A friend said this on the phone from a car park in October: “Too warm for a coat, too cold without one, and I have to feed somewhere in the middle.” The layer you put on over everything is the piece that decides whether a feed outdoors is a small pause or a public undressing. In the weeks between seasons it matters more than the top underneath, because it is the thing that has to come off first.

For a long time I only owned one kind of outer layer: a hooded jumper that came off over my head. I wore it for three postpartum autumns because it was warm and because I had stopped thinking about my own clothes somewhere around the second baby, when the thinking went to everyone else. Every outdoor feed started with that jumper coming off over my head in a car park. It took me an embarrassingly long time to notice that the problem had a shape, and the shape was a zip or a button down the front.

These are the six outer layers that pass the one test that matters: they open at the front and come off with one hand while the other holds a baby. Between them they cover every in-between day from the first cool morning to the last warm one, and most of them you can wear in six other ways afterwards.

1. The longline cardigan

The first replacement for the coat. Fine knit, long enough to cover the hips, buttoned to the middle so it comes off with one hand. Open on a bench, it is a feeding cover; folded in the pram, it is a blanket. Taupe or ivory goes over everything in a capsule.

This is the layer for the sixty-degree morning that becomes a seventy-degree lunch. Nine ways to wear a long cardigan while nursing if you want to see how far it reaches.

2. The denim jacket, worn open

Structured where the cardigan is soft, and it never buttons, so it never has to be unbuttoned. Over a wrap dress it turns the dress into a daytime outfit; over a tank and jeans it is the school-run layer that looks like you tried. A mid or dark wash goes with the whole year.

Seven nursing-friendly outfits around one denim jacket if it has been in the back of the wardrobe.

3. The trench

The layer for the wet in-between weeks. Classic, belted or not, long enough to sit on, in stone or navy, and it opens fully down the front so you feed under it without taking it off at all. A trench over a striped tee and jeans is the most put-together a nursing mama gets on a Tuesday for the least effort.

Ten spring outfits around one trench coat if the spring is your in-between.

From the capsules

The Year Round Capsule

Two hundred nursing-friendly outfits from fifty-six pieces, fifty for every season, laid out and then worn. $29 once, yours to keep.

See the capsule →

4. The large wrap or shawl

A soft oversized scarf or a lightweight wrap, the width of a small blanket, in a print that pulls your colours together. It goes on and off faster than any garment, covers a feed completely if you want one, sits on the pram when you do not, and makes a plain tee and trousers look finished. Wool for autumn, cotton for spring.

Six winter outfits built around one statement scarf if you doubt a piece of fabric is a layer.

5. The full-zip layer

The honest replacement for the hooded jumper. A full-zip sweatshirt or a zip fleece in taupe or navy, so the thing you used to pull over your head now opens with one hand, all the way, while the baby stays where she is. Over a clip tank it is the walk, the park and the sofa.

This is the piece I wish I had owned for those three autumns. It costs the same as the jumper it replaces. Ten nursing-friendly outfits with vests and jackets show the zip layer doing its work.

6. The relaxed blazer

For the in-between day that has an appointment in it. A soft, unstructured blazer in taupe or navy, worn open, over the wrap top or the shirt, turns any of the outfits above into something you can sit across a desk in. It never buttons, so it never has to open; the top underneath does that.

Eight nursing-friendly outfits around one tailored blazer if your weeks have more of those days. All six layers, and the outfits they go over, are laid out and worn through spring and autumn in the Year Round Capsule.

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The one test, every time

Before any outer layer goes in the basket, hold it up and ask: does it open all the way down the front, and could I take it off with one hand while the other holds a baby? If the answer is no, it will come off over your head in a car park in October, and you will remember this post.

Hooded jumpers, pullover knits, half-zips and anything that fastens at the back fail the test. Everything above passes it.

Three autumns in a jumper that came off over my head, because the thinking had gone to everyone else. I do not say that with regret so much as recognition; most of us pour everything into the babies and only notice the hollow later. A zip instead of a hood is a very small way of noticing earlier.

If you want the in-between outfits laid out so you can copy one tonight, the Year Round Capsule has the spring and autumn sections ready, laid out and worn, with three pictures of you in them on the house. If you would rather someone looked at the forecast and your closet each morning and told you which layer, that is Anah inside the Atelier. And if the jacket in your basket might or might not pass the test, Will it feed tells you from a screenshot, free.

Open at the front, off with one hand. Six layers, and never the jumper again.