Orchard Hush · 1960s Pointelle Peach Baby Jumper
Wool-acrylic pointelle knit · ribbed neckline and cuffs · three-button placket · no label · 1960s · 22cm length flat · fits newborn · excellent, freshly refreshed
Held up to the light, the front panel opens into a small trellis of eyelets, a diamond lattice worked stitch by stitch into a colour somewhere between peach skin and the inside of a shell.
There is no label sewn into this jumper, nothing to trace to a maker with certainty, only the evidence of the hands that finished it: even tension throughout, and a neat button placket set with real patience at the neckline. Wool blended with acrylic was the practical baby-knitting choice of the 1960s, warm enough for a bassinet and forgiving enough for whoever was doing the washing at two in the morning.
The pointelle panel runs from the ribbed neckline down the front, each open stitch a deliberate yarn-over and decrease, not lace stitched on afterward. Raglan seams angle cleanly from underarm to collar. The cuffs and waistband pull in tight on their own rib, with no elastic threaded through, and three small pearl-finish plastic buttons close a short placket at the neckline, the practical vintage answer to dressing a newborn without wrestling arms through a fixed collar.
Material
Wool, acrylic, plastic buttons
Care
Hand wash in cool water with a wool-safe detergent, or a mesh bag for a gentle machine cycle. Reshape while damp and dry flat, away from direct heat and sun, so the ribbing and pointelle keep their line. Store folded rather than on a hanger. As with all vintage pieces with surface detail, buttons, embellishments, ribbons or applied decoration, this piece is not suitable for unsupervised sleep.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: Measured flat, 22cm from shoulder to hem, bust 22cm across, narrowing to 17cm across at the hem. Sleeve length from neck to cuff is 24cm, the bicep sits at 8.5cm flat, and the cuff measures 7cm fully stretched. Neck drop is 4cm. Newborn sizing, close and snug rather than roomy, best suited to the earliest months.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Excellent. Recently hand washed and de-pilled, so the surface now reads clean and soft with no bobbling underfoot. No stains, no moth history and no loose threads found across the ribbing, the pointelle panel or the placket. All three buttons sit secure and the rib pulls back to shape after stretching.
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.
Every eyelet in that front panel was left open on purpose, a small window built into the wool so warmth could still get through without smothering. Peach was chosen, I think, for a baby whose name nobody wrote down, which means she has been quietly reinventing herself as everyone's daughter ever since. She keeps her three buttons closed like a small secret at her throat. Wear her once and she will start listening for a particular hum, someone's voice from very close up, and she does not much mind whose it is.