Saturday 16 April 2011

Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing in the 1500's

Friday 25th February 2011 - We had a most interesting talk by Alison Coates on Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing in the 1500's. Alison came along in full costume, she can be seen here in traditional dress as a poor widow in the 1500's.
Her undergarments are made of woven, handspun linen; she has a linen smock and a linen coif on her head. This is for respectability and it also helped to protect against fleas. She explained that she is wearing undyed wool, as a poor widow in the 1500's she could not afford the dye. Only the very rich would wear bright colours like rich greens, reds and jet black.

Alison is part of a group who re-create the life in Tudor times at Kentwell in Suffolk. Her talk and slide show was very interesting and gave us a glimps into a past life.

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