Dressing babies

is a fiddly business. I don't pretend to be good at it. 

Thankfully it isn't something I often get called on to do. I leave that to their parents and doting grandparents.

I don't really remember clothes much before the  hated red pixie hood I was made to wear at around two years of age. It buttoned under my chin. The wool was scratchy and it irritated me. I did not want to be "Little Red Riding Hood" - which is what my mother insisted I was in an effort to make me wear it. The only reason to wear it was because I was then allowed to ride on the cross bar of the Senior Cat's bicycle when we went to get the milk from the dairy. The dairy was some distance away and, in winter, it was often so cold my mother would have broken the ice on the cat's bowl of drinking water. 

I also wore mittens made from blue "blanket" wool, woollen overalls, a "viyella" shirt, and a woollen pullover on these trips. The overalls and shirts were "hand me downs" from a family at the other end of the little town. The pullovers were knitted by my grandmothers. My maternal grandmother erred on the side of pink and lacy "for little girls". My paternal grandmother made robust striped affairs from left over yarn in blues and grays. She would throw in a little red to liven things up. She made blue ganseys which I wish my mother had kept because, from memory, they were the proper thing. I know I remember being told I was "clever" because I found diamond shapes in the patterns and under the arms.

But now it seems that babies and small children are dressed first in "onesies" and then in miniature jeans, track pants, and cotton fleece tops over "skivvies". Little girls wear their "princess" costumes over the top and little boys wear their "Spiderman" outfits.

I have seen beautifully smocked "party dresses" displayed at the Showground and in the shop run by an embroidery magazine. I have yet to see a little girl wearing one of these. I have yet to see a little boy wearing the trains or sailing ships which appeared on my brother's little shirts.

Someone called in yesterday to ask if I had any very small buttons. I pulled out the box my mother left. It mostly contains things like used shirt buttons but there are other small buttons in there as well. What was she making? She took a deep breath and told me that her daughter's neighbour had just given birth to a very tiny baby. The smallest baby clothes don't fit yet.

"I know it may only get used once, if at all, but I want the mother to have something special."

The tiny garment is beautiful. It is finished with the sort of exquisitely small stitches that so many convent school girls were taught. I had no difficulty in admiring it but I asked why she had not knitted something because her knitting is also wonderful. She didn't like the patterns.

"They are all made from double knit or eight ply. People make them and mean well but they look totally wrong on such a tiny bub. For goodness' sake Cat can't you use your pattern writing skills and produce a few small patterns that are not written in thumping thick yarn?"  

I might give it a try.