A Softly Dyed Cotton Diaper Cloth: Dots

mid twentieth century
52" x 14", 132 cm x 35.5 cm

This charmingly playful length of gauze weight cotton shows staggered rows of softly dyed dots, each the size of a coin, in colors of blue, purple, pink and green.

The dots seem to have been dyed by-literally--dropping color directly onto a stack of folded cloth and, probably, using a primitive type of vacuum, drawing the color through the stack of lightweight cotton.

When this was made to be used as a diaper the short ends would would have been stitched together to form a kind of "loop."

So delightful to see, and in good, used conditions with no noticeable stains and very little wear.