What We Wear

I get asked about clothing quite often.  There is a lot of it in this house after all.

Outfitting this tribe can be a challenge.  There are MANY options for purchasing kid's clothing and, they've changed as my kids have gotten older.  Most of those new purchasing options have been good, so I won't complain much at all.

There are some basic ideas that I have tried to keep in mind as I collect clothing for us all.

Primary colors go together and are gender neutral.  I get primary colored t-shirts w/o pockets in the pre-puberty sizes at nearly any garage sale I find.  Mainly I get short sleeved but I like to have some long sleeved tees as well for layering and cooler days. The exceptions to this are camouflage and tie-dye because I am convinced that these actually DO go with just about everything. (Except each other ~ though my kids attempt to rock that wardrobe combo.)

Images and advertising are distracting and hard to match. We call them "picture shirts" here. They also get dated.  I avoid them unless they are very, very simple and usually hand made.  I just think they are nicer if they look original or unique instead of just like everyone else.  Think of it as a unique feature of my family.  Or another quirk.  

This is our current favorite picture shirt.  We got it for Party Girl from THIS etsy store. It's not in primary colors but, for a cute puppy shirt for her birthday, we made an exception.

There are some exceptions again, of course.  I snagged up a black t-shirt with SECURITY in block white letters across the back.  That has been a fun one to hand down among the ranks.  I keep my eyes open for these sorts of wacky, one-of-a-kind things.

Blue jeans in nearly neutral styles are common here for the younger crowd.  I don't like non-blue jeans.  We don't need any more occasions to look oblivious to coordination.  If I went that route, I would have a 5 yr old in a blue tee and purple pants every time I needed to get out the door with them.  

For the same reason, I don't like embroidered or patched details on pants.  Child-chosen outfit just won't match well with that many things to coordinate.  And those little flowers on the pocket won't cross that pre-pubescent gender line that I like to work to my advantage.  There are a lot of years when plain blue jeans can be for boys or girls.  Let's maximize that option!

Dresses are not worn here a lot.  I have a few little girls that like the ones that my Mom has made them for playing in.  Simple jumpers with bloomers are great for the littlest girl who doesn't like the updraft she gets from having a skirt short enough to walk up the stairs.  Fuzz likes to twirl. You gotta have a good skirt on a dress to do a proper twirl.  But these are rough and tumble jumper dresses that take several trips out "so Grandma can fix them."

But we do need to have dresses for some more formal occasions.  Again, I prefer primary colors but will branch out here because this one-piece outfit doesn't need to match anything else if you have neutral shoes.  I try to keep the patterns simple.  A big plus is no white, no off white and no black.  Why?  When I avoid those colors, I'm not limited to colors of sweaters to put over top in the fall or spring.  A dress with white flowers won't match as well with the off-white sweater but the blue dress with yellow flowers (primary colors) will be fine with whatever sweater I happen to have in that size.

Khaki pants for the boys have been great... sort of.  I have one pair (sometimes 2) in every size from 2T to 18 and some I have in the slim sizes as well for my scrawny butt boys that have shot upward but not wide enough for regulars yet.  They only wear them for weddings and funerals pretty much.  They always look situationally appropriate and tidy.  

Madras shirts or flannel, long sleeved shirts go well with these for the guys. The ones we have gotten aren't exclusively in primary colors but they all look good with khakis.  I have one or two in each size in differing patterns and they only come out at these occasions.  It's a pain to store them all but worth it if needed on short notice.  

Khakis & button front shirts for guys. What could be the draw back of this great pairing?  Well, when we walk into the room, we generally stand out just in sheer numbers.  When all the guys have fresh hair cuts, look JUST like their Dad and are all dressed in the same khaki & shirt combo - it's more than striking.  It's either intimidating or just plain weird.  Folks, read about life here and you'll know we don't need to emphasize that natural weirdness any more than we have it right now.  I just haven't found a good alternative yet.

How about shoes?  Shoes can be a mess of its own when there are this many feet stompin' around!  We usually have one pair of play shoes, one pair of dress shoes, and one pair of sandals per person.  But there is a WHOLE lot more to that topic.  I hope to hit shoe choices, storage, boots, and various barefoot and minimal shoe options we use around here in a future post.  

Why I Like Synthetic Fibers

In the pseudo-circle of people I know, natural is the word.

The food is organic.
The cooking is traditional.
Teaching. Learning. Cleaners. Footwear. All that.
Natural is in it all.

But clothing fibers are where I fall jump off the natural wagon on a lot of occasions.

My reasons are varied but it usually all comes down to the fibers.

Hydrophobic or Hydrophilic?
or "Excuse me while I get my geek on."

In the textile industry, fabric fibers are described as either hydrophobic or hydrophilic.  "Hydro" is the Greek prefix for "water".  "Philic" is the suffix for "loving," and "phobic" is the suffix for "hating/repelling".  

Natural fibers (those gathered from organic sources) are most likely to be hydrophilic, especially when the natural oils are removed as is common in the processing.  Cotton, linen, silk, wool, hemp, and several others fall into this category.

Synthetic fibers are hydrophobic.  They are fabricated from inorganic materials.  You know.  Like plastic.  Polyester, nylon, rayon, spandex, and a bunch of other meltable (and trademarked) fabrics are in this list. 

The reasons why these fibers are hydrophobic or hydrophilic are varied.  My best understanding involves cellular structure and that's why I love it so very, very much.  

Cells of plants and animals all have walls.  To keep the innards in, the bad stuff out, and to filter the comings & goings of things across this border.  Cell walls are designed to be a permeable barrier and they never really lose that feature - even when the cell is dead.

As the cells are exposed to water, they get wet.  No different than the hydrophobic, synthetic fibers, right?  But at the fiber level there is a difference.  Cell walls want to take in water.  Synthetic fibers just get wet.

Once the fabric is wet, the benefit of synthetic fibers is in the drying process.

Let's say I have a gajillion plant cells forming hydrophilic fibers in one hand and a gajillion thermoplastic hydrophopic fibers in the other hand.

Grey shirt: 100% cotton, Men's Large, 15.5 oz
Red shirt: 100% recycled polyester, Men's Large, 13oz

Now I immerse them in water for 15 min and hang them up to dry.  The sun is shining but it's February in Minnesota so these north-facing windows are shut.  And those are cabinets on each side of my kitchen sink.  No fans.  No cheating.  Just two shirts on hangers.

Completely wet but not quite dripping:
Grey shirt: 3 lb 14 oz
Red shirt: 2 lb 8 oz

Weights after hanging 2 hours:

Grey shirt : 2 lb 2 oz 

Red shirt: 1 lb 8 oz

Weights after hanging 5 hours:

Grey shirt: 1 lb 6 oz
Red shirt: 15 oz

Weights after hanging 6 hours:
Grey shirt: 1 lb 3.5 oz
Red shirt: 13 oz

After 6 hours at at 68*F on a hanger, the synthetic shirt was dry at its original weight.  The cotton shirt still had 4 oz of water in it.

OK.  So, synthetic fibers dry faster.  Why does that matter?  It matters for a variety of reasons. My two favorites are sweat and drying. In my book, they are different.

Most people sweat and kids are no exception.  A sweat-soaked, cotton t-shirt or dress shirt stays wet longer.  It's cold and clammy and stays that way for hours and hours in the dirty laundry basket (assuming it ever gets there but that's a whole 'nother topic).  On the body, it's always cooling.  That's fine if you are moving to keep warm.  But once you stop hiking for the day, that shirt will lead you to chills in the evening.  On scrawny little seven-year-olds, it happens even faster.  Synthetic fibers dry faster and return to their dry functioning state quickly.

Drying laundry is as certain as taxes.  It's going to happen.  Synthetic fibers dry much faster on the clothes line or in the dryer.  For the average person, that's not a big deal.  BUT if you are the mom who has to resurrect an outfit that the toddler has just yurped all over in the van - it's a life-saver!  

1. Strip child. Remove chunks. Stifle gag.
2. Put clothing in plastic bag w/o holes. Half fill bag with water.  (You do have water bottles, right? Good.)
3. Slosh clothing thoroughly.
4. Get your hands in there and rinse that stuff out really well.  
5. Rinse & Sniff.  (You know what I mean. Icky job but SomeMommy's gotta do it.)
6. When you think it's rinsed enough, lay it out over the defroster vents and hit the road again.  Flip clothing as needed to get elastic waistbands & pocket layers dry.

You saw the pictures above.  This method works and the stuff will be dry in a hurry.  Ask me how I know.  And how many times this method has been varied and tested.

But do you guys wear this stuff all the time?  Really?  Like super-athletes to the grocery store or something?  No.  We usually wear whatever is around and cheap.  In our every-day life, we don't need to worry about chills.  "If you are cold, get a sweatshirt from your room."  But when I can get it cheap, I snatch up.  We do go camping, hiking and otherwise adventuring when we can.  And we do make all-day trips to Town that involve in & out of buildings and vehicles and treks across the parking lot.  Clothing that wicks and dries is great for those outings!

Eventually, I will blog about how we pack for all of us for extended trips and then you will see again how handy these fibers can be.  But that's another post for another day... or two.