TEXTILES & WEAVING

Look at the clothes you’re wearing and imagine what it would be like not only to sew each garment but also to grow the flax or raise the wool, card and spin the fibers, dye them and weave the cloth—all before the first seam is stitched. Such was life for some colonists in households large enough to produce their own cloth.

On plantations around Williamsburg, the backbreaking work of growing, combing and spinning flax into linen for weaving usually fell on slaves or domestic servants. Once spun, the fiber was often bleached or dyed in steaming vats of pigment made from organic materials such as walnut hulls, apple bark, indigo plant and madder root. The richly colored fibers were then strung in complicated arrangements on a wooden loom, and the weaving process could begin.

Today weavers working at Colonial Williamsburg’s Wythe Lumber House practice the craft just as it was done nearly 250 years ago. The fine homespun product of their talent mirrors the artistry of both the professional weaver and the humble plantation servant from days gone by.

For inquiries or purchases please contact Prentis Store at 757-229-1000, Extension 2117 or prentis@cwf.org.