The sleeves of this shirt are plaited or goffered in a way that seems wholly lost; this is what I have already described—pinching. I have seen the sleeve of a child’s dress thus pinched which had been worn by a little girl aged three. The wrist-cuff measured about five inches around, and was stoutly corded. Upon ripping the sleeve apart, it was found that the strip of fine mull which was thus pinched into the sleeve was two yards in length. The cuff flared slightly, else even this length of sheer lawn could not have been confined at the wrist. In the so-called “Museum,” gloomily scattered around the famous old South Church edifice in Boston, are fine examples of this pinched work.
Christening Shirt and Mitts of Governor Bradford.
Many of the finest existing specimens of old guipure, Flanders, and needlepoint laces in England and America are preserved on the ancient shirts, mitts, caps, and bearing-cloths of infants. Often there is a little padded bib of guipure lace accompanied with tiny mittens like these.
Flanders Lace Mitts.
This pair was wrought and worn in the sixteenth century, and the stitches and work are those of the Flanders point laces. I have seen tiny mitts knitted of silk, of fine linen thread, also made of linen, hem-stitched, or worked in drawn-work, or embroidered, and one pair of mittens, and the cap that matched was of tatting-work done in the finest of thread. No needlepoint could be more beautiful. Some are shown on [here].
Mitts of yellow nankeen or silk, made with long wrists or arms, were also worn by babies, and must have proved specially irritating to tiny little hands and arms. These had the seams sewed over and over with colored silks in a curiously intricate netted stitch.