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Unless you live in a large city, you may not find a large selection of preemie clothes locally. The baby boutiques just don’t seem to be willing to tap into the market of manufacturing extra small clothing for tiny babies and there is a very good reason that they don’t.
Statistics state that in the USA there are around a half million premature babies born per year. While this may seem like a large number, these premature births add up to less than one percent of the total births in our country.
Since most clothing manufacturers must deal in large volumes to compete, the market for preemie outfits just isn’t that profitable.
What this means is that cheap, premature baby clothes will be a challenge to obtain.
So, how can moms clothe babies that made their entrance into the world a tiny bit smaller than expected without blowing their budget?
One of the important things to check for when shopping for premature baby clothing or when sewing for premature babies is that there are no rough edges to scratch baby’s delicate skin. Now, here are some ideas on how to get your tiny sweetheart some inexpensive outfits.
CHECK OUT THE TOY DEPARTMENT
Many of the realistic baby dolls on the market come with wonderful wardrobes. You may have to purchase one of the baby dolls to have access to the little outfits, but that just means that you will have a dolly for baby to play with later. The fact that your infant was so tiny that he or she wore doll’s clothing will make an interesting story for later, too!
START STITCHING!
Unless a friend has some premature baby clothes to donate, there’s no better way to get cheap baby clothes than to sew them yourself if you know how. Cheap patterns and instructions are available and many offer patterns for an entire layette in one package. A quick and inexpensive way to obtain the perfect fabric to use for your little one’s outfits might be to cut up one of dad’s cotton t-shirts. Daddy might even like the idea of his baby’s first gown having been made from his favorite t-shirt.
BABY OUTFIT ALTERATIONS
Pick out a few of the softer newborn size gowns and diaper shirts that you have on hand and see if you might be able to downsize them enough to fit a preemie. If you can sew well enough to do professional alterations, the idea of sewing an outfit from scratch is probably more attractive to you. However time consuming, alterations might be a way to get more use out of your current inventory of baby clothing and it might be worth a try
By Jan Bay
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