Patchwork Summers · Fred Bare Rose Skirt, Girls, 2000s, AU 5
Cotton drill patchwork · cabbage rose, ticking and paisley · lace-up side with brass eyelets · Fred Bare · Australian · late 1990s to 2000s · AU size 5, approx 5 years
Six gored panels of cotton drill, each one cut from a different print: cabbage rose, ticking stripe, faded paisley. Joined at the seams and cut to swing out to a near-circular hem, the kind that catches air when you spin.
Fred Bare, the Sydney children's label, late 1990s to 2000s. Fred Bare built a devoted following by making children's clothes that were genuinely beautiful: considered fabric combinations, proper construction, pieces that photographed well and wore better. The lace-up side fastening through antique-brass eyelets on a fabric tie makes the waist adjustable, which means this skirt grows with a child for longer than most. The cloth has real body; the skirt holds its shape without stiffening it. Gentle signs of wear throughout, as this cloth should show.
Patchwork that rewards looking closely. The more you look, the better it gets.
Material
Cotton
Care
Cold gentle wash on its own, the reds will run in warm water. Cool press on the panels. Loosen the tie before washing.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: length 42cm, waist 28cm (with some stretch), hem 85cm. Fits approximately AU size 5, around 5 years.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Gentle signs of wear throughout, as this cloth should show. The patchwork panels are vivid, the construction sound.
Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.
Before it reaches you
Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.
Six panels, six different summers, sewn into one skirt so a child can wear all of them at once and spin the whole season out at the hem. The rose panel remembers a garden, the ticking panel remembers a bed, and the paisley remembers somewhere further off that nobody in the family will quite own up to. Lace it a notch looser and it lets in another year. The rule with a skirt like this has always been the same: whoever spins fastest gets to keep whichever summer lands facing front.