18th Century Pin-Cloths

Last updated: March 6, 2024

A pin-cloth is a simple sort of smock for toddlers and small children. Both boys and girls in the 18th century (and early 19th century) wore pin-cloths like these to protect their clothing. Slightly older children – or children of more well-to-do families – might wear a bib and apron instead of an 18th century pincloth.

Instructions for Cutting Out Apparel for the Poor (1789) provides two sets of instructions for making a pin-cloth:

PIN-CLOTH, N^o 1. How cut out.
One breadth of check, three quarters of a yard, and half a quarter long, open behind. Doubled down the middle, and the back, Pattern Plate VII, Fig. 1, and the boſom, Pattern Plate VII, Fig. 2, cut out as for a bed-gown. The ſides doubled to the middle, and a ſlit cut down for the arm-hole, half a quarter and a nail long. The top of the ſhoulder ſloped from the neck to the arm-hole near half an inch. The arm-hole wears better if it is rounded a little in the back, at the bottom; and a narrow tape put within the hem at the bottom to ſtrengthen it, and prevent it from tearing down. Three quarters of a yard of tape for two ſtrings fixed at the corners of the neck behind.

PIN-CLOTH, N^o 2. How cut out.
The ſame as N^o 1, only three quarters of a yard long. Three quarters of a yard of tape for the two ſtrings; and the back and boſom not quite ſo deep.
N.B. Theſe pin-cloths are ſometimes made of thick brown Holland, or a cloth called Duck, which anſwers very well for boys.

Pincloths are also referenced in court cases in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey in 1754, 1771 (“one linen pin cloth”), 1772 (“three diaper pincloths”), 1772, 1773 (“three diaper pincloths”), 1774, 1777 (“a child’s linen pin cloth”), 1780, 1781 (“two child’s linen pincloths”), 1782, 1784, 1787, 1787 (worn by a 10-year-old girl), 1789, 1789, 1794, 1795 (“a linen pincloth”), 1796 (“a linen pincloth”), and 1798 (“a check-pincloth … a check pin-afore”). In a 1780 trial, “WILLIAM LONG was indicted for stealing a yard and a quarter of linen checque cloth,” and the prisoner testifies: “I had this piece of checque to line a trunk with. I had more than I wanted. I took a piece to rub it down with, to make it lay smooth after it is lined. I put that piece into my pocket instead of the piece of white that I intended to wash out and bring to shop again. I took it home. My wife said it would serve to make the child a pin-cloth. I said I believed there would be a fine noise if I kept it. My master sent to my wife to send it back again. She sent it back directly.”

• Portrait of a child playing with his dog
• A lady in a garden having coffee with children by Nicolas Lancret, c. 1742
• A woman leading a child with a toy by Paul Sandby
• Woman and child holding a doll by Paul Sandby, c. 1758-1760
• London Cries: A Fishmonger by Paul Sandby, c. 1759
• St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the Entrance to the Singing Men’s Cloister by Paul Sandby, 1765
• “One day when Miſs Sally came down ſtairs, ſhe found Miſs Placid seated at a table making a pincloth for her wax doll, in order to keep its frock clean …” (Jemima Placid, 1783)
• The Cottage Girl by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785
• Visit to the Child at Nurse by George Morland, 1788
• Children Playing as Soldiers, 1788
• The Industrious Cottager, 1788
• The Power of Justice by George Morland, c. 1788
• Blind Man’s Buff by George Morland, c. 1788
• Children Bird Nesting by George Morland, 1789
• Selling Guinea Pigs by George Morland, c. 1789
• The Virtuous Parent and The Fair Penitent, 1789
• The Deserter Pardoned by George Morland, 1792
• “On our entrance, a little boy, about five years of age, ran to a girl much leſs than himſelf, and ſnatching up her pin cloth, cried, while wiping her eyes, 'Huſh, Sally, don’t ye cry no more, here’s ladies come to give ye ſome bread and butter, and bring poor mame and the baby ſomething to eat.'” (D’Arcy: A Novel, 1793)
• Youth Diverting Age, 1794
• The Benevolent Heir or the Tenant Restored to his Family by William Redmore Bigg, c. 1797
• The Child Lost, 1799
• The Severe Steward, or Unfortunate Tenant by William Redmore Bigg, c. 1801
• “I beheld a lovely girl, about three years old, weeping bitterly, and running in every direction across the road. Her blue-check pin-cloth was filled with flowers and corn, and behind her trailed a long branch of linden, while her ruddy fat feet, unguarded by shoe or stocking, exposed by a short ragged stuff petticoat, pattered nimbly along.” (Farther Excursions of the Observant Pedestrian, 1801)
• “I was born at Eastry, 11th of February, 1796 … Before I was breeched I remember going up a ladder and picking my pin-cloth full of pears.” (Recollections of My Sea Life)
• Haymakers at dinner by Thomas Unwins, 1812
• Blind Man’s Buff by John Lewis Krimmel, 1814

(H/T to Juliana McKibben, Ruthann Gray Grabowski, and Paul Dickfoss)