1    

Use and Care of Clothing Issue: Women

Smock or Shift

The basic undergarment for women in the early 17th century is a smock or shift. Both terms are used interchangeably for the first quarter of the century, ‘smock’ being the more common term found in probate inventories. Women’s smocks were made of linen and could range in weight from the finer ‘Holland’ to a heavier hemp cloth. In the 1628 probate inventory of John Uttinge, chapman (a merchant or trader of goods), Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Holland is listed at 18p, 20p, 21p and 22p per yard. 1 One smock uses approximately 2 ½ yards of linen averaging 50p per garment. Smocks are loose fitting garments made by seamstresses, women whose occupation is plain sewing, or by housewives for their families. Variations in style and neckline can be seen in the extant smocks below. (a-c)

a b c

Outer garments were generally made of wool and more difficult to launder while the linen smock could be washed to keep the bodily dirt and odor away from the outer garments. Often women would wear a ‘fresh’ smock, which did not necessarily mean a washed one, but one which had been aired.

“….shifting or changing undergarments, constituted the “dry wash”. While necessary to health, this dry cleanliness also measured civility and good manners. Fresh linen was a sign of a refined and disciplined body…”2                                                                                                                          a  Woman’s  linen  smock,  c.  1620-­‐30,  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum.  b  Woman’s  linen  smock,  c.  1605-­‐15,  Wadham  College,  Oxford.  c  Woman’s  linen  smock,  c.  1550-­‐80,  Gallery  of  Costume,  Platt  Hall,  Manchester  City  Galleries.  

2    

Gervase Markham’s advice to homemakers reiterates the use of linen undergarments:

“….she ought to cloth them outwardly and inwardly, outwardly for defence from the cold and comeliness to the person, and inwardly for cleanliness and neatness of the skin, Whereby it may be kept from filth of sweat, or vermin, The first consisting of woolen cloth, The later linen.”3

The smock or shift is worn under all garments and should be tied at the neck while walking through town, sitting, eating, etc. Smocks are sometimes seen untied in images of women while cooking, milking or while engaged in other types of physical labor. Please use this as a guide for your daily dress.

The value of linen undergarments in the 17th century is fairly high. In the Trelawny Papers of 1634, Invoices and Accounts, the cost of 12 shirts was 2 pounds, 12 shillings with the average wage being 6-10 pounds per year. In modern day the replacement value of one smock is approximately $250.00. Please keep your linen smock laundered and in good repair and send up any mends when they are small and can be fixed.

Smocks can be machine washed and dried, however linen is best preserved when line dried. Wash with commercial unscented laundry detergent using spot stain cleaners such as Oxy-Clean or Shout when needed, usually on the inside of the neckband and cuffs. Please do not use chlorine bleach as repeated use of bleach weakens and deteriorates the fabric.

Partlet

Partlets are linen collars which have a front and back yoke or bodice piece. They are worn with a collarless smock, pinned or tucked into the bodies (or upper portion) of your petticoat and usually made of a very fine cambric linen. In the text of The French Garden of 1605 cambric is offered for sale at 20 shilling per ell, considerably more expensive than the Holland used for smocks and shirts. 4 It was common practice in the 17th century to use cheaper, coarser linen for the unseen smock while a fine linen was used for the visible partlet, which took very little fabric.

3    

                                               d                e  

Partlets could and can be washed separately from the smock. Please wash by hand or machine with in warm water with unscented detergent and machine or line dry.

Bumrolls

A word about bumrolls. The full-hipped look of the 17th century is most prominent in portraiture of upper-class women, who wore very full, cartridge-pleated petticoats along with the bumroll as an underpinning. Researchers of period women’s costume have not found any references to the ownership of bumrolls by common women, although it is noted that they have been mentioned in upper class account books.5In genre paintings depicting middling class women, the fullness in the hip area is due to the woolen fabric and pleating of the petticoat skirt. Considering all evidence, we will issue only a few bumrolls according to status. Please only wear a bumroll if you are issued one.

Body, Bodies or Petticoat-Body

There is much discussion amongst costume historians on the meaning of bodies, stays and petticoat. In the 15th and 16th centuries, “petticoat” referred to the garment worn by men under their doublet for warmth, meaning “ little-coat”, covering the torso to the waist. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, a petticoat became a woman’s one piece garment: the bodice, or “bodies”, attached to a skirt with ties or hooks, with the bodies laced at the front or side with or without skirts (small tabs around the waist). (f-j)

                                                                                                                         d  Louise  Moillon,  The  Fruit  Seller,  c.  1628-­‐30,  detail.  e  Woman’s  linen  partlet,  c.  1630-­‐40,  Gallery  of  Costume,  Platt  Hall,  Manchester  City  Galleries.  

4    

f g h

The petticoat as a woman’s one piece garment could have been inspired by the French “gonelle”, which Randle Cotgrave in 1611 defines as “a whole petticoat; the bodies, and skirts being [joined] together”.6

Petticoats referenced in the Essex Wills of 1599 certainly indicate that the “body” was the upper garment of the petticoat.

“ a russet petticoat with half sleeves” (indicates an upper body), “ a russet petticoat with a canvas upperbody”, “my new russet petticoat with the fustian body”, “petticoat with black upper body”7

i j

                                                                                                                         f    Detail  of  17th-­‐century  painting,  unknown.  g  Hofnagel,  Wedding  Feast  at  Bermondsey,  c.  1569,  detail.  h  Cornelis  Bega,  Grace  before  Meat,  c.  1653,  detail.  i  Late  16thc  woodcut  j  Early  17th-­‐century  woman  washing  in  a  courtyard,  detail.  

5    

Petticoat skirts that were indeed separate from their bodies were mentioned as such, as in the will of Anna Smith of Bedfordshire 1619 listing “5 petticoat skirts”.8

A great deal of variation exists, dependent upon class and region. Bodies of middling class women were made of canvas, buckram or sackcloth, stiffened either with extra layers of canvas or bents (reeds), often in the same color as the skirt of the wool petticoat. Bodies made of leather, inexpensive and durable, as well as silk, expensive and reserved for the gentry, were also recorded. “French bodies” refered to bodies that were stiffened with whalebone or bents (reeds) whalebone being considerably more expensive than bents and unaffordable to most ordinary women. In 1591 whalebone for a pair of bodies cost 6d-8d, while enough bents for a pair were priced at 2d.9

Oakes and Hill in Rural Costume state that this “rigidly boned and elaborate corset bodice was not adopted by countrywomen” but with “second hand clothing countrywomen had a chance of sampling fashion”.10 James I passed a law in which maids were to have no bodice of “wire, whalebone, or other stiffening save canvas or buckrum only”.11 “Stay” or “stays” refer to the actual stiffener used in bodies of the upper class, not the garment itself. Please refer to your upper garment as “body” or “petticoat-body”.

Your bodies can be machine or hand washed and line dried.

Petticoat Skirt

The skirt of the petticoat is almost without exception made of wool. The rectangle of wool cloth is either cartridge- or flat-pleated into the waist, secured and tied with a tape or braid. Our use of waistbands and hooks is a modern compromise for the ease of altering sizes. Cartridge pleating is found mainly on the very full petticoat skirts of the upper classes, while flat-pleated and gored skirts (narrowly cut rectangles in which triangular gussets are inserted to increase width at the bottom edge) are found on women of all classes.

The question of ‘under-petticoats’ and what they were made of is a bit unclear. A few inventories of middling class women of the period mention ‘smock petticoats’ and ‘smock skirts’, possibly referring to an under petticoat made of linen. In the

6    

Hereford Household Accounts “17 yards of white flannel to make under-petticoats for the three young ladies” was purchased, recording evidence of wool under-petticoats being worn. Kiechet, a visitor to England in 1585, described English women as wearing “three cloth gowns or petticoats, one over the other”, indicating multiple petticoats.12 Lower station women should wear one for warmer weather, two in the colder months; higher station women wearing one to three, also depending on the weather.

The length of petticoats range from just below the calf (lower class/servants) to ankle length. Please hike up your petticoat skirt and tuck it into your girdle if you are in the fields, milking, etc.(n, o).Please mind the fire with both your petticoat and apron.

k l

Petticoat skirts are 100% wool and are dry clean only. We will dry clean at the end of the season unless there is a need (stain,etc). Please let us know and we can determine whether it needs to be sent out.

Waistcoat, Wool

The garment known to us as a waistcoat has a variety of definitions in the 17th century. The OED defines waistcoat as “a garment covering the upper body”, “a garment forming part of ordinary male attire worn under an outer garment                                                                                                                          k  Late  16th-­‐early  17th  century  women  washing,  detail.  l  Attributed  to  Sebastian  Vranckz  (1573-­‐1647),  Gardners  at  Work  in  a  Formal  Garden,  detail.  

7    

(doublet)” as well as a knit version: a garment “usually of knitted wool worn chiefly for additional warmth”.

Randall Holmes’ definition most resembles the garment we have come to call waistcoat as “…the outside of a gown worn without either stays or bodies fastened to it; It is an habit or Garment worn by the middling and lower sort of women, having gored skirts, and some wear them with stomachers.”13 In period probate inventories and wills we find a yeoman’s wife who owns a “lynnone wastcote” and a moderately well-off widow owning “2 old waistcoats”.14

Heavily embroidered linen waistcoats were worn by women of high station , often see in portraits, worn under an outer gown.(k)

m n o

Two basic styles of waistcoat appear in period images. The flared, gored style with gussets is often embroidered, while the doublet style waistcoat is usually plain. We represent both the flared and doublet style, however both are plain and unadorned to reflect the status women in the colony (l,m).

Waistcoats are worn over your smock and canvas bodies and should be worn at all times when walking about town and while doing light work such as sewing. If you are baking, cleaning fish or scrubbing pots, please either roll up the sleeves of your waistcoat or wear skoggers. If you are issued a canvas body, you may take off                                                                                                                          m  Marcus  Gheeraerts  II,  Portrait  of  Margaret  Layton,  c.  1620.  n  DeMomper  with  Brueghel  the  Elder,  Flemish  Market  and  Washing-­‐Place,  1620-­‐1622,  detail.  o  Van  de  Venne,  Album  #19,  Four  Women  and  a  Dog,  c.  1626,  detail.  

8    

your waistcoat while you are doing heavy, physical work (raking, milking, etc) and lay it aside. As soon as you are done working, tie your smock, roll down your sleeves and put your waistcoat back on. Please use this as an opportunity for interpreting the use of clothing and the task at hand. Never walk around town without a waistcoat or loose gown if you are issued one.

Please wear your waistcoat outside your petticoat; there is only one image we find that shows a waistcoat tucked in- the portrait of Margaret Layton wearing an embroidered waistcoat. The confusion may have come from images of women wearing doublet style waistcoats, which end at the waist and might be interpreted as tucked, however this is another style of waistcoat entirely.

Wool waistcoats of either style are made from 100% wool and are dry clean only. At the end of the season all wool will be dry cleaned, however if there are extenuating circumstances (spill, special event, etc.) please let us know and we can determine whether it needs to be sent to the dry cleaner mid-season.

Waistcoat, Canvas or Linen

Please refer to the general information on waistcoats in the above section on ‘waistcoats, wool”.

Linen for clothing in the 17th century was most often used for undergarments such as smocks and shirts. We tend to over-represent linen outer garments both for lack of available fine wool and for the comfort of interpreters in the hot summer months.

Your linen waistcoat is the lightest outer garment and can be worn in the hottest months. Canvas, a heavy weight linen or hemp cloth is used for mid-weight waistcoats. Canvas is often seen in inventories as the common cloth used for men’s suits.

Linen and canvas waistcoats can be machine washed in warm water and line dried. Please keep your linen and canvas waistcoats reasonably clean and protect them when you are doing messy work (for how and when to wear, see above, waistcoats, wool).  

9    

Aprons

Women’s aprons are made from fine or medium weight linen. Two styles are evident in images from the 17th century. Portraits of upper-class women usually show full, fine white aprons tied at the waist with a drawstring (p).Often, folds pressed in the apron are visible. Women of the middling and lower classes are also seen with narrower aprons of natural, colored (listed examples are black, brown, green, ash colour, medley) or white linen. Linen for aprons was woven no greater than ¾ ell wide (or about 36”) therefore you may have a much narrower apron than previously issued. These are simply rectangles of cloth tucked into the waist, pinned or tied with tape with each top corner hanging to the side (q,r). Whether full, narrow, white or colored, aprons are seen universally throughout woodcuts, portraiture and genre paintings on all women of all classes.

p q r

Clothing in the 17th century was a valuable commodity and woolen garments such as petticoats were protected by the linen apron, which was much easier to launder. Please use this 17th-century attitude in your daily work to protect your clothing and to better interpret daily life.

                                                                                                                         p    q  Hofnagel,  A  Visit  to  the  Midwife,c.  1588,  detail.  r  Hendrick  Avercamp,  Countryfolk  with  a  Sledge  on  the  Ice,  early  17th  century,  detail.  

10    

Aprons can be machine washed in hot water using standard laundry detergent. Soaking in a stain-release agent, such as Oxy-clean, helps to get the tougher stains out. Keeping your aprons as clean as you can is both period correct and helpful in preventing the fabric from deteriorating. Aprons can be machine or line dried.

Stockings, Wool Knit

Until the later part of the 16th century, sewn cloth stockings were far more common than knitted ones. Knitted stockings of wool, silk, and linen were imported from Spain and Italy, silk stockings were the most expensive to purchase. Silk stockings in the London Port book of 1598 imported from Spain were recorded at 4 pounds per pair in comparison to a pair of wool knit stockings at 5 pence.15

By the 1570s, knitting schools began opening in wool textile producing areas, however knitting remained a cottage industry in England and was the livelihood of a large number of country folk and a supplemental source of income until the late 16th century. In the first half of the 17th century, the knitting industry had grown and England was producing approximately 9-11 million pairs of stockings annually, a large percentage of which were exported to the American colonies.16

Interpret your stockings as having either been brought with you or purchased by the company. There is no evidence of knitting pins or fleece for spinning (there is record of fleece sent to be used in bedding) coming to Plimoth Colony between 1620-27. We can make the call that it is possible for someone to have brought knitting pins over, but without fleece to spin into yarn, any knitting done in the village should be mending only. Knitting on Mayflower II is more probable as someone may have brought knitting on board for the voyage over.

Our stockings are knit by members of the Plimoth Knitters using a 17th-century reproduction pattern designed by the Weaver’s Guild of Boston in collaboration with Plimoth Plantation. Most are knit from commercially-spun and dyed yarn but a few pairs have been hand-spun. A pair of hand-knit stockings takes 40 hours to knit and including the cost of yarn have a replacement value of $360.00, based on a minimum wage. Please send your stockings up for repair as soon as you notice any holes or wear.

11    

Stockings can be worn alone or over your cotton stockings, secured with garters tied in a bow under your knee.

The knit stockings in your issue are 100% wool and must be hand washed in cool water and line dried using a gentle detergent meant for hand washables such as Woolite.

Scogger, skogger

The OED defines scogger as “a footless stocking, or knitted article of similar form, worn either as a gaiter or as a sleeve to protect the arm..”. Please wear scoggers to protect your clothing from dirty, messy work (s,t).

s t

Knit scoggers can be machine washed in cold water and line dried.

Garters

Garters are narrow knit or woven bands tied under the knee and over the stockings. These can be made of wool, linen or silk.

Garters can be machine washed and line dried.

Pockets

Pockets or purses in the 17th century come in many different sizes and shapes and a variety of materials. They range from heavily embroidered silk shaped purses to our reproduction of the purse found in the Gunnister dig, a relatively plain wool

                                                                                                                         s  Hofnagel,  Engraving  of  Nonesuch  Palace,  1582,  detail.    t  Woman  Combing,  c.  1648,  detail.  

12    

knit. Pockets were meant to hold coins and other small items, and hung by a tape or braid from a girdle.

Pockets in your issue are made from 100% wool, unless otherwise noted (there are a few silk) and can be hand washed and line dried.

Girdles

The OED defines girdle as “a belt worn round the waist to secure or confine the garments; also employed as a means of carrying light articles, esp. a weapon or purse”. Girdles can be made of leather, woven wool or silk tape, or a heavily embroidered band. In the 17th century they are a method of carrying small accessories such as pockets, weapons, keys, etc. not as a means of holding up garments of clothing as in modern day. As of now, most of our girdles are leather with reproduction brass buckles.

Although it is not necessary to clean your leather girdle, a coat of mink oil occasionally will prevent the leather from drying and cracking.

Mittens and Gloves

Mittens and gloves could be made from wool or silk in a plain or patterned knit. Leather gloves and mittens were also worn, plain or with embroidered gauntlets. Our mittens are 100% wool and reproduced from a 17th-century pair in the Museum of London. Most of our gloves are also wool (with a few pairs made of silk) and are knit from a reproduction pattern taken from the glove found in the Gunnister dig.

Wash gloves and mittens by hand in cold water with a mild detergent such as Woolite and line dry.

Mufflers, or Chin-Clouts

Mufflers or ‘chin-clouts’ in the 17thc were bands of linen or wool wrapped around the lower part of the face and chin and worn as protection from the dust, wind, sun and cold: “Silena, I praie you looke homeward, it is colde aire, and you want your muffler.”17

13    

Our mufflers are made of wool and should be wrapped around the neck, chin and lower part of the face.Please do not tie them in a knot or wear ascot fashion as this is not period correct. Refer to them as mufflers and not scarves as a ‘scarf’ in the 17th century is a “broad band of silk or other material, worn (chiefly be soldiers or officials) either diagonally across the body from one shoulder to the opposite hip, or round the waist”18. Scarves for the military are often red and made of silk.

Mufflers can be machine or hand washed and line dried.

Coif

Coif in the 17th-century refers to a small linen cap, with slight regional variations dictating style (w). In England, the most common is the simple linen coif, covering the cheeks or turned back and tied under the nape of the neck. Elaborate polychrome embroidered or ‘wrought’ coifs appear in portraits of upper-class women, often with a matching triangular ‘crosse-cloth’ or ‘forehead cloth’. (u, v)

u v w

Simple monochrome, often black, embroidered coifs could be purchased from a chapman with “9 doosen and a halfe wrought Coyfes valewed at 3 lbs 12 6”

                                                                                                                         u  Linen  coif,  embroidered,  c.1600-­‐1610,  Museum  of  Costume  and  Textiles,  Nottingham.  v  Robert  Peake  the  Elder,  Portrait  of  Lady  Catherine  Constable,  1590,  detail  of  linen  coif  and  forehead  cloth.  w  Quiringh  Gerriitsz,  The  Pancake-­‐Baker,  c.1620-­‐1668,  detail.  

14    

averaging about 7.63 pence per coif.19 The inventory of Samuel Fuller(1633) lists “three wrought Coyfes”, valued at three shillings, the same value of “1 peece linen to make a kercher”, found in Mary Ring’s inventory of 1633.

While it is unlikely that very many women of Plimoth would own polychrome, gilded coifs, a few may have simple blackwork or black wrought coifs. We generally issue plain, white linen coifs.

Coifs can be machine washed in warm water and machine or line dried.

Rails and Kerchers

A rayle, rail, or kercher is simply a cloth that is used to cover the lower part of the face, head or neck to protect from the cold or sun. Lower and middling class women, servants, and elderly women are seen with rayles wrapped around their heads and knotted. Please refer to this as a rayle or kercher, not as head-rail or neck-rail.

x y z

Rails are made of linen and can be machine washed and machine or line dried.

                                                                                                                         x  Jacob  Gerritsz  Cuyp,  Fish  Market,  1627,  detail.  y  The  Cries  of  London,  early  17thc.  z    

15    

Hats, Felt

Felt hats were worn by both men and women in the early 17th century (aa). The finest felt was made from beaver fur, while less expensive felt was comprised mainly of sheep’s wool. The hair, once removed from the animal, underwent many steps involving repeated agitation until it formed a dense, pliable mat of interlocking fibers. Felt hats, which re-emerged as a fashion in Europe in the late 16th century, were prized for their warmth, water resistance, and malleability.

Felt could be fashioned into a variety of styles ranging from tall, steeple-crowned hats with short brims to wide-brimmed hats with shorter crowns. Felt hats could be dyed in a variety of colors, but were most commonly black, brown, or gray. These hats were generally dressed with silk, wool, or leather bands that were sometimes ornamented with buttons or braid. Feathers and rosettes also decorated more fashionable hats (bb).

Hats were worn over linen caps (for women) and should always be worn when out of doors. In the 17th century hats played an important function in protecting the head from the elements and were a vital component of dress for all classes.

Our felt hats are purchased from outside sources as well as made in-house. They are made of wool felt. They are intermittently stiffened with a mixture of shellac and denatured alcohol.

Please do not pinch the crown or reshape brim, especially when wet, as this will set the shape. Clean dust and surface soil by carefully brushing with a soft brush or lint remover.

aa bb

                                                                                                                         aa  Roxburghe  Ballads,  The  Duchess  of  Suffolk’s  Calamity.  bb  Esaias  Van  de  Velde,  Company  Dining  in  Open  Air,  1615,  detail.  

16    

Hats, Straw

Straw hats are predominantly seen in images of agricultural workers (cc, dd). They were not fashionable in the 17th century and were likely worn only for the practical purpose of protection from the sun in warmer weather. Little is known about their manufacture in the early 17th century.

We provide straw hats to be worn during the summer when the weather is hot. They should be worn over linen headwear.

cc dd

Coat

The ‘coat’ of the 17thc, like ‘cassock’ is a general term used to define an outer garment. Period images of what we have come to know as ‘coat’ (ee,ff) show variation in cut, length and fullness and seen on men and women. Another over garment for women in the 17thc is the loose over gown, worn over waistcoat and petticoat and tied around the waist with a girdle or woven tape.

ee ff

                                                                                                                         cc  Roxburghe  Ballads,  A  Lanthorne  for  Landlords.  dd  Pieter  Bruegel  the  Elder,  Haymaking,  1565,  detail.  

17    

Your coat is 100% wool and is dry clean only. At the end of the season all wool will be dry cleaned, however if there are extenuating circumstances (spill, special event, etc.) please let us know and we can determine whether it needs to be sent to the dry cleaner.

Gowns

Two types of women’s gowns appear in the early 17thc. Gowns with close-fitting bodices that are stitched into the petticoat, often having tabs or ‘skirts’ circling the waist, are worn over the smock and bodies in place of a separate waistcoat and petticoat (gg,hh). They are generally fastened in the front with hooks or ribbons and can be made of silk and elaborately adorned or plain wool, depending on the status of the wearer.

gg hh

The loose gown or over gown is a loose-fitting, untailored wool outer garment with either sewn in or hanging sleeves attached (ii-jj). It is often tied at the waist with a girdle of ribbon, leather or woven tape. It can be worn over a petticoat with attached canvas body, or waistcoat and petticoat for added warmth. All classes of women in the 17thc are depicted wearing loose gowns; women of higher station would have silk, adorned gowns with the over gowns for the middling class often made of frieze, a coarse, heavy, fulled wool. In the 1617 probate inventory of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ee  Hendrick  Avercamp  (1585-­‐1634),  Winter  Landscape,  detail.  ff  Hendrick  Avercamp  (1585-­‐1634),  Ice  Scene  with  a  Hunter  Showing  an  Otter,  detail.  gg  Janet  Arnold,  Patterns  of  Fashion  1560-­‐1620,(London:  MacMillan,1985),  48.      hh  Roxburghe  Ballads,  The  Cooper  of  Norfolke.  

18    

Elizabeth Bateman, a husbandman’s wife, “ on blake Frise gowne” and “too graye Fris gownes” are listed.20

ii jj

Shoes

In the 17thc all shoes were made on straight lasts, that is without a left or right turn to the shoe. Extant shoes as well as those visible in images are either “open latchet”, with holes cut on the sides (kk), or “closed latchet”, without holes cut (ll). Shoes are tied with leather thongs, linen tape or ribbon. Upper class men and women would often attach shoe ‘roses’ or ‘rosettes’ covering the ties (mm). It is doubtful that many of the colonists would be wearing shoes roses, however all would recognize them.

kk ll mm

                                                                                                                         ii  Roxburghe  Ballads,  The  Merry  Careless  Lover.  jj  John  Speed,  Theatre  of  the  Empire  of  Great  Britaine,  1614.  kk  17thc  open  latchet  shoe  ll      17thc  closed  latchet  shoe  mm  Marcus  Geeraerts,  Portrait  of  Sir  Thomas  Parker,  1620,  Saltram  (National  Trust),  detail  of  shoe  roses.  

19    

We get our shoes from a few different sources, some sewn on straight lasts and some not. There is a range of sewn shoes as well; we have completely hand sewn, partially hand and machine sewn and all machine sewn. If you have any questions about which pair you have please ask. All shoes should be interpreted as being completely hand sewn. A modern compromise to safety has been made by rubber soling all shoes. Please interpret the soles as being leather if asked.

It is vital to the preservation of your shoes to mink oil them often to keep the leather from drying and cracking. When your shoes become wet please stuff them with paper (newspaper works fine), wear your alternate pair and allow them to dry, then re-oil. This will prevent mold from setting in. If your feet are cold or wet take your shoes off before placing your feet near the fire. Extreme heat will also crack the leather of your shoes

……. A few miscellaneous notes…………………………………………………..

Pins….We have evidence that some pins were “whitened”, or coated with a layer of tin making the pin silver, as well as brass pins which are left uncoated. We will be representing both with modern silver colored (steel) pins and gold colored (brass) pins. Please use the brass pins for sewing projects and the silver pinned for pinning clothing. Interpret the silver pins as brass pins that have been “whitened”.

Sewing pillows…In researching we have found many images of women sewing with pillows on their lap, resting the sewing project on the pillow as they sew (nn-pp). We will be replacing the smaller ‘pin pillows’ with these as the season progresses.

nn oo pp

                                                                                                                         nn  Engraving  after  Johannes  Stradanus,  The  Story  of  Gracchus  and  his  Virtuous  Wife  Cornelia,  1578,  detail.  oo  Jacob  Cats,  1627,  detail.  

20    

                                                                                                                         1  Margaret  Spufford,  The  Great  Reclothing  of  Rural  England,  (London:Hambleton  press,  1984),184.  2  Susan  Vincent.  Dressing  the  Elite,  (Oxford:  Berg  press,  2003),52  3  Gervase  Markham,  The  English  Housewife  (1615),  ed.  Michael  R.  Best,  (Montreal-­‐McGuill-­‐Queen’s  University  Press,  1994),146  4  Peter  Erondell,  The  French  Garden  (1605),  ed.  Byrne,  M.  St.  Claire,  The  Elizabethan  Home,(London:  Methuen,1959).  5  Robert  Morris,  Clothes  of  the  Common  Woman  1580-­‐1660,  (Bristol:  Stuart  Press,  2000),3,  60.  6  Jane  Huggett,  Clothes  of  the  Common  Woman  1580-­‐1660,  Part  2,  (Bristol:  Stuart  Press,  2001),5.  7  Jane  E.  Huggett,  Rural  Costume  in  Elizabethan  Essex,  Costume,  The  Journal  of  the  Costume  Society,  Vol.14  (London),32-­‐40.  8  Patricia  Poppy,  Women’s  Costume  in  England  1640-­‐1655,  (London:  Patricia  Poppy,  1979).  9  Elizabeth  Stern,  Peckover  and  Gallyard,  Two  Sixteenth-­‐Century  Norfolk  Tailors,  Costume  15,  1981.  10  Alma  Oakes  and  Margaret  Hamilton  Hill,  Rural  Costume,  (New  York:Van  Nostrand  Reinhold,  1970).  11  Patricia  Poppy,  Women’s  Costume  in  England  1640-­‐1655,  (London:  Patricia  Poppy,  1979),  11.  12  Jane  Huggett,  Clothes  of  the  Common  Woman  1580-­‐1660,  Part  2,  (Bristol:  Stuart  Press,  2001),  11.  13  Randall  Holmes,  Academy  of  Armory  1688  14  Robert  Morris,  Clothes  of  the  Common  Woman  1580-­‐1660,  (Bristol:  Stuart  Press,  2000),6.  15  Joan  Thirsk,  The  Rural  Economy  of  England,  (London:  Hambledon  Press,  1984),  235-­‐257.  16  Ibid.  17  J.  Lyly  Mother  Bombie  iii.  iii.  sig.  E,  Oxford  English  Dictionary  18  Oxford  English  Dictionary  19  Margaret  Spufford,  The  Great  Reclothing  of  Rural  England,  (London:Hambledon  Press,  1984),  184.    20  Robert  Morris,  Clothes  of  the  Common  Woman  1580-­‐1660,  (Bristol:  Stuart  Press,  2000),  5.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       pp  Phillipe  Galle,  Women  Embroidering,  1612,  detail.