Civil War Era Children's Fashions - September 1862 Peterson's Magazine

Civil War Era Children's Fashions - September 1862 Peterson's Magazine

Fig 1 - A little girl of four or five, in a blue poplin frock decorated with braid. The body is plain with a plait on each side; the back is cut with side-pieces. A bertha pointed both before and behind ornaments the body. The white puffed sleeve is surmounted by a pointed jockey. The skirt laps over from right to left under the bow of the sash. The small ruches on the body and skirt are made of silk ribbon.

Fig 2 - Child of three years old - Frock of English quilting, embroidered with black worsted in English stitch. This embroidery presents pointed tabs on the body, an insertion at the neck, a fret ornament on the skirt, and insertions on the pockets and sleeves. These embroideries are enclosed between rows on black braid.

Fig 3 - A boy of nine or ten - A sailor's straw hat, an over-coat of light cassimere with emrboideries and black braid.

General Remarks - No material change has of late occurred in children's fashions. For little boys under the age of six or seven, a loose jacket and trousers of the same material are in favor. They are most frequently composed of a light kind of cloth, gray being the fashionable hue. The sleeves of the jacket are rather tight, open at the lower part, and the ends rounded. Both jacket and trousers are elegantly trimmed with grelot buttons. The dresses of little girls are made pretty much in the same way as those of their mammas. The corsages are frequently cut square, and a few will be made full, especially if the dress consists of some light material. These little dresses are ornamented with narrow fluted quillings, ruches, or plain bands of silk, etc., passing round the skirt. The same trimming is very generally employed for mohair dresses. A dress just completed for a little girl of eight years of age is composed of white and brown mohair. On the lower part of the skirt are five rows of silk of graduated widths, of the same tint of brown as that on the dress. The corsage, low and square, is trimmed on each side, both in front and behind, with narrow rows of brown silk. The sleeves consist merely of an epaulet, falling over shirt under-sleeves of white muslin, bordered with Valenciennes; these under-sleeves are fixed to a chemisette worn under the corsage.