Keeping Little Girls Warm in Dresses

I mentioned in my post on how to sew little girl dresses for $6 and less, that I dressed Ariana in skirts early on. (If you haven't read the aforementioned article, it's a huge Works for Me!)

Pandabean asked:

My questions are how early and how did you keep her legs warm when she was very small? My DD is 3.5 months old and when she is in dresses, even long ones, her legs still get exposed from her kicking a lot. I've tried tights, but I can't seem to find thick ones as the regular ones are too thin; blankets get kicked off just as quickly as the skirt goes up. Any suggestions?

How early? Pretty much from day one. Other then snuggley bunny suits the first couple days, Ariana wore dresses. After three very rough and tumbley boys, pants were not an option for our little girl. I had enough of pants and was very ready to graduate to dresses, ruffles and lace! Rich stopped at at several yard sales the day after she was born and bought everything frilly and pink he could find. (It was sooo cute to see him swoon over dresses!)

Ariana was born the beginning of April in the Fargo, North Dakota area. It doesn't warm up there until late May or June most years and it's terribly (horribly, rotten, awful...) cold in the winter. I had to get creative to keep her warm in dresses, but I succeeded. She didn't loose any toes to frostbite while running around the house.

For the first 2 months or so of her life, I carried Miss Ana in a sling wrapped in blankets because unlike the boys, she wanted to be close to me all the time (she still does!) When summer finally came, she just wore dresses with matching bloomers/diaper covers. Then autumn hit. brrrrrrr...

My "secret" for keeping little legs warm is layers. I start with a cotton Onesie. Onesies are a mom's best friend you know! Then I added a long dress (generally 2 or 3 sizes bigger than what she was really supposed to be in) and a sweater. On under the dress went tights, heavy socks over the tights, stretch pants like these from BabyGap (picked up via the thrift store of course!) and finally slippers similar to these or these, only the $6 variety you pick up at Wal-Mart or Target. The ankle elastic in the slippers keeps the socks on like a charm, even with the kickiest kickers.

Between January or March before Ariana turned a year old, I found some heavy duty cotton tights on clearance at Wal-Mart for $2 a pair. We finished out the winter with those tights and wore them the next year too. Lovely, lovely! I don't have any idea why I can find heavy tights in the clearance aisle and not in the regular store, but I always do. A God thing maybe? I would check the Wal-Mart clearance aisle ASAP to see if they happen to have heavy tights left. Get them big enough for next fall and winter and grab all you can afford. $2 or $3 a pair is a real bargain.

As another option, I love Maggie's Organic tights, but they are soo expensive. The good news is that they wash and wear well and last a long time. I always buy a size larger so they wear an extra long time, and in case they shrink.

Babies do grow pretty fast when they are little. I didn't have the energy to sew when Ariana was little, but if you do, excellent! If I were to sew something for infants or pre-walkers, I would probably pick a pattern like Simplicity's 4434 View C, the footie pants, and make them in a heavy cotton flannel, polar fleece or sometime comparably warm, to take the place of the stretch pants. I would put the socks on under the footie pants and the slippers on top. I wore footie pants with socks and slippers on the boys when they were little as well. If your little one is bigger and starting to toddle, make sure the slippers you buy have gripper dots on the bottom so they don't slip or just put shoes on over the footie pants.

So I guess the next question is... Can a baby learn to crawl and/or walk, and do it normally, dressed like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? Absolutely. Little ones are really adaptable. It might seem like a lot of clothing, but it really isn't. In any case, they'll be toasty warm.

Yup, that Worked for Me, even if it does seem really weird to be writing about keeping little girls warm less then a week before Memorial Day. Maybe my readers (should I have any) in the Southern Hemisphere will benefit since it's getting a bit nippy there. Well, I suppose all my Fargo friends can still benefit from the information this time of year too... lol Hugs!