When I first joined the Society, I didn't give much thought to the difficulties involved in garbing children. I was young and single, and the extent of thought that I gave the subject was the decision, on seeing a few well-garbed children, that mine would someday dress as well. Later on, when I got married and quickly became pregnant, I had to give the subject far more thought and experimentation.
There are three main problems with garbing a young child. The first and most obvious is in determining the appropriate size of the garment. It is difficult to get an active two-year-old to hold still long enough to get an accurate set of measurements; getting them off a baby would be near impossible! Fortunately, measurements can be taken off the child's other clothes, as one might for an adult. One must simply add a little extra fullness in the body, to make up for the fact that the clothing will not stretch and probably will not open very far down the front or back. Three or four inches of ease, not including the seam allowances, is not excessive.
The second problem is the rapidity with which young children grow out of their clothes. How does one make sure that the garb being made for a young child will fit that child in two months? This, again, is especially problematic when dressing an infant, as they can double their weight, and thus vastly increase their overall size, in just a few months. The clothes can be made looser than they would be on an adult, but if they're too loose they'll fit like a giant sack. There are two ways around this problem. The first is to simply make more "disposable" garb for the child as he or she begins to grow out of the old garb. This can be quite easy if the clothes are simple and are being made on a sewing machine, but over time it involves using a great deal of fabric. There is a better way.
During the American colonial period, when fabric was hard to come by, mothers solved this problem by cutting their children's clothes extra long and extra wide. They would then sew pleats into the garments, vertical ones near the shoulders and horizontal ones near the bottom of the girls' skirts or deep hems in the boy's pant legs. They could put in multiple pleats and let them out one at a time as their children grew. While I have unfortunately not been able to find anything to document this practice during our period, it would seem logical. After all, if fabric was hard to come by in the American colonies, imagine how much more valuable it was in the Middle Ages! I have used this method on nearly all of my daughter's dressier garb, and the extent to which it has made her garb fit properly longer is dramatic. Unless the garment has been worn hard, the places where the garment was let out are not noticeable, either. An example of this is the dark purple "cotehardie", the hem of which I had to let down a few months ago.
The third major problem in garbing young children is due to the fact that young children's heads are so large compared with the rest of their bodies. While an adult can wear a tunic with a simple round neckline, a young child will be showing shoulders and a baby could possibly squirm out of the tunic! It is therefore necessary to either do something along the lines of a keyhole neckline or a mongol shirt-type neckline (the style that's rather like the baby shirt whose two sides overlap and snap together in the front). A drawstring would make it easy, but drawstrings aren't safe near the necks of small children. I don't have a Mongol persona and I want my children to live, so the only option left me was the keyhole neckline.
Another problem with making garb for young children is the scarcity of period artwork representing children, so that, unless the period of interest is in the very last century of the Middle Ages , one must take the word of historians that children were dressed as miniatures of their parents and young babies were wrapped in strips of cloth called "swaddling cloths". From there it is much easier to find those details that set a garment to a specific place and time, as artwork of adults exists from a goodly number of the eras we recreate and verbal descriptions exist for many of the others.
There are several things about children's garb that makes them more useful than one might expect. For the most part, the styles are rather gender-neutral, so a younger brother can wear his older sister's outgrown garb, as long as it's not a colour that would be considered too girlish. Also, garb is made to fit more loosely than modern clothes and the length isn't as important, so a child can wear a specific tunic far longer than nearly anything else that child owns. At first it is loose and long, then it becomes less loose and long until finally it is either too short or too tight to look right. For much of my daughter's present garb, this process is taking more than a year, and some of it looks like it will take at least one more year. Clothes have been destroyed in less time, especially modern clothes!
Back then I was afraid that my daughter would wake up if I put her down, so I would let her sleep against my chest or on my lap as I napped or sewed. The entire garment is hand-sewn. The back closure was my first attempt at a keyhole neckline suitable for a baby. I got the idea for it off her modern clothes and ended up not liking it, as it looked too modern. This is the only tunic she has worn with that keyhole design.
Item Number 2:
As my daughter was growing out of her first gown, I made three more for her, utilizing what I had learned from the first one. The tan gown with red and gold trim was one of them. The body had much more ease, which made the sleeves look incredibly short despite the fact that they originally came down to her wrists. I hadn't liked the way her first gown kept rising up and showing her diaper, so I made these extra long and used the selvage for a quick hem. She didn't like the extra length, as she was then learning to crawl and it got in her way, but the selvage hem was a good and useful idea. I've used it since then on her undergowns and play tunics whenever possible.
For these gowns I developed the keyhole closure that I have used since then on every piece of my daughter's garb I made before I felt it was safe to use more medieval closures like buttons. On one side of the keyhole, located in the back because I felt I should hide it, I reinforced the corner with a doubled triangle (cut out as a square, then folded on the diagonal) of fabric. To the other side I attached a small tab of cloth. I then sewed one side of a snap to each of these. The closure is secure without being obvious, and the details look appropriate, since the snap is completely invisible from the outside.
I used my sewing machine on the side seams and hand-sewed the rest. As everything about the garment is small, the only thing that took much time was the keyhole and closure area of the neckline.
Item Number 3:
The green linen surcote with the green and gold trim was the first "special" garb I made for my daughter, and I made it to last. I made it extra wide in the body and sewed in two pleats on each side of the neckhole. Neither of these had to come out, but the extra fullness in the skirt made it wear much better. She got about nine months wear out of it before it got too short for her.
The scrap I used was too small to make it with a very deep hem, but it was a scrap I'd gotten for free, so I couldn't complain. I made this garment a surcote by cutting straight up from the bottom of the sleeve about half an inch out from the underarm curve, leaving myself just enough room to hem the edge.
After making this gown and the one that follows, I decided that the pleats needed to be sewn further down toward the waist, to make it drape better. On these two gowns, I sewed down the pleats for three or four inches, front and back. On her later garb, I sewed them down for five or more inches, front and back. The line looks much better that way, as there is less fullness above the belt.
One thing I did learn from this surcote was that I need to make them with plenty of room for the child's head to fit through the neckhole. My daughter's head was petite when I made this, and the short slit was more than enough for her even when she finally grew out of the surcote at about eighteen months. My son, on the other hand, has always been big. At ten months, his head had become too big to fit through the opening, even though the rest of the surcote fit him very nicely. I would suggest making the slit about three inches long for a baby and four or five inches long for an older child, especially if there is some sort of closure at the top.
Item Number 4:
The blue cotton gown with the ric-rac and stylized rose trim followed immediately after the green surcote and was made to be a fancy overgown. It got nearly a year and a half's worth of heavy use before it, too, became too short. Before I made it, I decided to enter it in an upcoming Art / Sci competition, so I took the time to sew it entirely by hand. The way the raw edges eventually frayed so badly became such an annoyance to me that I have used a flat-feld, open feld, or french seam to protect those raw edges on nearly every garment I have made since then. One might argue that it's not worth the extra effort to do that on a child's garment, but these children's garments can fit for extended periods of time and will be worn by people who treat their clothes roughly. Properly made garb will survive even this, so it may as well be made to survive it well. On a machine, the extra sewing will take less than fifteen minutes, and since the seams are so short on a young child's garb, the extra sewing won't even take very long if it's done by hand. This gown has since become spotted with nail polish, so it is no longer worn.
Item Number 5:
This light purple undergown has seen some hard use, as evidenced by the light staining all around, but it was originally a "good" undergown. I used an inexpensive trim along the hem, and it soon showed itself to also be a cheap trim. I haven't used it since. Thanks to this gown and others like it, I also learned to make play garb for my daughter to wear when her father's watching her or when she's supposed to be playing in the dirt. The play garb is completely lacking in trims and other decorations and is not expected to survive to be handed on to her brother. Anything that is not destroyed can be given to Gold Key or to other parents who don't sew.
Item Number 6:
The white linen chemise was the first of my daughter's chemises to be made with an open keyhole, located in the front of the neckline. It was made with french seams along the sides and was hand-sewn everywhere else. While adult's chemises seem to have all been made with long or super-long sleeves, I would suggest making the sleeves on children's chemises shorter than the sleeves of their gowns and undergowns so they don't become black at the cuffs. Stains are less visible on coloured clothes than on white ones, and our Trimarian dirt doesn't always come out entirely.
Item Number 7:
The purple linen bliaut (12th century) was the first gown I made for my daughter with the two-button loop closure, a period-looking closure, if not something I've been able to document. I didn't put in any vertical pleats, as I didn't consider them necessary to the gown, but put in a double row of horizontal pleats down near the hem. If you look closely, you may be able to see where they were. Each was an inch deep, and the top one covered the top of the bottom one. I sewed the side seams open with the edges folded under (called an open feld seam) to protect the raw edges. I could have done a french seam instead, and used the sewing machine exclusively, but didn't want that flap of fabric to show in the open sleeves.
This was the first gown I made for my daughter that matches one of mine. I even made a doll in a matching gown so she'd have something period to play with. I haven't made any more dolls or doll clothes since then, but I have made her a matching gown every time I've had enough fabric left over since then. She loves to match her Mama.
Item Number 8:
I made the simple green wool surcote out of a scrap, so I didn't have enough fabric to put in any horizontal pleats. It was a garment I made quickly for Gulf Wars, and as such was hand-sewn only around the neck and arm holes. I used the same button and loop closure I used on the purple bliaut. This garment has been through it all and hardly shows any of it.
The cord used for the loops could be lucet cord or any fine cord found at a store, but I made this by sewing a few strands of embroidery floss to the edge of the garment, then making finger-loops in it until I had a long enough cord to go around the button on the other side of the slit. The button on the same side of the slit as the loop is there purely for decoration. Finger-looping is a very simple process that involves making a small loop, then drawing a loop of the thread through it and tightening the first loop before repeating the process with the second loop. It quickly makes a strong cord and can be used on nearly any thickness of thread.
Item Number 9:
I made the dark purple cotehardie (14th century) to match one of mine, down to the tibbets. On my daughter's cotehardie, however, I made the body much looser than mine and used wide grosgrain ribbon for the tibbets and cuffs. Rather than making horizontal pleats, I simply hemmed it, then turned it up again, making a deeper hem further up. I dislike this method in comparison with the other, as a dark line is slightly visible where the old hemline was. If the gown wasn't such a dark colour, the dirt stain would be much more visible.
This gown is the first one I have made for my daughter with a wide oval neckline, reminiscent of the neckline of a true cotehardie. As long as it is properly measured and one doesn't expect it to stay up if cut to reveal the shoulders, this becomes possible around the time the child is eighteen months old. A narrow oval neckline should be possible a few months earlier, once the child is walking all the time instead of crawling.
On this gown it is quite easy to see how I mark the back of a gown or tunic when it is not already easily differenciated from the front. I sew a small tuft of thread in a contrasting colour inside the neckline at the center back. We have no way of knowing if it was a period way of doing things, but it makes dressing a squirming or impatient child much simpler!
Item Number 10:
This is a Doric style chiton that I made last summer out of a moss-green linen. It matches one I made for myself and hated the look of until after my son was born. My daughter, on the other hand, loved hers right off, as it was cool and comfortable. I made the top panel long on hers so it could easily be used to lengthen the bottom one.
Doric chitons are supposed to measure twice the distance between the wearer's elbows around, but on a young child I would suggest adding more ease, up to tripling that distance. I would also suggest making the front panel three to five inches wider than the back, and putting the excess into the neckhole. That way, there will be enough room for the child's head without having one of the two tacking points slip off the child's shoulder.
Item Number 11:
A few months ago, I decided to make a vibrant red cotehardie for my daughter, this time cut more like an adult version. I made it tighter, but not form-fitting. For a closure, I used a row of buttons and loops down the back, as lacing strings are not appropriate for babies and small children. The neckline is wide, but not wide enough for it to slip down her shoulders, and cut in a gentle curve, not deep enough to show cleavage if she had any. I determined how wide the neckline ought to be by measuring from one side of her neck to the "point" of her other shoulder, then adding about half an inch to make up for the fact that she's three-dimensional. The skirt is very full, although I didn't feel it was necessary to add a center seam to achieve more fullness. As it was a scrap, I didn't have enough fabric for deep hems or horizontal pleats.
The tibbets were made of wide satin ribbon, which gives the right look without adding much extra work. Instead of hemming the hanging end of them, I used an almost invisible line of fray-check along the edge. It has stood up well, even though my daughter constantly chews on her tibbets!
This cotehardie is made with short sleeves, to resemble the pictures I have seen showing cotehardies with lower sleeves that are different colours from the upper sleeves and the rest of the gown. It is worn over a long-sleeved simple gown with the same neckline. I also made a floral circlet for her to wear with this gown, although she has a tendency to pull the little rose buds off. I think hot glue might be called for in this instance!
Item Number 12:
The butterfly plaid gown was made as play garb, pure and simple. I machine-sewed everything I could and left off the trim. It was to have a simple keyhole neckline, but my daughter had different ideas and "helped" me cut out the neckhole -- about four inches too wide! I considered all kinds of fussy ways to save it before deciding to save it in the easiest way I could think of --I turned it into a wide-necked gown, then sewed in enough pleats to keep it from sliding off her shoulders. She loves it, and I'm not concerned about how it lasts.
Two green Surcotes (numbers 3 and 8):
I made the two surcotes with much smaller armholes than one would for an adult, the smaller one because I didn't want it getting in her way and the larger one because I wanted to maximize its ability to keep her warm. An adult woman's surcote of approximately the era I was going for would look more like the one belonging to Leonora of Aragon, displayed on page 180 of Francois Boucher's 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment
Purple Bliaut (number 7):
On page 196 of France I: The Illustrated Library of the World and its People is a photograph of a period piece of artwork representing Queen Eleanor with some of her courtiers at the French court, in which the ladies wear bliauts. Better renditions of ladies (and gentlemen) in bliauts decorate the West Portal of Chartres Cathedral. Of course, my daughter's is simpler in cut and decoration, with shorter maunches.
Anyone who is interested in my theory and more extensive documentation on the bliaut is more than welcome to read my class on the bliaut or my article on the bliaut.
Purple Cotehardie (number 9) and Red Cotehardie (number 11):
By far the most realistic-looking depictions of any type of cotehardie are on the Italian breviary shown on page 204 of Boucher's 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment. For a reasonable and clear depiction of French-style cotehardies, see Anne, Dauphine d'Auvergne and her servant (lady in waiting?) shown as ladies 2.3 and 2.5 on page 141 of Albert Racinet's Historical Encyclopedia of Costume. Of course, I had to simplify the look dramatically for my daughter, especially with the earlier, purple one.
Green Chiton (number 10):
The chiton shown as Figure 51 on page 53 of Mary G. Houston's Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Costume and Decoration is known as a Doric-style chiton and is the same type as the one I made my daughter.
Boucher, Francois. 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment. Expanded Edition. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987 (Original French 1965).
France I: The Illustrated Library of the World and its People: Unfortunately, I came across this book only once, years ago, before I understood the need for full documentation, so the photocopied page only has the title written down. I believe it was part of a series of books, here the subtitle.
Houston, Mary. Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1996 (orig. 1939).
Racinet, Albert. The Historical Encyclopedia of Costumes. NY: Facts on File, Inc., 1988 (Original French between 1876 and 1888 in six volumes). The art in the historical sections are artistic redrawings of the original works, not photocopies, so there is definitely room for error in the artist's interpretations. Better sources abound, even if the pictures aren't as clear or in such good shape.
Please feel free to share this paper for educational purposes, as long as my name remains attached.
Email me if you have any questions about children's garb or this paper.