Lincoln Era, 1860-1865

This Rare Estate Collection comes from fabrics found in antique clothing from General Stores in New York City, Philadelphia, Charleston and Richmond.

The General Store was quite popular in rural areas around the country, especially during the mid-to-late 1800s. Folks depended on their local mercantile, not just for the necessities such as coffee, spices, baking powder, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, fruits and vegetables, honey and molasses, cigars and tobacco, but also for a host of other “essential” items.  Store owners tried to anticipate the needs of their customers and often extented credit or bartered for their goods.

Wrappers were the casual dresses the women wore for everyday activities. Made to suit the season in either cotton or wool, this comfortable dress was high necked with long sleeves and a free-flowing body. Less fitted than more formal dresses, the wrapper didn’t require hoops, corsets, or bustles, was easy to make, and could easily be adjusted for maternity wear. The style was practical and enduring in popularity and suited women of all ages, including young girls.

As with any dress goods, after the garment was completed, the leftover pieces went into a scrap basket, eventually joining other scraps to make quilts for the family.

We tend to think of quilts from the Civil War era as full of blues, grays, blacks - generally dark colors. These fabrics, reproduced from a quilt of the same name in the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum collections, is a cheerful exception.  Most of the fabrics in this quilt date back to 1860-1880, although RMQM believes the black ombre may have been a little earlier. The vibrant green color in the small-scale prints was obtained by an overdyeing process popular at that time. The other prints, although typical of the time period, are somewhat rare finds: the dark red with blue and brown, the double pink with machine ground, turkey red with chrome yellow, and brilliant Prussian blue. It is these beautiful fabrics that inspired Blue Hill Fabrics™ to re-create a vintage collection that would appeal to both traditionalists and contemporary quilt artists.

In the Pre-War South, almost every manufactured good was imported from the North or overseas. In fact, local and state laws pointedly discouraged manufacturing, a cause for deep concern among some Southerners as war appeared inevitable. The region’s few textile mills were small, averaging only 12-24 looms (New England mills commonly had 10 times as many), and most produced warp for home weaving, a few checks and plaids, and utility cloth for the plantation or prison on which the mills were situated.

Although "dry goods" as a term for textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries has been dated back to 1742 in England, the term was actually more popular here in the United States.  Dry Goods were usually found in stores during the Civil War specializing only in those products - consumer goods that were distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores – a type of specialty store. General Stores began to carry dry goods as well when they realized the money-making potential of the items.With fashion magazines emphasizing mourning attire,the demand for mourning veils and black yard goods increased. Not just the “fashionably attired” women were concerned with matters related to dress and textiles; dry goods had a prominent part in every sector of the war from the battlefield to the homefront.  Uniforms had a dramatic impact on the war effort. When the war broke out, state volunteer regiments on both sides marched into battle wearing an array of colorful uniforms which, although impressive to look at, resulted in great tragedies of mistaken identity.

Early Finery, c. 1845 by Roberta Benvin

Several decades subsequent to the declaration of our nation’s independence, we were still reliant upon France and Great Britain for many of our commodities, most certainly for the majority of the textiles that were available to women for their household needs. Only the affluent could afford to purchase quantities of quality material; others had to make do with smaller amounts and either cut up or recycle them to maximize their usefulness. 

"Half-way down a by-street of one of our New England towns, stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst.” Thus starts the novel The House of the Seven Gables written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1851. This historic romance, inspired by Hawthorne’s visits to family members who lived in the house, was written the year after Hawthorne penned The Scarlet Letter. This legacy is why the House of the Seven Gables Historic Landmark site exists today, celebrating its 100th Anniversary as a museum dedicated to serving the needs of the community of Salem.

Carrie's Madders, 1860-1880

Madder is a low creeping plant that will quickly cover an area of ground without a great deal of maintanence. The plant matures at fiveyears old, bearing small yellow/green flowers and berries. The berries are dark when ripe and can be used as seed stock to multiply the crop.  The part of the plant used for the dye is the tuber type root. The plant is pulled from the ground after loosening the soil, the leaves are stripped from the plant and the roots are dried out until they can be ground up into a powder and put in a pot with some water. This mixture is heated to extract the bright red dye. If a copper dye vat is used, the color will be brighter.