Month: August 2008

Girls Smock Top
(Product Review by Helen H – Frugi Customer & Crusader)

A mega mega hit with my little girl!

If I’d had a camera on me at the precise moment my little girl saw this top it would have been priceless, you would also need to have turned your volume down as the shriek of sheer delight was very high pitched and loud. The whole of her face lit up with joy at this lovely top, beaming as she held it up against herself.  When she put it on one of the first things she did was to twirl round and round, her top joining in too as being a smock top there is lots of material.   

I love the gorgeously soft organic cotton, colour, design and cut of the top (it covers the top of trousers really well)  It is also a top that looks really gorgeous without you having to try, yet importantly is really practical and will take the rough and tumble of play. 

When I saw the top on the website it was straight away one of my favourites as I’d just loved the Boho short sleeved top from the Tangle Twine collection, but this an improvement on that!  Thank you Frugi!

Alex’s great post re the Dino Tee got me thinking about my top tip of items from the sale collection.

Well my favourite item from the summer collection has been the Explorer Bootcuts.  I sang their praises in an earlier blog and now having used and used and washed and washed I still think they are fantastic – so much so I now have several pairs and some in next sizes up. Yep, I do like them that much! Just pull them on and go …

They’ll be great seeing me into autumn, I’ve also been wearing them with the Tumble Twist Smock Top from the new collection.  Don’t know whether they co-ordinate perfectly as that’s not my forte but I liked the ready to play outfit.

Hope this helps, I’d be interested to hear other peoples favourite items.

Helen H
(Frugi Customer & Crusader)

Dino Tee
Product Review by Alex C, Frugi Customer & Crusader

Two words – BUY THIS.  No, make that three – BUY THIS NOW (there are only a few left in the sale – snap them up). 

 

This tee-shirt, is, in my humble opinion, one of the best items of clothing ever produced by Frugi.  Which means it’s one of the best items of clothing ever produced, full stop. 

Where to start?  Well the catalogue doesn’t really do it justice – the little visual joke of the dino winding its way round your child’s tummy can’t be captured on a photograph.  It’s a nice greeny colour which goes with lots of things, and the poppers on the neck (or even the “poopers” which is what I typed before I spell-checked this article) mean it can be thrown on a young wriggler very easily. 

The lovely soft cotton is comfortable and irons well, if you’re an ironing sort of person. You don’t have to be – any little wrinkles will drop out with use.  (Why can’t my face learn that trick?).  As the cotton is good quality, I think it will probably give more sun protection than cheaper, thinner fabrics, but please don’t test this theory out and barbeque your bub. 

I particularly like the fact that this tee is smart enough and unusual enough to impress (Granny, other mums, the scary health visitor) but casual enough that it doesn’t look like you’ve tried that little bit too hard.  Oliver will be wearing this tee to a birthday party on Saturday, and I guarantee I’ll be asked about it at least half a dozen times. 

Well done Frugi!

Explorer Pants – a thumbs down
Product Review by Alex C, Frugi Customer & Crusader

Groucho Marx once famously said:  “These are my principles.  But if you don’t like them, I have others.” 

Well, the time has come for the lovely people at Frugi to show how principled they are.  Will they allow this Crusader a free voice on this blog, even if it means losing a few sales? 

Because the awful truth is, I don’t like these trousers. 

Don’t get me wrong.  They are beautifully made, of super-soft organic cotton and I know that my bub, Oliver, is extremely comfortable in them.  They wash, dry and iron well (although see note on buttons below) and in fact they are my partner’s favourite item of clothing (for our son, that is – I don’t think Dave could squeeze in to them himself). 

So where’s the bad? 

Well, comfortable is one thing.  Baggy and shapeless is quite another, and I think these veer towards that.  Even Oli’s most voluminous nappies can’t fill the cut for cloth styling of these trousers, so they just hang.  When they’re buttoned to ¾ length, the softness of the fabric means that the inside leg (ie the opposite side to the button) tends to unroll and hang down, giving a curiously lop-sided look – this is noticeable even on the catalogue photo of the product. 

Then there’s the buttons.  They’re made of wood, which looks fantastic – much nicer than plastic.  But they are an absolute bugger to fasten and unfasten.  I’ll admit to being a bit cack-handed, but I find these buttons a real struggle.  So much so that I have to decide BEFORE dressing Oliver whether I want the trews to be full-length or ¾ length and turn them up if necessary before I put them on him, because he won’t stay still whilst I faff with the length when he’s wearing them.  Even unbuttoning them to put them in the wash takes me five minutes! 

And talking about the wash, the buttons fall down a bit there, too.  I found the stain used on the wood leached onto the fabric during washing, and a small area around each button is now faintly yellow (a bit like a curry stain, actually, which is what I thought it was at first – Oliver being partial to the remains of our Friday night takeway). 

If you’re reading this, it obviously means the Frugi crew ARE principled and vigorously espouse freedom of speech!  So don’t turn your back on them – this is the first product of theirs I can’t recommend.  Try the Explorer zip-offs instead, or the gorgeous cords from the new range.