Soft Lattice · 1960s Crochet Ribbon Baby Wrap
Crochet basketweave wool-acrylic blend · scalloped picot trim · white satin ribbon threaded throughout · open front, no fastenings · no label · 1960s · 24cm length flat · fits newborn · excellent
Every square of this basketweave holds its own small shadow, a texture you feel before you see, and somewhere behind it a length of white satin ribbon keeps threading in and out of the stitches like a slow-moving secret.
There is no label here either, only close, patient handwork: an even basketweave stitch worked square by square, a scalloped picot edge finished by hand around every curve, and ribbon worked through the border rather than sewn on afterward. Wraps built exactly like this, with no buttons and no ties, were common through the 1960s, made specifically for getting a newborn dressed and undressed without a fight.
The front sits open with no fastening of any kind, and deep vents cut into both sides mean it slips on and off over a nappy without needing to thread arms through anything fixed. The basketweave stitch runs the full body and both short sleeves, edged everywhere in a scalloped picot border with a fine white satin ribbon woven straight through the stitches, not stitched onto the surface. It is built to be practical first, pretty because someone cared enough to make it that way too.
Material
Wool, acrylic, satin ribbon
Care
Hand wash gently in cool water, easing rather than wringing the crochet, and reshape while damp before drying flat away from direct heat. Avoid pulling on the ribbon trim when dressing or undressing. Store folded flat rather than on a hanger, so the basketweave keeps its shape. 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, 24cm from shoulder to hem, with a bust of 29cm across (58cm around) narrowing slightly to 27cm across at the hem (54cm around). Sleeve length from shoulder to cuff is 22cm and the sleeve sits 8cm across flat at the widest point. Cut for a newborn, with deep side vents built in for room over a nappy rather than a snug fit through the body.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Excellent. No stains, no pulls in the basketweave stitch and no fraying along the picot edge. The ribbon threaded through the border is fully intact with no snags or missing sections, and the crochet holds its shape well with no stretching at the neckline or cuffs.
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 is a garment built entirely around the idea of ease, no buttons to fumble at three in the morning, no ties to come undone in a car seat, just a shape that opens and closes itself around whoever is small enough to need it. I think of it as a small offering from one exhausted parent to a future one, proof that somebody, decades ago, sat down and worked out exactly how to make dressing a newborn less of a battle. It will likely end up in a drawer of its own, folded next to a muslin wrap and a single pair of impossibly small socks, waiting for the next arrival.