Last
July, when we were in the US, I stocked up on the spring/summer clearance sales
at Carters in size 18 months for Sara to wear this spring. She's been
steadily true to size in Carters, so I felt comfortable buying seasonal clothes
in the age she would be (almost a year ahead of time). Yesterday, I got
them all out to do an inventory and see if I would need to buy anything else
for the spring.
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All of Sara's 18-month clothes in a drawer organizer |
When I saw how few clothes there
were, I thought for sure I would need to buy a ton more for her to have
enough. Normally I have limited her clothes to one drawer full, which holds two drawer organizers. Then with all my capsule wardrobe experience, I decided to see
how many outfits I could make with what she already had.
As I started laying out outfits, I couldn't believe the mix-and-match capabilities. I had "accidentally" given Sara a limited color palette (navy/white/pink/light blue - with one exception yellow dress). And I had a good, balanced amount of each different type of clothing.
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Onesies - 3 short-sleeved, 1 long-sleeved |
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Shirts - 4 short--sleeved, 1 long-sleeved that can be cuffed |
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Rompers - 2 short-sleeved w/ long pants |
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Pants - 6 leggings (2 solid, 4 floral), 2 jeans, 1 jeggings |
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Sweaters - 3 |
I took pictures of each outfit, so I could count them. Then the mathematical side of me got really into the combinations, and it ended up taking quite a while to do it all, but it was really fun for me. It's a fun balance of math and creativity. I took the outfit pictures by making all the combinations with each top. I then sorted them into collages by short-sleeved and long-sleeved
outfits, because she probably can't wear short sleeves in March, but she also
can't wear long sleeves in July. So, it's kind of like 2 capsules within
a capsule. But there may be some overlap if it's hot outside but cold
inside, so the sweaters may still be helpful to bring in the diaper bag in
July.
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Short-sleeved outfits - 24
|
Some of these are just a little basic, like I'm not of huge fan of just a white onesie with leggings, but still possibilities. Even so, this is more than enough! I realized on our last trip how easy it was to wash a couple of Sara's things in the sink with her bath soap, so if we're traveling and she gets food on her clothes, I don't have to have a ton of other clean clothes. I can just wash it, and it will be ready to wear in a day or so! I was worried about laundry detergent while traveling, because we use the sensitive kind for babies, but it's not a problem if I use her bath soap!
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28 Outfits with onesies (and the green shirt) |
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22 Outfits with shirts (I miscounted the first time, thus the 2 blank squares) |
That makes a total of 50 long-sleeved outfits. I suppose that would've fit neatly into two 5x5 square collages, but miscounting is not worth doing all that work again. That's incredible!
I counted dresses separately, because honestly, I typically only put Sara in dresses for church on Sundays. I've realized that 3 dresses is plenty, and it will mostly be cold in church, so the sweaters add a few more possibilities. I'm not sure when she will start walking, so she may need leggings even underneath the dresses to crawl around on the floor without hurting her knees.
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Dresses - 3, making 5 outfits with sweaters |
Also, we bought traditional Romanian outfits for the whole family, so Sara will also wear that to church sometimes while we're in the US.
Out of 23 items, I made 74 outfits! After doing all the outfits, I realized there were a few things I had forgotten that were hanging in the closet:
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Forgotten items |
The navy vest will create more outfit combinations for sure. The pink sweater (it looks like a coat, but it sweater material) is meant to match the blue onesie. Then there is a rain jacket I bought in July, and a trench coat I bought at Zara for the fall that will also fit in the spring. I didn't realize Zara's sizing was bigger than Carters, so we had to roll up the sleeves and put the snaps on a tighter notch this fall. It should fit perfectly in the spring, though.
I may buy just a few things, like more white short-sleeved onesies, but I feel really good about this capsule! It depends on how long she continues crawling what she will wear around the house, so I'm going to wait and see if I should buy some basic leggings or maybe even shorts/skirts/rompers to wear outside the house in the summer. We will have her sleep in her size 12-month sleepers at least for a few more months.
I'm looking forward to catching the winter Carters sales to stock up on size 24 months! Or maybe some 2T? I'm thinking of getting a good mix of both. I love onesies, but I know they don't work for potty training, so I will probably get good use out of both sizes.
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