Clothing Issues

Ok, since this is supposed to be a blog about making do with what you have, (although I haven't been so faithful to that!), I thought I'd throw this in here.
Having five daughters, I routinely get comments about how I'm going to be sent to the poor house trying to clothe them all when they're teenagers. But I figure that if I can set a few precedents now while they're young, then we'll have fewer issues when they get older. I may be deluding myself on this one, but hey, it's worth a shot! So here's how we do things on one not-so-large-but-perfectly-adequate income:

1. We home school. Sounds like it doesn't relate to the topic? Well, we don't have anyone to impress on a daily basis do we? Without all that outward pressure to conform we are able to be more content with what God has given us.
2. We love hand-me-downs. Whether it be from older sisters, or friends of the family, anything new to us is exciting!
3. We shop at yard sales and thrift stores. This is so fun! The girls love finding treasures amongst what other people have labeled as trash. We're always amazed at what perfectly good things people get rid of, some things still have the original store tags on them! We only buy clothes at Target if we need something specific that we don't already have for a special occasion. But really, we haven't had to do this for a while.
   
4. We save outgrown items for the next girl in line even if it's not perfectly "in style" anymore. Oh, and baby dresses make cute blouses for 3-4 year olds!
5. We mend torn items. This sounds simple enough, but I have a feeling that not many people actually take the time to do this. You can add a couple years of wearable-ness to an item by simply taking a needle and thread to it. Along this same line, you can also sew a cute little patch or embroider a flower over small stains.
6. We have grandparents who like to take the kids shopping. For some reason they think our kids "deserve" new clothes. Well, if it floats their boat I'm not going to stop them! ;)
   
7. We save seasonal clothes. If it doesn't fit one child this winter, it'll probably fit the next child next winter. Time flies by faster the more kids you have, you'll be thankful to be able to pull out that box next winter and be able to find what you need! We go through seasonal clothes twice a year, in the spring and fall. All summer clothes get put away, including flip-flops and bathing suits in the fall. All winter clothes get put away when it's warm enough for shorts (excepting a sweatshirt for chilly evenings). This is cause for great excitement in our house, the kids LOVE doing this so much that they don't mind hauling out ten large totes from the storage shed into the front room!

So there you have it! Take it or leave it as you will, but it works great for our family and trains the kids to be thankful and creative rather than materialistic.