Why were children historically sewn into their clothes over the winter?

by holytriplem

It used to be a custom in Europe to sew children into their clothes at the beginning of winter, only for the clothes to be removed in Spring.

  1. Why?
  2. How long did this go on for?
  3. Were there hygiene issues? How were they able to go to the toilet?
  4. Surely in winter, there would have been fluctuations in temperature, or a child would be warmer or cooler depending on whether the child was doing any exercise. Was there some kind of allowance for removing or adding one or two layers of clothing?
cecikierk

There was a thread a while back that I'm trying to find (I'm on my phone right now, I'll find it later). Basically that practice is a myth. Children grow up way too fast to wear something so tight that it's unremovable. Medieval illustrations only shows children with very loose-fitting tunics or sack dresses, they are so loose that there's no point sewing them in. Only wealthy girls wore tight-fitting clothes, but presumably they are wealthy enough to afford fasteners and have multiple dresses.