Colonists and the Colony

Current articles in this section:

1. The Mayflower Compact

2. The "Pilgrims" as People

3. "Stitches in Time: Sewing in Plymouth Colony"

4. Residents of Plymouth According to the 1627 Division of Cattle

5. Timeline of Plymouth Colony 1620-1692

Sewing in Plymouth Colony

by Karin Goldstein, Curator of Original Collections

While wealthy citizens in 17th-century England (and later, Boston) could buy garments made by professional tailors and seamstress, most women were in charge of mending and maintaining their families’ garments. According to Thomas Tusser’s Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie, (1604), “Though Ladies may rend and buy new every day, good housewives must mend and buy new as they may.”

Cloth for garments was imported during the early years of Plymouth Colony. There is little or no evidence of cloth-making tools, like looms or spinning wheels, until the 1640s or so. While “homemade” cloth appears in probate inventories from the second half of the 17th century, fine wools continued to be imported. Lead cloth seals, which were pinched to the end of a bolt of cloth to signify that the cloth had been inspected by the guild, are material evidence of these imports. A lead seal dating to the 1630s, excavated from the RM site on Plimoth Plantation property, is stamped with the Saint Andrew’s cross, a symbol of London. Other cloth seals from local 17th-century sites include one with a fleur-de-lis mark, suggesting trade with France.

Iron scissors for cutting cloth have been uncovered from Plymouth Colony archaeological sites. Long-bladed shears excavated from the RM Site in Plymouth were probably used for cutting cloth. Fragments of several small scissors were excavated from the Winslow Site in Marshfield, MA. These may have been used for smaller projects like mending or embroidery.

Once the cloth was cut, women used steel needles to sew seams. While no obvious needles were found on local sites, they are difficult to recognize, as the eyes break off. An awl was found at the Winslow Site. According to Jill Hall, Manager of Costume and Textiles, awls can be used to punch holes for eyelets, such as are found on the back of women’s stays (corsets).

Pins were used both for sewing and for holding clothes together. “Accessories like collars and cuffs were pinned on,” said Hall. Pins, made of brass or iron, are often found at colonial sites. Each pin was hand made of drawn wire, with wire wound around the top to make the head. It is possible that pins and needles were made in nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony, as there is evidence of wire drawing at the Jencks blacksmith shop at Saugus Ironworks, ca. 1647.

Needles and pins were often kept in small cases, made of ivory, bone or wood, as seen in the turned bone example recovered from the Winslow Site. Costume historians speculate that women used needlecases to keep their pins and needles, as these were proportionally more expensive then than today. The cases also kept pins and needles from rusting.

Clothing could be fastened in many other ways, some of which we still use today. Small buttons measuring about one cm. in diameter were commonly used to fasten the front of a man’s doublet or woman’s waistcoat. Buttons were made of metals like pewter, cast into disks or dome shapes with loops inserted on the back.

Hooks and eyes were also used to fasten clothing. The waistband of a woman’s skirt or man’s hose might be fastened with hooks, like those made of iron that were found at the Winslow Site.

Ribbons, known as points, were another method of tying together parts of a garment, like a man’s doublet to his hose. The ribbon or lace end of the point was often wrapped in a metal tube, known as an aglet, to make threading the ribbon easier. An aglet is similar in function to the end of a shoelace. Brass aglets were recovered from the Winslow Site, and an unusual iron aglet, which may originally have been plated, was found at the Allerton Site in Kingston, MA.

These colonial artifacts help us date sites, as styles and technology changed over time. Small dome-shaped buttons were used throughout the 17th century, but gradually fell from favor as larger, disk-shaped buttons came in style in the 18th century. Aglets, too, went out of fashion by the end of the 17th century. While pins continue in use to the present day, technological advances in the mid 18th century mechanized their production.

Stone scrapers and bone awls, iron scissors and brass pins—these artifacts are commonly found on local sites. They do more than just shed light on domestic life. They give voice to the often anonymous women who made and mended clothing for their families long ago.

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