A pilch isn’t a small pilchard, nor is it an abbreviation of the word; nor is it anything to do with Pilch Sport and nor is it John Pilch the writer or any other person named Pilch, not even Fuller Pilch the nineteenth century cricketer.
The pilch I am referring to, as you may guess from the featured image is a knitted item; I found a pattern for it in my 1940’s knitting book, and a pilch is one of ten items of a baby’s layette – which I understand to be the essential clothes an infant might need:
- pilch
- vest
- short bootees
- long bootees
- short frock (for boys and girls)
- long frock ditto
- boy’s suit
- matinée coat
- bonnet
- carrying shawl
The word pilch, no longer used except when referring to saddles – a pilch saddle is a lightweight child’s saddle for use on a small horse or pony, it has a front arch half tree and the rest of the saddle is treeless – I guess this means the saddle has raised supports to help the rider stay on!
The pilch described in the knitting pattern is a little pair of shorts to cover a nappy, in the past it was like an outer wrapping over the nappy, but when the book was written the pilch was as shown in the illustration. originally a pilch was any outer garment made of skin or fur, and comes via old English from Latin.
Lois Elsden 
Bring back the pilch! I love the shawl too
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Isn’t it pretty? And just imagine how much love went into making it!
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