How to Make your Kids Clothes Last Longer

Your assistance in our Coco petition, garners ample appreciation. something wondrous like:
5 Steps to Extending the Life of Clothe-lettes

Proceed with me to your retributed reward...

Step I) Buy High Caliber Clothes
You may erroneously assume that investing in dandies for your dickens is equivalent to stocking your wipey case with George's minted profile.  But you are wrong (hence erroneous).  And I will methodically address each of your arguments.  

1. Small people grow big too quickly 
   Better clothes include self-adjusting details. Multiple button homes on elastic waistbands or shoulder straps allow clothing to be purchased roomy and worn from season dawn to season set, if not the next season go-round as well.
2. Minors major in clothing destruction  Better clothes are made of better fabrics.  Tighter weaves proffer stain resistance, larger seam allowances protect against dropped hems, scientifically smartish blends stretch then rebound.  Give the fabric a tug, without compromising comfort you want a taut response.  A dense weave locks out potential stains.  Check the garment's innards, the seam allowances should be generous and reinforced.  Hems should never look malnourished.  Inventory the tag, if it's intended to stretch (ie a pull-on t-shirt) it should include a touch of spandex or lycra or similar.  Plain cotton will stretch, but it won't rebound, and Flashdance fashion should never be forced on juveniles.
3. Better clothes cost too much.  Quality is not measured in the number of digits on it's retail tag.  Buy the best quality you can afford at the lowest price you can find.  Filter through end of season clearance racks at the stores you wish you could shop at...and you probably can. Buy for next season, then catalog it away until it is time to wear.  Check thrift and second hand shops, if they made it for a second go round, it may last longer than brand new disposable clothing.  Always, always, consider cost per wear

Step II) Dress for the Occasion
My babies dine in diapers.  Their petal soft skin is far easier to polish clean than their clothes are.  While this technique may not be appropriate for your ten-year-old, prepare ensembles for activities with clothing pollution potential.  Make smocks, aprons, or pre-stained items available for painting, grass rolling, cooking, etc.

Step III) Refashion Outgrowths
Cut back on giant arm syndrome by rolling the sleeves.  Layer a thin cotton underneath. Make what you already have work.  Winter's wool trouser may blossom into wee tween short pants.  A-line dresses make natural tunics and what was originally donned as this year's denim skinnies may evolve into summer capris and can even be selected for boot tucking next winter.  Evaluate how you can refashion what you already have before you buy your next season of inventory.  

Step IV) Cross-Dress
This button-up was intended for Baby Boyfriend's fall collection, but while we waited for him to sprout a few lb's and "'s, sister enjoyed it for a few summer frolics.  If there's little chance of it wearing out, buy it in a gender neutral color.  White onesies and socks know no gender boundary.

Step V) Wash Less, Quickly
If you want to obliterate the Winnie-The-Pooh coveralls that Grandma gifted your darling, wash them.  Wash them every time you pass a dirty look at them, because washing is the fastest way to break fibers down.

Conversely, the fewer times you have to wash an item, the longer it will live.  Step two's occasional dressing will aid your wash resistance and so will the liberal wielding of your wipey case. Wipeys aren't just for diaper debris.  Those and their wet rag cousins can remove all kinds of unset stains.  Address baby spits, toddler dribbles, and the like as soon as they land.   


In short, if it isn't stinky or soiled, put it back in the drawer.  If it is dirty, treat it as soon as possible.  If you don't have a load to launder at hand, apply stain remover and a quick warm water soak to ensure the stain doesn't set.  When you're ready to wash,  use a quality detergent to support clothing longevity.  If your detergent is efficacious in one wash, you've saved yourself at least another wear.

And I'm not done thanking you, next post I'll address how to dress your tween.

In the meantime, book a Virtual shopping session for you, for your progeny, for your next family frolic.  I was born to fashion childhood and the supporters of it.

Money Saving Tips: Make Your Jeans Last Longer

Denim is a prolific closet panacea. It can associate with garment princes and paupers without requiring even the application of a warm iron for perfect presence. But how to get your most popular clothing choice to last a few seasons longer?

one. Recycle
Your jeans should not be laundered following every wear. Unless they are stained, wear them at least two or three times between laundry soaks. Denim & rivets were combined to serve miners who occasionally bathed their trousers in the creek. It can stand up to your afternoon at the park as well.

two. Hem
Unlike Princess of Monaco's train this idea will only look shabby. Make sure your denim is hemmed to the break of our shoe, so you don't trample your hem.

three. Zip & Button
Close all the openings before washing your jeans. Exposed fasteners, rivets, and zippers can rub and weaken your indigo threads.

four. Inside Out
Turn jeans inside out before bathing them in the washer. This strategy allows the fading dyes to settle back into the fabric. And if possible wash a family of denim together. Your 6-year-old grandpa's can be rejuvenated by the dyes escaping from your 2-week-old newborns.

five. Wash Cold
If you can't see visible dirt or stains, dial to cold. You'll see a reduction in your denim fade and your utility bill. Reserve hot water washing for jeans for heavily soiled or oily occasions.

six. Wash Delicate
Apply the most tender wash cycle available to your jeans. While sturdy, delicate care will extend your time together. Very lightly soiled jeans may even be washed on a delicate cycle, but will need an extra spin cycle on regular to remove the excess water.

seven. Air Dry
Save your denim from the spinning jaws of your dryer. Air drying your jeans with only a short fluffing in the dryer.

eight. Reinforce
Surgery may be required to save failing denim knees. Patch them before they wear through by applying fabric glue or fusible web to the inside of the knee. You can also cut up an old, unwearable pair of jeans for patches to reinforce stress points like pocket corners.

nine. Storage
Folded not hung, store your jeans with zippers and buttons inside the fold, stacking the pairs in alternating directions to make a level pile. Hangers will crease, and clips will distress the cuffs or waistband.

ten. Dye
If you wish, you can dye your denim new. Rit Fabric Dye can flash your jeans back to a fabulous inky black. But Dylon Machine Dye for Blue Denim will resurrect them back to a perfect shade of deep, rich blue.

Please add your denim saving tips in the comments.

Money Saving Tips: How To Avoid the Dry Cleaner

A stone's bounce from my house stands an antiquated brick building with a street-visible sign, on which is scripted: Claire's Cleaners.

I want to go to Claire's Cleaners.

I want to walk in where the staff greets me by name and fills my arms with tailored trousers pressed and tissued. I want to smell organic starch on the collars of my husband's shirts and commend their ability to finally remove the stain from the lapel of my dearest jacket without bathing it in toxic chemicals. My hopes for Claire's Cleaners rise lofty. Unfortunately, Claire's Cleaners is vacant, as it has been since I moved here five years prior.

I must submit to the $2.99 Dry Cleaning Store a mile from my house. What prideless creature names their establishment "$2.99 Dry Cleaning Store." (It used to be the "$1.99 Dry Cleaning Store", but you can see how their creative prowess has developed the brand.) Until I am able to procure and launch Claire's Cleaners myself, I stubbornly avoid the dry cleaner with their wire hangers and plastic drapings and keep my $2.99 whenever possible.

Maybe you'd like a few more $2.99's in your pocketbook as well. Well Frugal Friend of my Bosom, here's how:

one. FRESHENING: Home Dry Cleaning Kits
Obvious yet useful for touch ups. This method is perfect for the dress you donned to church and enjoyed company with for a few hours. Over time the bag version is thriftier than the alternative, since you can purchase refills rather than a whole new kit. While the kits are accompanied by a stain removing solution it isn't terribly effective unless the stain is light, fresh, or otherwise uncommitted to staying.

two. WRINKLE REMOVER: Steamy Showers
When your delicate garment is merely rumpled, send it to a steamy bathroom. Hang your ensemble nearby while you remove your own soils. Keep the door closed following your toilet and allow the steam to remove creases and diffuse the frail offenses of smoke or perfume. This method is much more delicate on fabrics than heated irons, just be sure you place the garment close enough to benefit from the condensation but not so close that it is soaked by the source.

three. SMELLY: Disinfectant Spray
After wearing a garment, spray it with a disinfectant spray before hanging it up to eliminate bacteria which causes odors to form on the fabric. Focus on any parts of the garment that were in direct contact with your skin.

four. SPOTTING: Baby Wipes
Baby wipes are tremendously good at removing spots from your garment before soils have time to draw up a permanent contract. Address spots as soon as they occur and examine your garments post-wear to remove any sneaky spots which moved in without notice.

five. SWEATIES: Vinegar
If a garment isn't terribly sweaty, you can sponge off the bio-grime and dry it in front of a fan. This will work with a variety of fabrics that you'd never put through the spin cycle, such as silk or rayon.

six. PREVENTION: Underarm Shields
A little vinegar won't save a silk donned in an Arizona August. But prevention will, save yourself from perspiration stains by placing underarm shields in dresses and suits. Mr & Mrs fine garments won't end up with tough-to-remove perspiration stains and they'll last years longer.

Please share more of your favorite Dry Cleaner Avoidance tips in the comments.

Laundry Room Friday

Following is an addition to your Friday Laundry List, watch these wash videos and come see me all fresh and fluffy on Monday.

Sweet, Shiny Wash

When I yoga into forward bend, I like smelling my knees. Swathed in polyester spandex, they are sweet with the bouquet of Renewing Rain. It started as an olfactory attraction, but its grown into a refined commitment, driven by cleanliness, fiber preservation, and sensational fluffiness.

If you want your patellas to smell yummy, click on over to Tide Total Care. While you're there doing reconnaissance with Mr. Tim Gunn you can ask for a free sample (which comes complete with a lovely little coupon).

So what's your favorite laundry solution? Let us know your favorite way to keep you pretties soft, sweet, and shiny.

Keeping Clothes Young

(Wash Graphics provided by Laundry Care Symbols)

Mother Sue called it bonding: an opportunity to strengthen emotive relations. And the euphemism caught. To this day I adore nuzzling into a hot, clean pile of dryer contents. And find few things more socially rewarding than sorting socks with a loved one.

Once again I confirm my belief in clothing investments. And in consequence, I confirm the need for proper care for maximum wear. This week we'll be investigating keeping our clothes looking young as long as possible.

In honesty, I anticipate the idea of aging myself: soft laugh lines, strands of silver surrounding my face. But this kind of beauty is earned rather than received. In the lovely prose of Eleanor Roosevelt: "Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art."

And properly broken in clothes are expenditures of effort as well: jeans stretched into a second skin, shoes curving along each toe. But in order to keep your clothes in their prime for as long as possible requires a proper understanding of care. Today we'll start with the hieroglyphs on the reverse side of clothing tags.


Wash Delicate: Gossamer clothing require elite circumstances. Dial in on the appropriate cycle and segregate from coarser clothing. Try putting delicates inside a pillow case and close with a knot to protect them from the washing machine.




Do not wash. Usually there is a dry clean symbol with this one.






Hand Wash: con sus manos pequeñas.













Goldilocks always enjoys optimal washing results because the water temperature is just right. Too high water temperature will destroy the textile or make the colors bleed and fade. Too low temperature may leave the clothing item soiled. Each dot indicates an increased temperature starting at a cold 30C and increasing by 10 degrees Celsius (about 20 degrees Fahrenheit) with each additional point.

Bleach: Bright and sharp whites can require the assistance of bleaching agents. The equilateral triangle indicates an open invitation to bleach, just follow the instructions carefully. Too much chlorine based bleach can turn evil.

Non-chlorine bleach only: Use only bleaches that do not contain chlorine (aka color safe Bleach).

Do not bleach: This garment has no tolerance for bleach, so keep the whitening and brightening agents at bay.

There are four ways you follow up on your washing: tumble high, tumble low, line, and flat. If in doubt, lay it flat.

Tumble dry using low heat

I had a long acetate skirt that I attempted to smooth with a warm iron. The results were a gastly scar floating on the back of the bustle. I still wore it, feeling a literary connection with Meg in Little Women, but not all appreciate the dramatics of ironing mishaps.

Do Not Iron! When you see this symbol, put your iron down!

If one or several of the dry-cleaning symbols are present it is usually accompanied with a do-not-wash symbol. Leave the interpretation of these markings to your dry cleaning professionals




Do not dryclean! Seriously keep them away from the solvents or else.




So reheat your dryer contents if they've gone cool and come back tomorrow for more ways to keep you clothes young.