Are you wondering why our diarist and her Mama are sewing little dresses and gowns when there was no way to tell if the baby was a boy or a girl? Me too.
The answer is, families dressed little boys in dresses from infancy until 6 or so years old until as late as the 1930s. And not manly little Carhartt dresses either, we’re talking skirts, and gowns with embroidery:
“Mon. Jan. 23
Mama cut out some skirts nighties & another flannel kimona for Baby & I tried my hand at Emb(roidery).
I called up Ruth & asked her to send down a couple chickens.
In p.m. we sewed a little while in Mrs. Andrews room & then went for a walk down town and looked at the big Sales.
Warm thru the day but nippy in evening.
Had soup & crackers for dinner.”
Here is a little guy in a dress, from around the turn of the century.
:
Hard to imagine nowadays when expectant mothers factor gender into clothes and nursery furnishings, and friends give gendered gifts. Back then you laid in a stock of little gowns and that was what Baby wore, boy or girl.
TaIwan 