My granddaddy grew up in Texas in a houseful of women. His Aunt Allie and his mother, Bennie May, my mother's Mimi, doted on him by all accounts, and made him lots of little (or not so little) baby clothes. When we found out that we would be having a baby boy, my mom brought these precious clothes up to me to examine.
Two things stand out about these clothes. First, there's an awful lot of pink for a boy baby. I grew up with my mother and grandmother telling me that pink used to be for baby boys while blue was for girls. The colors got switched sometime in the intervening years, I guess.
The second thing about these clothes is that they're incredibly wide. W-I-D-E, almost as wide as they are tall. I can think of a couple of reasons for this, I guess. This was before the advent of stretch fabrics, so you would want things roomy for a wriggly baby. And also, people probably wanted really fat babies. Not that we don't *love* fat babies now, but I guess a fat baby would be a real advantage in the days before truly modern medical care. Maybe by making the clothes extra wide, these women were willing this roly-poly baby to be hale, hearty and healthy!
No matter when I try to take photos of these, the pictures always come out a little dark and grainy, so these will have to do. The embroidery is incredible for things that were meant for a spit-uppy baby.
Missing from my photos are a pair of green velvet overalls with the most amazing interlined pockets and a store-bought navy blue velvet cap with a wooden button and a jaunty grosgrain ribbon. That velvet just swallowed the light, making them very hard to photograph, but they're both incredibly cute. Click through on the photos for a little more information on each item and a couple more photos at flickr.
