Vintage Children’s Clothes. A dilemma.
People always ask me how I dress my girls. I’m sure you have this romantic notion of them in matching little sailor dresses sitting perfectly at the dinner table saying, “please pass the salt Mother”. (Perhaps not.)
The reality is, that since they were little, there are only a few occasions when I’ve been able to have them in true vintage. We have some fantastic pieces like a 1960’s leopard print raincoat and matching hat, a 1970’s red skating dress with white faux fur trim, and beautiful little gloves for tea time. Day to day wear however, I’ve been loath to have them in vintage as I just can’t bare to see that history getting ruined in the mud. Instead I’ve made them little dresses from vintage patterns when they were small, and as they’ve grown looked for pieces that can be styled up with a vintage look. The problem is that now my eldest is TEN(!), it is becoming harder to find appropriate looks. She’s been pouring over pictures saying the same thing we do. “Why don’t they make these now?!”
She isn’t a fan of jeans or pants in general, and would dearly love to get into pencil skirted suits already. I was exactly the same at twelve years old and have some very amusing photos around here somewhere. Together we’ve been out scouring the stores and op shops in the hope of finding pieces we can put together for the right look. She’s in the awkward stage between not fitting into the girls clothes that look right (there are NO good tween options), and wearing very small ladies clothes. It seems that we are only left with the DIY option of sewing up Misses patterns; a very time consuming endeavour. Here is her preferred selection so far.
I swear, if there was someone in the vintage community making children’s clothes in these sizes, they’d have a decent business! (If you know anyone please let me know) There are a few options around but generally they stop at a size 7 at most. I guess girls over that age are a niche market within a niche market. We have an event on Sunday that she’d like to wear one of these to. Nothing like a bit of pressure hey?!