Antique Children’s Fashion – Spring 1893

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An advertisement for children’s clothing patterns from the Spring of 1893.

Little Boy’s Dress (left)- an exceedingly pretty coat dress for little boys; the pattern is cut in sizes to suit children from two to six years of age. For a boy of three it requires 1 7/8 yards of goods 36 inches wide.

This is a pretty model in which to make up a variety of goods in wool and in cotton. It will make a pretty dress in fine gingham, say in blue, with the ruffles, belt, cuffs and large ruffled collar in white linen. It is, in fact, very well suited for washable fabrics.

Little Girl’s Cloak (right)- for little girls from one to six years of age. For a girl of two years it takes 2 yards of 44 inch material. This little cloak will be pretty for spring wear made up in some light, fancy woolen, and should have its collar and cuffs in a harmonizing shade of plush or velvet.

Little Girl’s Dress (left) - suitable for a child of from two to six years of age. For a girl of six it requires 2 3/4 yards of material 44 inches wide. This model is suitable for making up in any of the thin woolens in vogue; it is also very pretty in gingham or chambray.

Misses Princess Dress (right)- suitable for girls from ten to sixteen years of age. It takes 4 3/4 yards of 44 inch material for a girl of thirteen years. This model is pretty made up in two materials, one serving for the sleeves and upper waist portion as well as for the skirt trimming of narrow flounces. Feather stitching decorates the suspender straps, the cuffs, the upper edge of the waist and the neck-band.

Washable fabrics are the most suitable for children’s garments, and for winter and spring they should nearly all be made of wool. Wool has several advantages over cotton and linen; it is warmer, more wholesome and protects the wearer from sudden weather changes. It has for children the inestimable advantage of being less inflammable than any other dress material, a great advantage, as children are so fond of playing with inflammable articles. In the writer’s childhood, her father insisted that all her garments with the exception of her pinafores should be of woolen material in winter, because he was a man who thought, and was given to foreseeing and preventing evils. He knew that fire has a fascination for young children and that they will play with it at every opportunity.

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