How to Dadda
How to Dadda
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Singlet

The short definition

A singlet is a sleeveless cotton top worn as a baby's bottom layer, under everything else.

What it actually means

It is the plainest garment in the drawer and it does one job: a thin layer against the skin, with nothing to it.

  • Baby singlets have a wide neck for a reason. It is cut to stretch over a head that does not yet hold itself up, or it crosses over and folds down at the shoulders. A dad putting one on for the first time usually assumes he has the wrong size. He has not.
  • It is the layer that keeps coming up. It is the baseline for warm weather, twice over. Under a wrap, bub should not be overdressed: a nappy and a singlet in warmer weather. A lightweight grow suit in cooler weather. And for warmer-weather sleep, a sleeveless and legless onesie, or just a nappy and a singlet.

So when someone tells him not to overdress bub, a singlet is usually what they mean by dressed.

Where Dadda will hear it

Reading a dressing-for-sleep page, where it turns up as the measure of "not much". Also in the shops, where singlets are sold in packs of five and are the cheapest thing on the whole list.

Not to be confused with

  • A onesie. A onesie does up at the crotch and is an outfit. A singlet has no legs, no studs and no sleeves, and goes underneath.
  • A bodysuit. Some bodysuits are sleeveless and do up at the crotch, which puts them halfway between the two. The crotch studs are the tell.
  • An Australian singlet in the adult sense. Same word, same shape, no envelope neck.

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