A Complete Course in Dressmaking/Lesson 9/Making infants' clothes
LESSON IX
MAKING INFANTS' CLOTHES
The most delightful of all sewing is the making of these wee garments for an infant. Aside from the tender, loving thoughts sewn into each tiny article, there is the pleasure of feeling the softness of the goods and the daintiness of the texture. The tiny seams are quickly done and each fine bit of work or fancy stitchery shows exquisitely. In the larger garments much of the lovely effect of the delicate and intricate work is lost but in an infant's frock or bit of lingerie every stitch has a telling effect.
The knowledge gained in the earlier Lessons will be used again in making these adorable little things. All the fine points of making undergarments will be employed over and over again. Each Lesson proves itself the foundation of all the succeeding ones. If you have studied conscientiously the earlier Lessons, that information combined with the details given in this new one should cause the work to go like magic.
This dainty making of baby's things is much like fancy work with all its enjoyment. Once the tiny garment has been planned and cut the work can be taken up at odd moments for the finishing as you would when embroidering a centerpiece or doily.
Studies are contained in this Lesson which will serve as a foundation for the coming Lessons in making other garments for yourself or the older children.
As young mothers do not like to handle the new baby very much, the little garments should be very simple in construction and most easy to slip on and off. This is very much better for the baby, too. An infant should have as much repose as possible and every interruption of its daily schedule or struggle with its tiny belongings is just so much more excitement to its delicate system.
The list given below is amply sufficient as with the wiser new methods of child training the baby goes into short clothes at the end of six months. Occasionally this change may be delayed a month or two if the end of that period occurs in the mid-winter and the rooms are drafty. However, the sooner the short garments can be donned the better for the growing youngster.
Years ago babies were done up in swaddling clothes. The poor little legs had no chance to move around and gain the healthful exercise necessary. Fortunately that type of mistake has vanished even in the foreign countries which are so slow to adopt new ideas in the freedom of living. After this idea was discarded the extremely long robes with the equally long undergarments were still in fashion and yards of material and lace went to make up the little garments so soon discarded or laid aside for the next comer. Now the royal baby of the household, for each one rules until supplanted, wears shorter and more sensible garments. Some little dresses are as short as twenty-seven inches, and they certainly make a happier, healthier baby than flowing robes.