This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Linsey-woolsey is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
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.12 The name derives form a combination of linen and woolen. This textile has been known since ancient times; the Bible twice explicitly bans Jews from wearing it.3
Contents |
History
The coarse fabric called 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 sources6 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 this7 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 Gables8: "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.
See also
External links
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl at Project Gutenberg
- Quilt.com's history record for linsey-woolsey
- A longer description of linsey-woolsey
- A sample of linsey-woolsey needlepoint
Notes
- ^ 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
- ^ Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300095805, p. 96
- ^ "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).
- ^ See stuff (cloth).
- ^ Baumgarten, What Clothes Reveal, p. 96
- ^ See Linsey-Woolsey at Quilt.com, retrieved 22 June 2007
- ^ See for example Historic Textile Research & Articles, retrieved 22 June 2007
- ^ Random House Dictionary, via [2] retrieved 25 June 2007
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
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 16 November 2008, at 13:53.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Linsey-woolsey".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.