Linsey-woolsey

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Linsey-woolsey (less often, woolsey-linsey or in Scottish English, wincey) is a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woolen weft. Similar fabrics woven with a cotton warp and woolen weft in Colonial America were also called linsey-woolsey or wincey.[1][2] The name derives form a combination of linen and woolen. This textile has been known since ancient times; the Bible twice explicitly bans wearing it.[3]

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[edit] History

The coarse fabric call stuff woven at Kidderminster from the 17th century, originally a wool fabric, may have been of linsey-woolsey construction later on.[4] Linsey-woolsey was an important fabric in the Colonial America due to the relative scarcity of wool in the colonies.[5] Many sources[6] say it was used for whole-cloth quilts, and when parts of the quilt wore out the remains would be cut up and pieced into patchwork quilts. Some sources dispute this[7] and say that the material was too rough and would have been used instead for clothing and occasionally for light blankets. It was also used as a ground fabric for needlepoint.

Linsey-woolsey was valued for its warmth, durability, and cheapness, but not for its looks. In her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs writes, "I have a vivid recollection of the linsey-woolsey dress given to me every winter by Mrs. Flint. How I hated it! It was one of the badges of slavery." Lucy Maud Montgomery uses the term "wincey" six times in Anne of Green Gables[8]: "a very ugly dress of yellowish gray wincey".

Linsey-woolsey continues to be woven today in small quantities for historical recreation and Colonial period decorating uses.

Linsey-woolsey is also sometimes used to refer to 18th century woven coverlets or bed coverings made with a linen warp and woolen weft.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, cited at FreeDictionary.com, retrieved 22 June 2007, and Random House Dictionary, via [1] retrieved 25 June 2007
  2. ^ Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300095805, p. 96
  3. ^ "A garment of a Shaatnez mixture shall not come upon you" (Leviticus 19:19); "Do not wear Shaatnez - wool and linen together" (Deuteronomy 22:11).
  4. ^ See stuff (cloth).
  5. ^ Baumgarten, What Clothes Reveal, p. 96
  6. ^ See Linsey-Woolsey at Quilt.com, retrieved 22 June 2007
  7. ^ See for example Historic Textile Research & Articles, retrieved 22 June 2007
  8. ^ Random House Dictionary, via [2] retrieved 25 June 2007

[edit] References and further reading

  • Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, Yale University Press, 2002, ISBN 0300095805
  • Tozer, Jane and Sarah Levitt, Fabric of Society: A Century of People and their Clothes 1770-1870, Laura Ashley Press, ISBN 0950891304
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