Caboodle Kids. A small independent British clothing brand producing handmade custom clothing for littlies, offering a wide range of fabric patterns, garments and styles. We even liked them so much we entered a competition to be their brand reps! So, what’s to love?

When you first discover that you can buy custom clothing at fairly reasonable prices, made singlehandedly by a seamstress it’s a bit of a revelation. Facebook and Instagram seem to be the places to most easily find these little gems. It’s an opportunity to get something different and a bit more unique, and to support small local businesses too. The patterns are bright and bold and the clothes seem comfy. We get lots of nice comments over our custom makes.

But then comes your first order… You have to choose which one, out of the many, to use, and then hope that their handiwork matches your aspirations.

You already know that I rate Little Glad Rags. I quite like Sew Bippity too. But I also like Caboodle Kids! All three of these small businesses use bright and colourful fabrics, but each one has a different style, choosing different types of print to one another. I have so far found that the prints I can find at Caboodle Kids feel a bit more orientated towards the child, having plenty of options that toddlers might enjoy – as opposed to simply looking great, which they all do. For example, Rory has a beautiful pair of dungarees covered in tractors, and Kaitlin has a onesie covered in fish (with custom pink cuffs!) Oh and Rory has cows. He LOVES cows!!!

I love custom made clothing. I like imagining what I’d like, how it might look, and whether I could change something to make it suit my kids better… Then putting in my order (often asking for extra changes or considerations!) and seeing what it looks like when it arrives. And seeing whether my choices were right!

Caboodle Kids is headed up and managed by the sewing mistress herself, Mel, and she stocks quite a chunk of my children’s wardrobes. She is brilliant. I’ve even changed an order before now when she’d already started cutting the cloth and she still managed to accommodate me.

Unfortunately I had a problem with the sizing of one of the garments that Mel sent me for Rory. I contacted her and she asked for it back, and altered it with an apology, despite the fact that she was just simply following the pattern for the size I had asked for. It’s just that my boy doesn’t fit it. She has his measurements now so everything fits… It’s good to know that you can buy with confidence and rely on a helpful response if there are any issues.

She has lots of different garments on offer but also in different materials, which I have found is unusual. She works with jersey, non stretch woven cotton (which seems more hard wearing as it’s lined but doesn’t seem to hang as nicely on Kaitlin), and she lines things herself too. She makes all sorts, from shorts to jumpers, dungarees to skirts, cardigans, rompers and harem pants. And she has tons of fabrics to choose from, easily laid out on her website to make up your order.

One thing I love about Caboodle Kids clothing is that it is not typed by gender… only by size. Hurrah! If you have read my previous post about boys wearing pink you will know that it is a bug bear of mine that boys and girls get different clothes, and boys tend to lose out. No such worries here. Rory has an awesome robot jumper with pink sleeves and cuffs. It’s so soft and fits him perfectly. And he looks great in it!

My children both seem to like wearing their Caboodle Kids stuff. Kaitlin’s dinosaur skirt is a favourite and it twirls beautifully. And it’s such a change for her to have dinosaurs on a skirt… In particular dinosaurs on a skirt that has no pink on it! The t shirt in the photo below, with the dragons on the sleeves is from Caboodle Kids too. Her hooded unicorn dress gets a lot of wears too (that IS pink… Her choice!) Rory has some lovely aeroplane harem pants and the aforementioned brilliant short dungarees with colourful tractors all over them, with a yellow lining… Everyone loves them! And I love Rory’s monster onesie. I just need to stop buying! It’s so tempting to collect all the patterns and styles.

You can find her website and shop at http://www.caboodlekids.co.uk, as well as her Facebook page. She advertises some great offers on instagram too. Her search is on again to find people to represent her brand across social media, so feel free to contact her if you are interested in taking on the baton.

And yeah ok, so now we did get the current brand rep job, I can’t technically say it’s a totally unbiased review – but we asked to be brand reps because we love the products, and I can’t say better than that! 💜