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We notice that shorts sets were very popular for younger boys. They were also referred to as was or laundered suits. Here the term 'suit' refers to the tops matching the bottoms, not to dress wear. These were a variety of outfits in which the shirt and shorts matched or were coordinated with each other in some way, including both style and color. Thus they really are outfits that should be linked to both our blouse/short and pants sections as they include both. In the 1930s these shorts sets were commonly button-on outfits, often with self belts hiding the buttons. I'm not sure when these first appear. I believe in the mid-1920s. This reflects the trend for boys below the age of 10 years to wear casual clothing rather than the more formal suits as was much more common before World War I. They may have originated with the one-piece little boy suits we see yonger boys wearing in the 1920s. The topps were styled like shorts and were increasingly referred to as such. The fact that there wa no shirt tail, however, suggests that they more correctly should be referred to as blouses. These blouses and shorts were almost always purchased as sets, other wise the buttons on the blouse might not fit into the button holes in the shorts. These sets were not always done with short pants, but shorts were by far the most common.
Sears offered a whole page of boys wearing outfits with casual shorts. There were many styles of these casual outfits than the few suits offered for younger boys. Here is the page of more casual clothing
for boys (p. 290) in a variety of styles. Most of the boys under the age of 8 wear short pants with knee socks (or three-quarter socks as many are not shown pulled up to the knee) and washable waists, although there are a couple of knicker suits at the extreme right left. Also there a few other choices such as one-piece sun suits and sailor suits.
Here we see a McCalls one-and two-piece shorts set pattern (number 6468) released in 1930 (figure 1). For some reason the same outfit is shown three times, but with different material done in different colors/patterns used to make them. These were button-on shorts sets. The self belt helped to over the waist buttons. Thre were two options availave. 'A' was a one piece outfit with the top and bottom attached for younger boys. 'B' is a button-on shorts set. The only other option available is that the blouse sleeves could be dome as long or short sleeves. The collar and patch pocket is all the same. The illustration only shows the long sleeves option, but it can be seen in the line drawing which also show the button-on features on the blouse and shorts. This pattern was done in size 4, but it would have alo been done in school-age sizes. The older boys are shown wearing knee socks. The younger boys in the one-piece outfit wears ankle socks and strap shoes. Presumably the illustration would be different for the older school-age sizes.
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