We are pleased to offer sewing patterns by Kannik’s Korner which are well made and extensively documented for accuracy. To that end I wanted to share what they wrote about Swaddling in the thorough instruction booklet that comes with the pattern Infant’s Clothing – Second Half o the 18th Century. It is Pattern KK-9001 for sale on this site under Sewing Patterns.
Swaddling an infant had long been the custom prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, and in some locations continued into the nineteenth century. Swaddling was believed to keep the infant’s body warm and supported and to keep limbs from growing crooked, which, as we know today was due more to vitamin deficiency than moving and kicking. A 1786 article in the Lady’s Magazine quoted in Childrens Costume in England 1300-1900, by Phyllis Cunninghand and Anne Buck (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1965,1966,1972,197), explains swaddling to those who even then, may not have been exposed to it.
As to the head it is covered with two or three small biggins (caps), the first of which is of linen, and the others woolen, and these are tied behind the neck. In many places they add a stay band, or a kind of head dress with two ends which hang down on the side of the head, and are fastened on the breast with pins, on order to make the infant hold it’s head straight, which very well supplies the want of the mattress just mentioned.”
As one can imagine it would take considerable time to change a diaper, and consequently infants frequetly remained in their own mess. Straight pins were often used to secure the garments and were the cause of pain and injury and even death. NEVER USE STRAIGHT PINS ON AN INFANT.
Because of a lack of understanding of health issues, as well as a danger ous household enviroment for infants (especially in poorer families where all the owrk was done in a one room home), had made swaddling seem the most practical method of caring for and dressing an infant. Infant mortality rates had also encouraged distancing onesself emotionally from a young infant as they were often treated more as objects than as little people.