Highland dress practices for children

[Lady Grey]

Same topic different gender.

As a young child of the late ‘60’s early ‘70’s girls wore a similar tartan ‘garment’ . They were kilt pleated, pure wool, and attached to a white cotton singlet shaped bodice and slipped over the head
( but not considered or worn as a dress)
Worn -always- with a jumper, cardigan or other outer garment over the top of the bodice, other items such as skivvies, T-Shirts and underwear singlets (different items in Australia) would be layered along with wool or nylon ribbed tights in cold weather.
In warmer weather just the garment with a light top over the bodice, socks and sandals.

But the same principle..... they were handed down and adjusted.
I remember big tucks at the waist and/or shoulders that were taken up then let down as one grew.
I know some of mine belonged to Aunts in the ‘50’s that my nana had kept, others came from neighbors in the street. And mine were handed on.

There was also dressy and casual styles.
Dressy had a faux apron with a kilt pin and were for church, birthday parties and other dressy occasions.(along with warnings-threats NOT to play with the pin)
Casual had knife pleats right around with all the usual construction methods of pleated to the stripe etc but no fell.
Casual wear included Kinder, shopping, playing in the yard, riding bikes, etc, etc.

In hindsight most of the tartans were the well known Stuart Reds, Black Watch and such, always of pure wool.

Girls usually wore them until about age 8-10yrs then graduate to a Kilt! Usually made by Fletcher Jones sometimes a Scottish import (or bought by relatives in Scotland) but again always a hand-me-down and pure wool.

By the mid to late ‘70s jeans and corduroy pant ruled and little girls weren’t expected to wear skirts and dresses all the time.
I’m also pretty sure lots of those garments got chopped up by teens when the Bay City Rollers were the big thing and the tartan fabric was used as scarves, sewn onto pants , tops and bags!

I do occasionally still see them in op-shops but I don’t think any child would be dressed like that these days?
Pity my girlfriends and I still managed to climb trees, ride bikes, hang off monkey bars, break bones, catch yabbies, be princesses and so on in a kilt skirt!

[FossilHunter]

There’s a lot of great information here. Thank you all for the contributions, even if my phrasin was imprecise. ;)

[The Q]

The hand me downs applied to Saxon clothing as well, As i can remember being in them,
One of my books speaks of children wearing kilts in the hebridies to school, that book went till around the start of WW1. But the adult men were all in trousers. The Hebridies being extremely poor, and most families having a large amount of children not having handme downs would have been unusual.
Living the Hebridies and Inverness I never saw a kilt at all in the 1970s and 1980's and as Figheadair most boys would not be seen dead in them and I doubt many would today.

[Pleater]

My dad, born 1917 or 18 - memory is a bit blurry today - was britched at 5 years of age - before that he wore dresses and he could still recall the occasion over 50 years later - it was a big thing in a boy's life and usually all the boys starting school in the Autumn would be britched at about the same time.

Not that kilts come into the picture - but I doubt that tiny kilts did either.
White linen frocks were the 'uniform' for small children and there was also a tradition of new white garments at Whitsuntide, when many churches would have a parade of the Sunday School children all in their new white gowns. The Whit Sunday Walking was still going on in the 1950s though by then the boys were mostly in their grey flannel school trousers - though there were a couple of the Catholic churches where the younger boys wore white shorts.

Anne the Pleater

[MacRobert's Reply]

I was born in 1949 and got my first kilt at about 4 years of age. This one was made for me with room for growth created by a let-down hem and buckles that were well back and could be moved forward. My next three kilts were all inhetited from older cousins but one got little wear as it was in the 'wrong' tartan. I was in my late 20s before I could afford to have an adult kilt made for me. Now in my late 60s, I'm still wearing it. Buy quality and make it last was a value in my upbringing.

[Lady Grey]

I just found a picture of the above garments and children’s kilts from the 1950’s in Melbourne.

https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/796502

Pretty sure they were the ones my nana would have bought and were passed onto me.

[Tarheel]

That is a lovely tartan skirt the lady on the right is wearing. The way the sett falls forward makes me think it is pleated in the back. Any other thoughts?

[Lady Grey]

That is a lovely tartan skirt the lady on the right is wearing. The way the sett falls forward makes me think it is pleated in the back. Any other thoughts?

It looks like a 4 or 6 gore circle skirt to me, I can’t see any pleats and the wave of the dark stripes suggest gores carefully matched but hanging in waves as she isn’t wearing full petticoats.

[Tarheel]

Thank you for your thoughts dear Lady. Though alive at the time the photo was taken, I was too young to be concerned with fashion. I was discovering I had toes and fingers and they could fit into my mouth.