Bow Stitch · Handmade 1960s-70s Crochet Baby Matinee Jacket
Wool/acrylic blend · satin ribbon · plastic buttons · 1960s-70s · 27cm length flat · approx. newborn-3 months · excellent condition
A length of pale pink satin ribbon runs through an eyelet row at the yoke and ties in a soft bow at the neck. There's three plastic buttons which close the front; this is a matinee jacket, meant to splay open over a nappy rather than fasten completely shut.
No label survives, as is typical of home crochet from this period. The shell-stitch mesh body, puffed set-in sleeves, and ribbon-threaded yoke are all hallmarks of matinee jacket patterns that were passed hand to hand through the 1960s and 70s, the kind of pattern a woman might have kept in a drawer for decades.
The body is worked in an open shell stitch that lets the weave show through, gathered into puffed long sleeves finished with a scalloped cuff. Small plastic buttons sit at the front neck doing quiet structural work while the ribbon does the decorative work. The hem finishes in the same soft scallop as the cuffs.
Material
Wool/acrylic blend, satin ribbon, plastic button.
Care
Hand wash in cool water, do not wring, and dry flat. Remove the ribbon before washing if you'd rather not risk the satin, and re-thread once dry.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: 27cm length flat (splays open at the front over a nappy rather than closing), 21cm across the bust and 24cm at the waist laid flat, 27cm at the hem, also splaying open. Sleeves are 16cm long with a 10cm width and a 6cm cuff, and the neckline sits 3cm deep. Reads as roughly newborn to 3 months.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Excellent overall. No holes, no stains, and the stitch work is clean throughout.
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.
This was made to be worn open, not closed, a jacket for the brief window when a baby is dressed as much for photographs as for warmth. Someone threaded that ribbon through by hand and tied it in a bow that has been untied and retied more times than anyone could count. It is soft in the way only much-loved things get soft, worn down at the edges by handling rather than by wear.