$60 Capsule Wardrobe for a 4 Year Old – Spring/Summer Edition

+J.M.J.+

We just had a children’s clothing resale last week and I was excited to check it out and buy Philomena’s wardrobe for this spring and summer. (Read about how I shop resales here) She will be four in June and wears a mix of 4t and 5t clothes right now.

Not pictured are a couple things we already have – one pair each of tennis shoes, flip flops, and rain boots that had been purchased at Once Upon A Child, as well as a skirt from last fall that can work a while longer. I also saved a dress that was stained to use as a “junk” dress for crafts, getting in the mud etc. If you included the shoes that had already been purchased this wardrobe cost $70, not $60.

What We Bought

So here is the capsule wardrobe!

We got two church dresses; the pink one will be her official Easter dress, and the white cardigan goes with either one.

The pink dress was $4.75, the purple dress was $2.50, and the white cardigan was $2.50

We chose three shirts – these two and…

and this lovely lace eyelet shirt which I forgot to photograph with the others!

This shirt was $3.50 and Philomena just loves it!

We chose just one new skirt since she didn’t love her skirts last year, and I love the embroidered detail on it!

We chose five play dresses since those are what she wanted to wear most last year –

CD22ECC2-323D-4448-BFAF-2BF8051A87C1 — The long sleeve dress was $3, the Ralph Lauren polo shirt dress was $3.50, the blue striped dress was $7, and the two sun dresses were around $3 each

We chose five shorts/leggings to go under the dresses or skirt if she needs a bottom –

These shorts and leggings ranged from $0.75 to $2 each

She chose this cozy nightdress for bedtime –

And this jacket for any cool rainy days we may have –

0972CE66-D199-4683-84FD-44981CFC093F — This basic zip-up was $3

Finally, we got her a sun hat and some dress shoes

7CBF3CAF-5D52-4385-95E4-58EE0E57B72E — The sun hat was $1.50 and the shoes were $2.25 (she has already managed to get them a bit dirty so we’ll see if they last all summer!)

Learning From The Past

I shared her capsule wardrobe from last fall here, and learned a few things:

She prefers dresses to skirts right now so I reversed what I did last fall and got more dresses and less shirt/skirt combos
We had more shirts than we needed last fall
We literally just need two church dresses – she ended up with 5 church dresses between what we bought and Christmas and pretty much only wore 2 of them all winter.

Philomena really likes to wear the same few core things over and over and some items I picked up last fall she flat out didn’t like and never touched. So this time I took her shopping with me and she picked everything out that we bought. (I vetoed plenty of things that didn’t fit into the capsule wardrobe we were creating, but she still loved each of these items enough to select them initally).

Making It Match

The point of a capsule wardrobe is that it is small and the pieces mix or match, which I think this wardrobe does very well. Philomena loves pink most, and the blue striped dress even has a bright pink flower on it. By keeping with mainly pinks and a few accent colors like the purple and blue, everything she picks out of her dresser matches everything else.

Any of the three pink tee-shirts will work under the sun dresses or with the skirt. She can use the different pairs of shorts or leggings under any of the five dresses or skirt. I don’t need to worry about “orphan” clothing items that only match one specific shirt or bottoms.

Do you do capsule wardrobes for yourself or your kids? I’d love to hear about them!