[Sarvi]

Ah!! Of course. I should check to see what the new school requires. Boxer briefs, those are great…

[meleliza]

I don’t know about “older” exactly, but my 2 1/2 yo is already growing out of size 3. So I imagine we’ve got a few years of bloomers ahead of us but we’ve long grown out of the tea party pattern I have. If she’s anything like her brothers, even the large size tea party wouldn’t last for us for long. So I guess a 12 year old may not want them, but a 6 or 7 year old could still be wearing a size 8 or so. I’m going to watch the girls on the playground again.

[mkhs]

I wanted to report back that the badminton shorts make a fine substitute for bloomers. I lengthened the legs by 1″, changed the back waistband to sew up like Class Picnic shorts, and finished the bottom of the waistband with a bias strip. I made them to go with a Tea Party sundress, and they’re great for my active 3yo. I sewed them up in lawn, so I interfaced the front waistband with fusible fleece and it’s just the right amount of soft structure. I will make them again! My daughter loves dresses but it’s nice to have some thigh coverage in the summer for hot slides at the playground, etc.

[cybele727]

Well, in September my daughter will be going to universal pre-kindergarten (UPK), and the following year, all day K.

Up until now, she’s been home. In the winter with her dresses, we use tights or leggings, and in the summer, b/c she’s at home, if while playing in a dress, she flashed undies, no one has cared.

Now that we will be attending school, I will need to make either matching bloomers to cover her undies or the short leggings for the warmer weather dressing.

Looks like those singleton patterns will be coming in handy very soon. And yeah, I am somewhat crazy to be thinking about September wear, when I still have summer to do, but some summer wear gets us through Sept and October.

[meleliza]

What age does universal preK start where you are? Is that a government service? I’m just curious. But yes, it looks like those single patterns will be useful. I will probably be making bloomers and playground shorts for my girl this spring. She’s much more active now and will need something under the dresses.

[cybele727]

Well here in western part of the State of New York, UPK, which isn’t universal at all starts at age 4. By not universal, I mean, only some school districts do it, some do it for a half day, some for a full day. Some only have so many spots, unlike Kindergarten itself where all are welcome. Some can enroll every child.

Most of the funding for UPK is from the State and not local school district taxes, so, if your district wants more than what the State provides in funding, they raise it in the school taxes.

My daughter will be almost 5 when she enrolls for UPK. You have to be 5 by Dec 1 in my school district to enroll in Kindergarten. Her birthday is Dec 27, so she is an older kid. Some local districts have the 5 by Sept 1 rule. Some have the 5 by Dec 31 rule. It is completely arbitrary of course, like most things.

It is funny but her age is one of the reasons I need to contemplate bloomers. She will be almost 5 when she starts, but her physical skill level is more like 3.5. So there will be lots of falls and she runs and tries to keep up. She will have the cognitive awareness of her “clumsiness” or “can’t quite do it” factor and so I don’t want to give her anything else to be embarrassed about.

I would like to help her preserve her dignity as much as possible. 🙂

[rebecca]

@liesl I see (two years ago…) you asked if anyone was interested in the larger bloomers pattern. I didn’t see any answers, but I’m virtually raising my hand!! 😀

That in addition to the fact that I would *love* to see an O&S “basics” pattern for under-things for boys/girls, as well. 😀

[Deepa]

I have sewn the ‘bloomers’ from the Seashore Sundress pattern in size 2T and they are not really like the traditional bloomers at all. They were more of a panty shape.