The sea was meant for buisness, not pleasure

Growing up I always felt like I had two homes. The first was my actual home. It is where I set up a tent in the back yard, built a fort with my brother, had water fights with my father,  was taught to garden and sew by my mom. My second home had 4 wheels, well 8 if you include the car's,  was made of aluminum and came with its own furniture.  It meant my back yard could be the ocean, a river, or the side of mountain. We spent most of our time, though rather close to our real home, at Cape Cod. We would go twice a year, once in June with the Airstream Club and once in the fall with just family and the occasional friends. We would bike the canal, go to museums, go swimming, and so much more.

Today Cape Cod is separated by a dug out canal but wasn't always that way. A hundred years ago that canal opened to boats. By the 1930s the current Railroad bridge, Bourne Bridge, and Sagamore Bridge were built or being built connecting the two sides. It was meant as an easier way to transport supplies from the north of the cape to the south, and was 300 years in the making. In 1627 Governor William Bradford of Plimoth Plantation had a trading post built for trade between them and the Natives in Manomet, known today as Bourne. Captain of the Militia, Myles Standish looked at the trading post and the series of rivers and thought a canal would save time in traveling because first they would take a boat along the shore and go as far as the could by boat and walked the rest of the way. It was quite tedious, but the post was an important resource.

People would continually suggest that a canal be built as supplies would be lost on the shoals of Cape Cod. Light houses were built to warn sailors of the dangerous rocks but when the seas toss you like a toothpick there is not a lot you can do. From 1909 to 1916 crews worked from Spring to Fall digging a narrow canal between Buzzards Bay to the Cape Cod Bay. Boulders left by Glaciers had to be destroyed by explosions before dredging could continue, and when it opened it was wound in such away accidents were common,  and it ruined the reputation. By 1918 the US Army Core of Engineers took over it, dredged it to a deeper point, purchased it in 1920 and worked to widen it from 100 feet to 480 feet. It shortened the trade route from Boston to New York by 64 miles and was a lot safer.

So here is to trade routes that bring us cloth, food, and seeds. To a free trading economy,  and the hope of safety from pirates. Happy 100 years to the Cape Cod Canal.

Designing Comfort

I have a love hate relationship when it comes to making clothes. I love to knit, sew and so on but I hate cutting out and figuring out patterns. I hate doing the math, following directions, altering, and everything in that category.  I prefer to go by gut or eye. That is why I have the largest hand knitted sweater in the world in my closet and and nothing I knit or make comes out the same way twice. It is also why most of my clothes look a lot alike. I find a pattern I like and use it over and over again.

(My own designs, my first and second attempt)

Now patterns as we know them today start to be made just after the invention of the sewing machine. In fact the first official patterns were put out by a man in 1863 named Ebenezer Butterwick. Before that directions were put in magazines and before that housewives went by trying to copy fashion plates. Now some of my pieces were done by drafting from a pattern, I alter here, rethink a pleat or seam there, cry, rethink my process and something comes out eventually. Some I drape on my dress form, a flower on the shoulder, an elastic to gather under the chest and yippee. Some I go by sight I cast on a row knit a few inches and see it is too big, tear it out, recast find it is too small, tear it out again, along with some of my hair and try again.

Some patterns are handed down, taught as they taught you to knit or sew. As children my cousins and I all had three things in common. The first was our christening bonnets,  made by our Grandma B using techniques she learned from her mom. When I was in high school I memorized the pattern to recreate it for future generations.  The second was our Christmas stockings. Each as different from the next with our name, date of birth and some figures again made by hand by Grandma B. The third was baby booties, and mittens knitted for each of us by Grandma G. My cousin has worked to recreate the knitted pieces down to every detailed stitch.

Now I said I have a love/hate relationship with patterns but I have to say that whether I use a pattern or not, I always love what comes out. Now matter how big, or wonky it comes out. It is almost magic how the cloth or yarn forms this shape out of the material.

The images above are categorized by pattern I designed, altered and made. Shows how changing cloth, seam and a stitch can change a look.

Making old new again

Since I admitted to my scissor collection, then maybe I should spill on my fiber stash. Now maybe after reading this you might think me a little nuts but I assure you it is perfectly healthy and I am not at the stage of hidding it in random places. I have two tubs of cloth, three tubs and one basket of yarn, one laundry basket and one bag of spinning wool and silk and a small box of tatting and bobbin lace thread. I have put a stop sign in my stash saying no more till I use up half but mind you most were bought with gift cards and given when someone I knew was cleaning out their stashes.

Now I know there are many knitters and sewers out there thinking, "Oh! That's nothing." I know some who pride themselves on their ability to not only hide their stashes from the husband or children but also themselves. This kind of stashing is new though. When cleaning out my Grandmother's stash we found two bolts of cloth, two balls of yarn and 4 spools of tatting thread. She had more sewing machines, tatting shuttles, and accessories then she had of materials. I threw out about 100 spools of thread only keeping the ones on wooden spools. Today materials are so cheep we go to the store buy enough for four different projects and maybe do one. I myself am guilty on this charge.

Up until the 1950s cloth was not cheap though. One of the most expensive things you would own was your clothing. Today people have walk in closet filled with clothes, shoes and accessories but even before the 1950s you might have one dresser or chest that might equal to 5-10 changes of clothes. It was one reason undergarments were so important,  they protected you outer clothes from your body and were usually linen or cotton, the cheapest cloth.

Cloth was so precious you only bought what you needed or purchased enough until the next supply shipment. You took what you had and made it stretch by patching and darning it till some were more repairs the origional cloth.  Eventually it would become something new, old petticoats became under petticoats,  coats became vests, shirts made into towels, an old woolen suit became a braided rug, scraps were sewn into dolls/poppets and the list goes on. The perfect lasting example of this is quilts. One cloth came from a dress, another a shirt, and the batting an old quilt worn by love and age but still useful if you put a new cover on it.

It is one reason that it is difficult to find samples of garments from the poor and middle classes through the years, they were well loved and well worn until they couldn't be used for nothing but rags. So here's to the old, here's to the new and here's to the thrifty housewife with here needle and thread.

The deafening sounds of cloth

Woven cloth, like that shirt you're wearing now or those pants, dates back to when men were fastening tools from rocks. That's right 2.5 million years ago in the Paleolithic Age someone though hey if I take this fiber and face it in rows towards me, today called warping threads, and then take these ones and move them in between these ones, referred today as the wafting thread,  I create on big piece of fabric.

Wall looms, table looms, floor looms, card looms, and the list goes on created cloths distinctive to the eras, cultures, families, and fibers that created them. In some areas flax becoming linen was popular,  wool rule the economy in others, cotton became king not only in the South but also in the 1800s, and where silk is concerned it has not only been a rich expensive cloth but is very distinctive cloth to a culture, era, and creature that makes them.

In the earliest days of cloth leather was cheap. Partly because it was so easy to make compared to the steps needed to make woven or knitted cloth and partly because animals was available around the word. After that it would depend on your location the resources around you. In England and most of Europe linen and wool were cheapest, in China silk, in India cotton, and so on. eventually the cloth is going to depend not on the labor though but the actual cost of making the fabric. Buy 1800's cloth moves from a male trade and hand woven into the industrial era.

   
At the front of this era is England. Shortly after that the United States in Lowell, Massachusetts. As the sound of the industrial era begins, and the sight of the mill girls arrives and talk on the streets is cheap cloth. Cotton cloth, wool cloth, linen cloth and other natural fibers become cheaper as it is moved from hand woven cloth to industrial machines. At the center of this is Lowell,  and a good percent of town near rivers in Massachusetts.

So here's to cloth, the traditions behind it, the meanings, the colors and the protection it provides.

bing, bang, boom.

Most of my days are filled with 17th century history, fabric, food, and TV but now and then I get to look into other bits of history. Today is one of those days. It is a day of Independence in the US.  1776 was a turning point in history. For months afterwards the Declaration of Independence would be read across the thirteen colonies. Even more note worthy would be the snowball effect it would cause around the world for centuries to come.

Back at home though it would change something in the home. Prior to this even the poorest would buy used ready made clothes but in a move to define the 13 colonies textiles, which were already in the midst of changing, were becoming more and more a home task.  Spinning wheels, looms, swifts, knitting needles and sewing tools appear more and more in inventories of household wills. This is still nothing across the board mind you but it is on the rise even in the cities.

Ideas on fashion would come on little poppets/dolls and in drawings and prints called fashion plates (a form used into the early 20th century).   The housewife or young girl would then spend hours recreating the look. She could by the cloth and trim at the dry goods or general store, in some occasions the house wife would dye and weave the cloth herself.

Through the centuries fiber arts would continue to change with new technologies,  techniques,  ideas and changing of the centuries it would continue to change and will continue to. I wonder how women in the home and fiber arts will change even in the next 20.

Happy Forth of July from the Historic Stitcher!