Ask Jamie: Children's Clothes

Lakshmi says:

"I saw the tweet about you buying clothes for fall for the kiddos. I was wondering if you could suggest to me some good online stores where I can find infant clothes for fall/winter. I have a 10 week old baby boy and I am still not sure as to how to dress him for fall/winter. Any suggestions you can provide will be very helpful!!!!!"

One of the many changes in my life since having Bo is that I worry much more about what he is wearing than I do about my own wardrobe. Most days, I look like I barely took the time to get dressed, more or less stylish. However, I might have a panic attack if Bo leaves the house looking anything less than adorable.

For the first 6 months of Bo's life, I mostly dressed him in footed sleepers. My favorite brand is Carter's and we had enough to survive several days without doing laundry. Occasionally, I'd put him in a onesie and knit pants but I wasn't too fancy or stylish with his apparel. He was napping often and I went for comfort with his clothing a lot more than cuteness. I plan to do the same for the girls. They each have a onesie and other than that their entire wardrobe is sleepers until 6 month size.

Once Bo hit 6 months I started to dress him more like a little boy. Typically onesies and shorts. I didn't do shoes at all until he started walking, but if it was cold out, he did wear socks. I found that onesies were a lot better for him when he was crawling since regular tees seemed to ride up. I've even invested in a few little dresses for the girls for once they are past the 6 month stage. I'm not into frilly clothing, but I have had success finding polka dots and apparently I really like fruit themes...

Once Bo hit the 1 year mark, he started wearing "normal" clothes. T-shirts. Button downs. Jeans. Sweatshirts. Now, buying clothes for him is a lot more fun! His clothing is mostly a hodge-podge of different finds but I hadn't purchased anything for fall and suddenly it was cold out so I was forced to go online and find him some clothing ASAP. Many of Bo's things come from an adorable second hand store by where Mike grew up -- Good Cents Children. Most of his jeans and both of his winter coats last year were from there.

I do buy a lot of his clothing new, but I do try my best to buy everything on sale, especially since he grows out of everything so quickly (he is currently in 3T tops, 2T pants, and size 8 shoes). I have the best luck with Carter's, GAP, Gymboree, Crazy 8, and Kohl's. I also love all of the clothing from Hatley and Hanna Andersson, but I Bo has very few pieces from these stores, as their prices are a bit steep. Carter's has an outlet we drive by often and I usually order online from GAP, Gymboree, and Crazy 8. Typically, I wait until they email me about a sale, send coupons, or have one of their promotions (such as Gymbucks) to help with the cost.

One item that I am very particular about is Bo's shoes. Thus far, Bo has only had six pairs of shoes, but they have all been high quality and therefore, pretty expensive. Luckily, boys don't need a pair of shoes to go with every outfit. His first pair of shoes and his summer sandals were from See Kai Run. He's on his second pair of New Balance tennis shoes and I just ordered a new pair of Merrells for him for this winter - in a slightly different color from the ones he wore last winter. I am much more concerned about how I will deal with the girls and their shoes as I love all of the cute girly shoes -- but I know I'm not going to want to pay for them to have a pair of high quality shoes to match every outfit.

Where do you buy your children's clothing? What type of deals do you find? What advice do you have to share regarding finding clothing and shoes at good prices?

Friday's Feature at Sticky Feet Part Deux is Ask Jamie. Feel free to email me or leave a comment with any question you would like for me to answer. Anything is fair game!