Sewing for the Home
Linens were made at home until well into the nineteenth century. Before factories could weave linen and cotton the width of a sheet, women had to sew widths of linen to make sheets and larger tablecloths. A bed’s linens consisted of two sheets, two pillowcases, sometimes a bolster cover, blankets. In the 18th and early nineteenth century, beds usually had bed curtains. (Quilts, unquilted bedspreads, and woven coverlets are not included in this definition of basic bed linens.) In most households, the women of the house sewed all these. Seamstresses could be hired (or enslaved seamstresses ordered) to do “plain sewing,” and upholsterers could be commissioned for bed curtains and fancier bedspreads, but for the most part, American women could expect to sew the dozens of bed and table linens that were needed in their households.
Linen pillowcase, 1800–1830, gift of Alma Lott Fricke, 85.12.3
Checked linen napkin, early 19th century, gift of Helen Plumb Thomas, 92.247
Cotton Grain Bag, 1838, 2022.18.3
Linen sheet, 1800–1830, gift of Alma Lott Fricke, 85.12.2
Linen tablecloth, early 19th century, gift of Marguerite Rosbach Marshall, 80.40.1
Linen “show” towel, 1820, Pennsylvania, gift of Emily B. Ford, 62.213