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Linsey-Woolsey
Created by weaving pliant wool weft through an obstinate warp of flax or cotton, linsey-woolsey combines the best features of both fibers. It’s strong, warm, durable, and receptive to dye.
How this hard-working material got its playful-sounding name is not known. In any even, “linsey-woolsey” usually (if somewhat inaccurately) connotes a quilted, whole-cloth coverlet, commonly made of homespun wool. They were handmade in New England from the mid 1700s through the 1820s, when they were gradually replaced by cotton quilts. Stuffed with shorn wool, many were backed with a coarse weave. Coverlets with mustard-colored backs often had tops of indigo, bittersweet red, bottle green, or butternut. The fabrics and lining were quilted together not so much for beauty as for warmth. The fabric’s heft accentuated the stitchery, creating raised and puckered designs that look almost like stuff-work. A more formal type of linsey-woolsey, the calimanco, had an elegant sheen, created either by glazing the fabric with egg whites or rubbing it with a stone.
Linsey-woolseys in excellent condition are rare, as are those that have been signed in stitchery; dated ones are even rarer. Especially vulnerable to insect damage, linsey-woolseys should be stored with mothballs in summer. But even linsey-woolseys that have been loved by the moths find a ready audience. Called “cutters,” scrap quilts are readily recycled to make cushions and repair other textiles that have problems.
How this hard-working material got its playful-sounding name is not known. In any even, “linsey-woolsey” usually (if somewhat inaccurately) connotes a quilted, whole-cloth coverlet, commonly made of homespun wool. They were handmade in New England from the mid 1700s through the 1820s, when they were gradually replaced by cotton quilts. Stuffed with shorn wool, many were backed with a coarse weave. Coverlets with mustard-colored backs often had tops of indigo, bittersweet red, bottle green, or butternut. The fabrics and lining were quilted together not so much for beauty as for warmth. The fabric’s heft accentuated the stitchery, creating raised and puckered designs that look almost like stuff-work. A more formal type of linsey-woolsey, the calimanco, had an elegant sheen, created either by glazing the fabric with egg whites or rubbing it with a stone.
Linsey-woolseys in excellent condition are rare, as are those that have been signed in stitchery; dated ones are even rarer. Especially vulnerable to insect damage, linsey-woolseys should be stored with mothballs in summer. But even linsey-woolseys that have been loved by the moths find a ready audience. Called “cutters,” scrap quilts are readily recycled to make cushions and repair other textiles that have problems.
Latest page update: made by kjacobso
, Jun 19 2007, 11:41 AM EDT
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | |
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| Anonymous | linsey-woolsey | 0 | Mar 28 2008, 6:59 PM EDT by Anonymous | |
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Thread started: Mar 28 2008, 6:59 PM EDT
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As a member of a spinners and weavers guild, I'm very familiar with this term. In this part of the country(northeast Pennsylvania) it is a linen and wool blend that is spun together to create a stong and warm fiber to be woven or knitted for use.
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