Yes, knickers! The tribulations of finding knickers for small people that don’t sneak up the bum, wriggle down, or leave those horrid red lines across the top of the thigh.

I don’t know if Kaitlin has a funny shaped bum. I highly doubt this, it looks fine to me… But the poor mite spent months fidgeting with knickers up her bum, usually with the classic half wedgie. She had potty trained by the time she was two and a half, and finding knickers for a 2 year old can be tricky. Speaking with other mums, it’s not a problem isolated to us.

Katy must have had 20 pairs of knickers, bought in increasing desperation. I started by buying some from Marks & Spencer. M&S is in my eyes the staple go to place for easy to access but high quality odds and ends – clothing related things in particular. There was little choice in 2-3 but the pattern wasn’t important so we started there.

They were rather big and quite high in the leg and instantly shot up her bum. Neeeexxt…

Just Tesco. They had some nice patterns, we got Peppa and spots and at first they seemed to be good. But soon enough, after the first wash, they too were creeping off that right cheek and into the land of no return (well, not without a big wriggle and yank anyway.)

Then one day we were in town, and passing a Peacocks. Now the knickers in there were covered in rainbows, umbrellas, rainclouds, red, yellow… Kaitlin thought they were great. And low and behold, they were wider across the bottom, and for about a month, maybe two, we were all happy…

And then… The red lines… around the leg hole. Maybe they were just getting a bit small already. I suppose she was nearly three.

My mum bought some from Boots Miniclub. They were OK, if a little pink and flowery. She seemed fairly comfy but they were pretty baggy on her and kept falling down.

So I did something radical – I wrote to a lady on Facebook who made knickers. Those she advertised seemed to be wider, taller in the waist, and have big, wide, soft edging for elastic. They looked super comfy, and were made to order in the jersey fabric of your choice from her stock. This lady was Jenny, from Tiny Rainbows. She makes lots of other sorts of children’s clothes too.

Well, it has to be said, handmade custom pants are not cheap. The first lot of three cost £12 + p&p, but I was desperate (and fortunate enough that I could give them a go). Kaitlin picked the fabrics she liked from her stock photos and they dropped onto the doormat a couple of weeks later.

When we opened the package we found a little note from Jenny to say that she was sorry, she had run out of the shark print we had asked for, so she had included two extra pairs for us by way of apology.

They were great! One of the pairs wriggled a bit and so I wrote back and asked if we could have some more with the pattern tweaked slightly. She sent some more for us to try, before I even had chance to pay, made using a different pattern. These three pairs are taller still in the waist and bigger across the bum. She says, as a mum of four girls, that getting knickers right for little ladies is important to her – you see, she understands the problems that are obviously not unique to us!

So I’m getting ready to make a big knicker order from Tiny Rainbows. I’m not saying there aren’t other people out there making great knickers, I know there are a fair few other small businesses that do. But I’ve definitely found a knicker that works – at last! – and won’t be straying elsewhere until I have reason to do so. Or maybe when Kaitlin reaches 13 and tells me she doesn’t want purple sharks or fairy castles on her knickers any more… *sob*…

I appreciate that it’s an expensive way to buy knickers. I haven’t tried Next knickers, Mothercare, Gap, John Lewis or other supermarkets. But with our newfound love of the jersey knickers, I’m in no rush to go out and buy lots more for our overflowing drawer purely in the name of testing them for comparison (sorry). As far as my experience goes, I’d rather invest in 6 pairs of handmade knickers (maybe 7) and keep up with the washing, than buy more and more and more knickers off the highstreet and in the supermarket, and have a drawer overflowing with underwear my daughter is uncomfortable in.

There. Knickers chat, done.