I spent an hour or so on Saturday night weeding through the boy’s bin of upcoming sizes. I do that once a month or so. (Yes, on Saturday nights. Shut up.) I still had a few of the bigger 12 month items in there, and also pulled out all of the 18 month items. Today he’s wearing one of the 12 month outfits that I just pulled out, and it will probably be the only time he wears it. Apparently Nike is short and wide. He’s swimming in it in width, and yet I can see his ankles and belly button.
Baby clothes can be frustrating for any parent. Who knows before they have a baby which brands fit true to size and which are way off? Well, parents of the blogosphere…(that’s you!). We can help!
I’ll include a list of my opinions about clothing here, and you can add yours in comments. Hopefully we can help expectant and new parents to pull the right sizes out of the bin early enough that they actually get some wear out of them. Everyone’s baby is different (mine’s long & lean…must be nice) so be sure to let us know your baby’s shape along with your opinions. Feel free to include comments about quality as well as size. Also, I’m in Canada but over half of my readers are in the US and Europe/Asia so feel free to include stores and brands from wherever you happen to be. I favour indie companies myself, but will focus on mainstream brands here. You? Comment on whatever you like!
Here we go…
Baby Gap: For us, Baby Gap has been fairly true to size (slightly small). They fit our long and lean baby perfectly. the 6-12 month size fit him from about 5-10 months. I love the quality - everything still looks almost new when I pack it away. Snaps in all the right places, and very comfortable. We have pants up to 2T with crotch snaps, which are hard to find and much appreciated. Adjustable waistbands rock.
Carter’s: Fits slightly small, but very soft and lovely.
Cherokee (from Zellers): Fits slightly small. Sleepers shrink and are fairly low quality. Other clothing seems much better and also fits truer to size.
Children’s Place/Baby Place: Fairly true to size. The 6-9 month pants fit him from 6-9 months. The shirts were a little bit larger, but very close. The quality of the shirts was fairly low - flimsy, I guess, but for the time he wears them they’re fine. The pants were all great quality. All items are very comfortable.
Little Tikes: I didn’t even know they made clothes until last month! They seem to fit a little large. The outfit we got was lovely plush fleece with soft seams and a quality zipper. I really like it.
Mexx: Fits large. The 4-6 month size fit the boy from about 6-10 months. Great quality - they still look brand new after months of washing and wearing.
Nike: Short & fat. Great for the wider variety of baby. For the long & lean, buy at least one size larger than you think you need in order to get the appropriate length. Quality isn’t as good as I would expect for the price.
Old Navy: Slightly small, but not too bad. The jeans in 12-18 months fit him from 9 months and he’ll be in them for a while yet. Decent quality for the price. I find the pants better quality than the tops. We love their jeans.
Please Mum: As true to size as any we’ve found. At ten months, the boy’s in 12 months from Please Mum and it fits perfectly. 18 mos is slightly large, as you’d expect. I love the quality. I also love the sales. They have regular 50% off sales and scratch & save days in store.
Snugabye: I’ve found them a little on the small side, and have had some that seem high quality and some that seem lower. I love the convert-a-foot concept!
Tommy Hilfiger: Fits very large. The boy’s currently wearing 3-6 months in a polo shirt and in the jeans, and he’ll be able to wear them for some time yet. Some of the fabrics are low quality in the tops. The pants seem to be very high quality.
WalMart - George: A little on the small side. The 12 month size fit him from about 8-9.5 months. They still fit in girth, but they’re too short. Cute, and decent quality for the price. (All gifts, I have to mention that I refuse to shop there. Read this blog for a few reasons why.)
Walmart - other: Everything we received from Walmart (all gifts) shrunk terribly and fit for about a week. In this case, you get what you pay for. At 3 months, the boy was in their 12 month diaper shirts, and he’s not that huge. If you must buy from Walmart, buy big. And buy their George brand. Crappy quality, but I don’t expect anything great to come from Walmart.
That covers most of what we’ve gotten over the past year. Let me know what you think.
Anyone with older children? How do their clothes match up in terms of size and quality?
How about the American stores like Target etc.? Let’s help those new parents out!
(And, honestly, help me. I still don’t get it.)
I’ll keep this one open indefinitely so we can keep sharing the wealth of knowledge that is parent bloggers.
Come back Wednesday for an interactive post on organizing the plethora of kids’ stuff filling your home!
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Tags: 
parenthacks, 
children’s clothing, 
brands, 
shopping
organization, 
storage
