Hand-me-down clothes (babies)

I used to buy babygros from jumble sales (do these even exist?) and bung them into a dye bath so I had a baby in red and purple . Unfortunately he was a very dribbly baby and ended up with dye all over his chest.
He survived.
Some people wouldn't thank you for hand me downs.

When #4 was due I asked DS to give back the cord dungarees I had made. What, she said, they have been worn by 3 of yours and 4 of ours, do you really want them back?

All my baby equipment was secondhand and most of their clothes was homemade but things are different now. Children’s clothes are very cheap and not made to last. I used to volunteer in a charity shop and brought home some lovely things for my grandchildren but they were never worn.

My mum is the oldest of 10. All the mums shared maternity and children's clothes. I remember there was a red and blue play suit with Winnie-the-pooh on it that was worn by I don't know how many - including me, I think.

Re-using baby clothes and equipment just makes great sense on so many levels. In February I read an article about John Lewis implementing a hand-me-down scheme for children's clothing.

My youngest GD is currently wearing a jumper that I bought for her mother and that my younger dd also wore. My dd has used a lot of stuff handed in from friends and in turn passed them on.

Years ago, a friend had a late baby, years after her first two. She was given some second hand baby clothes and she was thrilled to find amongst them the beautiful Vyella baby dresses she’d had for her first daughter some fourteen years before! They were still as wearable as when she’d bought them though goodness knows how many babies they’d been through.

My daughter buys mainly 2nd hand clothes on line for her 5 year old twins. She sells bundles of clothes online as well. The children have loads of great clothes in this way. I think it’s a great idea. Saving money and the planet as well.

My 2 daughters have 5 daughters between them and clothes and toys have been passed back and forth for the past few years.
My eldest daughter often buys bundles of clothes from local Facebook sites, very good quality clothes at a fraction of the price when new.

I still have my Christening gown made out of my Mother’s wedding dress from 1955. Two of my Daughters have worn it, the other three were too big for it, and alternatives were either made or borrowed for their Christenings at the time.

Some of my Grandchildren have worn things kept from their Mums and Aunties as babies, although being as we didn’t have any sons, the Grandsons only got to wear the neutral coloured newborn baby clothes, before moving on to more masculine clothing. I still have a few tiny keepsakes stored away upstairs which are mostly what my late mother knitted, or the shawl and a frilly tiny dress that l bought them all home out of hospital in at the time. My youngest Daughter is now the manager of a local Nursery, and they often hold a ‘Under 5s Swop shop’ to raise funds for special outings and Treats for the children who attend, they sell all manor of baby and toddler clothes and equipment, including some items that were brand new unwanted gifts, still with their tags attached, and for a fraction of their original cost.

I loved my Silver Cross coach built pram oopsminty so good to push around and comfortable for the baby. A friend bought mine and took it to America where it was much admired.
We used to pass baby clothes round our group too but unfortunately my best friend had five boys and I had two girls so no swaps there.

How sensible to share baby things since they don’t wear out until the crawling stage is reached. We still treasure the family christening robe of very fine lawn, made for DH’s grandfather in 1867, and worn by most family babies though the last one had to be shoehorned into it since she was five months old and the robe obviously made for a much younger, smaller baby. It is beautiful, tiny tucks and lace insertion and with its own petticoat. I doubt if it will ever be used again and wonder quite what to do with it.

I still have my father’s beautiful silk christening gown and robe

How fabulous, Witzend!

We had a Silver Cross carriage pram for the children which I carefully sealed and stored. When my son's wife was pregnant he asked about it so we retrieved it and it was immaculate.

New wheels and lining and both granddaughters have had years of being wheeled out in it.

My husband did question the logic of keeping it but I stuck to my guns and here we are.

Thirty years later and giving comfortable walks for the girls

My mother made all our clothes too and my sister wore my old ones out - my clothes were OK after a couple of years but my younger sister managed to wear most of the print off the front of her dresses - we could never work out how she did it!
Once our next door neighbour gave a very nice dress from her daughter to me. I liked the dress so was happy ..until I was out playing wearing said dress when the girl next door started saying to everyone - oh look xxx is wearing my dress! I was upset and my mother was furious as she had only taken the dress not to offen the neighbour. I never wore the dress again and my mother never accepted any more hand me downs.

Both of my DILs buy bundles of baby clothes for my GGD & GD from ebay they have had some amazing bargains and have swopped items between them saving vasts amount of money.
My mum used to buy material and make our dresses,I am one of 3 sisters and we all had the same dresses with matching ribbons for our hair,they where all passed down the line every year so my youngest sister had the pleasure of wearing the same dress during the summer for about 3yrs as she got to use her 2 elder sisters dresses.

Takes me back many years to a time when I was part of an informal chain of at least 5 friends. We each had one daughter, different ages, some lovely dresses were passed down the line. 50 years ago, children’s clothes were expensive and ‘new’ dresses were awaited with eager anticipation by the little girls!
This was when there were few charity shops and no NCT or EBay!

My youngest grandson wears a lot of his cousins hand me downs.All three grandchildren have worn some of the outfits.
They all looked very similar as small babies so I can imagine in years to come they will look at photos and wonder which of them it is!

I’ve kept certain things, too, Oopsminty. In particular a lovely little newborn size white winceyette nightie with an embroidered yoke - it was for dd2 when we were living in a climate too warm for babygros.

I still have my father’s beautiful silk christening gown and robe - with minute pintucks and lace - I imagine handmade by either my GM or GGM. He was an ‘only’, born in 1916. My mother said we were all too fat to fit into them!
I can’t of course part with them, but often wonder whether dds might (eventually) pass them on to the V&A or similar.

A friend used to hand on her daughter's clothes for my daughter who was two years younger. My daughter (4) was thrilled as the older girl was her heroine.
My mother was horrified at her granddaughter wearing second-hand clothes.
One day there were two identical dresses in the bag of goodies and my son (2) decided one was for him. We have a lovely photo of them both wearing them and laughing their heads off!

Fast forward several years and my daughter often buys a big bag of clothes from a local Facebook group for my granddaughter (3). She's had some absolute bargains. On Saturday during our WhatsApp video call my granddaughter was wearing a beautiful John Rocha dress!

Such a sensible thing to do.
Saves money, resources and reduces waste.
I passed on my pram and other bits then became unexpectedly pregnant again so bought second hand.

I kept a lot of my children's baby clothes. Couldn't part with them

His daughters, aged 4 and 1 now, have been wearing some of these items

We have photos of son clad in colourful baby grows and now pictures of his girls in a similar pose

Things are certainly passed around or handed down in our family.