Paper Light · 1930s Handmade Battenburg Lace Baby Dress
Sheer cotton lawn · handmade battenburg lace yoke and hem · mismatched plastic buttons · marked LH inside the neckline · 1930s · 41cm length flat · fits approx. newborn to 3 months · excellent
Held to the light, this dress turns almost translucent, the cotton lawn thin enough to see a hand through, the battenburg lace at the collar reading like a small wheel of frost.
There is no printed label here, only a single mark, the initials LH written in black marker just inside the neckline, worn by someone who wanted this dress to find its way home if it was ever lost. It did not soak out, and it will never show once the dress is on, so I have left it exactly as I found it. The fine, sheer cotton lawn and the density of the handmade battenburg lace put this at around the 1930s, the kind of dress kept for a very special occassion.
The battenburg lace collar is cotton tape looped and worked into wheels and scallops by hand, dense enough to stand as its own fabric above the sheer lawn body. The skirt gathers softly below and finishes in a scalloped lace hem to match. It is sleeveless and closes at the back with two small plastic buttons that do not quite match each other, evidence of a repair done with whatever was on hand rather than anything bought new.
Material
Cotton lawn, cotton battenburg lace, plastic buttons
Care
Hand wash only, in cool water, and handle the lace gently rather than wringing it, easing the water through instead. Dry flat out of direct sun, away from anything that might snag the open lacework. This is not a dress for the dryer or for vigorous handling given how fine the lawn is. 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, 41cm from shoulder to hem. The bust measures 26cm across (52cm around), and the waist has real room to move, opening out to 43cm across (86cm around) thanks to the soft pleating below the yoke. The hem sweeps out to 64cm across. This suits a newborn through to approximately three months, and given the delicacy of the lawn and lace, I would size up rather than down if this is a gift.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Excellent. The handmade battenburg lace is entirely intact with no pulled threads or missing sections, and the sheer cotton lawn body has no tears, no holes and no moth history. The LH initials marked inside the neckline in black ink did not lift with washing and will not be visible once worn. The two back buttons, though mismatched, are both secure.
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.
LH is not a name I know, but I like to imagine her anyway, someone's grandmother or great-aunt, hemming lace by lamplight for a day that has long since come and gone. The mark she left will outlive everyone who was in that room. This dress is built for one particular kind of afternoon, all soft light and love, and I hope it gets exactly that again.