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Baby Clothes

How do you go green with your baby's clothes? Just like with everything else, reduce, reuse, and recycle!

Yes, babies need lots of clothes unless you do laundry every day. Sometimes Sweet Pea goes through three or four outfits in a day, depending on whether we play outside, and whether she feeds herself or not. However, there are a several ways to maintain a complete wardrobe while still meeting your goals for living green:
  • Buy used. In my town, there are lots of consignment shops that specialize in childrens clothing and accessories. One of them even has a sale every month with boxes and boxes of clothes that are only $.25 per item. Then there's always Goodwill or whatever sells used in your area. This is a really cheap way to get a lot of clothes, and they often have very little wear, especially in the smallest sizes since kids grow so quickly. I have bought items with the original tags still on them! In addition, check craigslist or your local yard sales.
  • Share with friends/family (hand-me-downs). This can be a fun way to get and share free clothes. We have friends with kids aged on either side of Sweet Pea so we have passed many things back and forth. It's really fun to see a favorite item on another baby! I also remember getting clothes from my older cousins when I was a child, and I always thought it was exciting.
  • Recycle clothes (make new out of old). There are many patterns out there for making kids clothes out of used adult clothing - tee-shirts into pants or dresses, sweaters into diaper covers, dress shirts into dresses or shorts. Really, you can make anything you can think of as long as you have a big enough piece of fabric. Resweater offers 100% wool sweaters and lots of ideas for ways to recycle them.
  • Buy organic or buy local, or both!
How are you reducing consumption or saving money with your kids' clothes?

Links to good  recycled clothes patterns would be welcome in comments!
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