We all wear clothes, for warmth, protection and decency: indeed, assembling wearable outfits has been fundamental to human existence down the generations, but the ways in which we acquire dress items has changed considerably. Here we look back at the 1600s to early-1800s – the pre- and early-industrial age, when the population was mainly agrarian and our ancestors quite likely made or sold cloth or clothes, as well as using them.
Domestic textile production
Until mechanised mills and factories began large-scale manufacturing of British cotton textiles from imported raw cotton in the late-1700s, the most widely-used woven materials were linen and wool. The creation of useful fabrics from flax plants or sheep’s fleeces each involved various processes, some – like fulling (woollen cleansing and shrinking) – requiring skill and dedicated facilities, prompting the early development of organised industries in certain locations. However, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, even the 19th century in some areas, most rural households also engaged in aspects of textile production at a cottage industry level.
Traditionally women and girls would spin linen yarn from the fibres of homegrown flax (the plants grew easily in most regions), and woollen yarn from their own sheep’s fleeces, or stray tufts gathered from branches and bushes. Sometimes
