. We don't own a single item from Hanna!

Lara

[abh5e8]

i love(d) soft cotton dresses - i'll be the voice of dissent :) with leggings or tights. for my summer baby, she lives in onsies. i love the real carters. i've found a couple of packages of these in each size is her staple. a few pairs of the soft cotton pants that match the onsies now that its getting cooler. i also like the 1 piece dresses with snaps around the diaper from carters, for the summer. or 1 piece rompers.

jamies, i like 1 piece with feet and zippers. gap, gymbo and the childrens place are all ok. i do love the hanna zippers but wish the had feet. their socks are the best as they actually stay on.

i don't put jeans on any of my babies, boys or girls. in fact, dd didn't start with jeans until last year (by her own choice, at that point. she was 5)

[westwoodmom04]

I love the little girl bubbles, sort of halfway between a dress and a onsie for warm weather. For the rest of the year, two piece pant/shirt sets. I loved the Baby Lulu ruffle pants set look, although BL is pricey, the style is copied at all price points. Didn't do Hanna until my kids were toddlers, except for the best baby jacket, which is probably the only jacket you need in Southern California. Target has super cute baby girl stuff lately, and since you only need it to get through one baby, that might be good for every day stuff. We did dresses from time to time, but agree, not too practical before they can walk.

[Seitvonzu]

i'll jump on the dresses bandwagon-- my child wore them all the time. i got her "dressed" even if we were just going to target. it made me feel better and i liked to show her off :) *shrug* we did everything from target to high end and everywhere in between. if i loved it- i bought it. she was seriously my "living doll" ;) i have seen some seriously cute things at target lately, but i've since really fallen in love with the baby boden look (i didn't know about boden when DD was little or i'd have been in big big trouble!)

even during crawling, i didn't feel like dresses slowed DD down. i always would say "you can put the dress on the baby, BUT...." pants do/did slow DD down--because they never fit correctly. have fun dressing your girl :):):)

[bisous]

LOVE all this feedback!

I do think I'll do some dresses. We attend church very regularly and as babies my boys always wore "dressy" clothes for a few hours on Sunday. IMO it is the perfect venue for nicer stuff. :) I do think my DD (that's weird to type!) will be wearing one piece outfits most of the time. It is just more comfortable that way. But I like to have a few "dynamite" outfits. We'll see how I acclimate to getting her dressed. Maybe little girl clothes are fun enough that I'll be motivated to let her wear something beyond jammies, lol. The suggestions here are so interesting because with boys the options are basically pants, shorts or one piece outfits. Girls have so many more options! I'm thinking I'll look into tunics, ruffled leggings, bubbles, cotton dresses, etc. If it is soft and comfy and a little bit girly all the better!

Thank you for this gold mine of information. I'm looking at websites today based on the stores you guys mentioned. I must say it is really, really fun!

[bisous]

With my first boy I was ALL about the little jeans. But I'm with you, too stiff for tiny ones! Thank you for your kind offer!

(Edit: Sorry this was a response to Swissair81's post--otherwise it doesn't make sense!)

[lizzywednesday]

...

even during crawling, i didn't feel like dresses slowed DD down...

Me either and dresses were about 80% of her wardrobe when she learned to crawl.

[sarahsthreads]

I love the little girl bubbles, sort of halfway between a dress and a onsie for warm weather.

Yes, those were my favorite, favorite thing for DD2! I mostly did onesies and pants or overalls for cooler weather, with footed sleepers mixed in and a few dresses & leggings just for fun. Basically, I shopped by whether I found something cute or not, evaluated the potential comfort level (no frilly lace collars or stiff button bands, etc.) and then made it work with sweaters, tights, baby legs, or whatever other layers were needed. :)

I totally understand how you feel, OP, because after two girls I've had a crisis over how to dress a boy! My summer girl lived in those bubbles, but there's really no equivalent for boys. Well, I did eventually find a couple of one-piece outfits that had short sleeves and legs instead of long. I guess those are boy "bubbles"? But the huge variety of colors and styles are just not there in boy-clothing-land. On the one hand, you'd think this would be better for my wallet, but on the other...every time I find something cute and comfy-looking I feel the urge to buy it whether we really need it or not, because it may be the LAST TIME I find something cute in the boys' department. ;) (I'm hoping I'll eventually stop feeling this way?)

Sarah :)

[crl]

I had very good luck with CL lots up through about size three. Also dd wore a lot of knit sleepers from The Children's Place and fleece Carter's sleepers from Costco. For cute outfits, I would check out Carter's, Next, Old Navy and the like. My dd went through sizes so fast the the "cute" stuff often only got worn two or three times before she outgrew it that first year so I would not spend the money on Hanna or Tea unless it is for family pictures or something (and then I'd be looking at Etsy anyway because I like unique things for that).

Catherine

[ArizonaGirl]

Also I found that jeans are too stiff for little babies. I'm much more enamoured with leggings or jeggings.

I :heartbeat: leggings/jeggings for DD, I am also going to reuse her summer dresses by putting leggings underneath, so I can save some money.

After having a boy, I agree dressing girls is a totally different ball game. :rotflmao:

[AnnieW625]

My girls were born in early, and late April so their first two months they lived in long sleeve onesies (which I had to go to Target and buy with DD1 when she was a week old because they were already out of the stores by then), sweat pants, and sleep n play outfits. DD1 was even harder to shop for because she was soo skinny and easily wore newborn clothes until she was about 6 weeks old (she wore newborn Pampers diapers that entire time too!). I cloth diapered DD2 from birth until 3 months with a diaper service so she was easier to get into 3-6 months size clothes. TBH most of my girls daily wardrobe for 0-6 months was Carters and maybe a few Baby Gap Layette stuff I had gotten as a gift.I loved the bubble outfit onesies as well and those were cute for church as well. They never really wore any super fancy stuff though and little dresses I would put them in from about 6 months plus.

Both of my girls wore jeans and leggings, but I rarely did tights and never saw the need for Baby Legs. With both girls I had a lot of hand me downs or I bought some stuff second hand from other moms I knew.

I don't like Hanna Andersson for baby, yes it is cute, but I hate the sizing. If you can make it to 6 or 9 months then you can start with size 70, but I found sizes 50 and 60 to be pretty useless IMHO. The bulk of the Hanna buying though started at over a year old when I knew a size 80 would last a good a year. It's not cheap so I wanted to get my money's worth out of it. TBH and I know this isn't for everyone, but for me and my girls I am a big fan of spending a little more money on things and getting more wear out of it. I honestly don't care if my DD wore the same outfit on one Monday and then wore it the following Friday once it was clean again.

I found that Childrens Place except for underwear and their sleepers ran pretty small. My DD1 is pretty skinny (only needs a size 7 for length) and even now I feel like I have to size up a bit.

We have also had great luck with Target brands, although the Osk Kosh brand runs a little small. One of DD1's favorite fleece jackets in preschool was from Faded Glory, which is a Wal Mart brand.

I liked Gymboree from about 6 months up as well and I really like their little girls holiday dresses usually.

Zutano is also nice, esp. if you can find it second hand.

[schrocat]

I have been building a new baby girl wardrobe from scratch for the new baby who is due late next month. After passing clothes down 3 boys, most of their clothes are just fit to be rags.

So far we've (collectively me with the approval of DH and my sister) have bought some clothes for the next year for the only baby girl in the family. I've ordered from Next, Baby Gap, MiniBoden, Hanna Andersson and Gymboree. My sister has bought some layette from Petit Bateau for the baby girl.

I've been buying footed sleepers, kimonos type tops (if possible) and gowns (easiest to put baby in and change diapers since she won't be going out of the house in the first month except for doctor's appointments). I like the Gerber gowns (cheap and not too thick) and I bought some gowns from the Gap. The most important thing for me at the very early newborn and 1-3 month stage are mitten cuffs (my last baby was a big scratcher).

I have some tunic top and pants outfits because we live in a colder climate and it's not practical for me to just have her in dresses. I bought more dresses in 6-12 sizes because it's warmer then and we'll be vacationing somewhere tropical then. I do have some dresses in 0-3 months size which I had bought earlier because I thought baby no 2 and 3 were going to be girls and those were too small to give away.

I've bought some cute Gymboree sets recently for the first few months for the baby girl. The Sweetly Floral outfit (I wanted pants because we have cold winters), some stuff from the Koala Baby line and the Cupcake stuff.

DH wants to order some Japanese inspired clothes from Japan but we're waiting on that.