The pioneer woman made the clothes for her family. It was a lot of work. It took many steps. This meant sewing of the clothing, the weaving of cloth, the spinning of yarn, and the raising of wool or flax. In the home of the pioneers, the spinning wheel, loom, dye pots, and quilting frames could be found.

Before one could start the spinning, the wool of the sheep had to be cut off. The wool was then washed. It took several steps to get the wool ready for spinning.

Besides woo1 the fibers of flax plants could be used. The cloth made from flax was called linen. The pioneer family grew flax plants. The fiber in the stalk of the flax plant was used for spinning. It was removed by breaking the tough bark. Flax breaking was work for the men. Like wool, it took many steps to get the flax fibers ready to be spun.

A big task before the spinning was carding the wool. This was usually a job for the grandmother and children. Carding would remove the dust particles from the wool. It would also straighten the wool fibers so they could be spun easily. It is said that it took two days of carding to prepare enough wool for one day of spinning.

The spinning wheel had its special place near the fireplace when it was being used. The pioneer woman or her daughter did the spinning. They used either the big wool wheel or the small flax wheel.

When using the big wool wheel, the spinner stood as she worked. She walked backwards. She pulled out the wool fibers and turned the wheel to make yarn. From time to time, she walked forward. The yarn would wind on the spindle as she turned the wheel in the other direction.

The small spinning wheel was called a flax wheel. It was invented after the big wheel. The spinner could sit down and do her spinning. Both wool and flax could be spun on this wheel. Spinning is just the twisting of fibers into yarn. It took a lot of practice not to get thick or thin spots in the yarn.

Women often got together to do their spinning. This became a fun event. They could talk and sing while their hands worked. At times, the spinner would have to unwind the yarn from the spindle. She put this yarn onto a handmade clock reel or niddy-noddy. This also let the spinner know how long the yarn was. Different lengths were called by names like a skein. Six skeins was a good days work. The spinner had walked miles, half of them backwards.

Taking the spun yarn and making cloth was the next task. This was called weaving. Most of this weaving was done at home on a barn loom. The barn loom was very big. It was tall and took up more floor space than a double bed. The pioneers often built their own loom.

How did they do the weaving? The weaver would raise and lower different threads and pass a shuttle with another thread between them. Then the weaver could swing the heavy beater toward her. This comb-like reed beater would be bumped against the new thread from the shuttle. This would pack it into place making cloth. Women generally did weaving but men would also help.

This American homespun cloth had fresh colors and simple designs. The pioneer wife made her own colors. Dye colors came from the bark, roots, flowers or other parts of plants or trees. These plants might grow in the garden or come from the fields and forests. The yarn was often dyed before it was woven. This way there could be more than one color in the woven cloth.

Common things used as dyes were walnut hulls, sassafras roots, sycamore bark, sumac berries, broomsedge, wild aster flowers, onion skins, indigo and madder. For example, brown color came from walnuts. Yellow colors from the petals of asters. The indigo made blue. Madder roots made red. Green was a hard-color to-get.

Most cloth was made from wool, flax or cotton. The hides of deer and other animals were also used to make clothing. There was no exact recipe for tanning leather. Wood ashes and lime were put on the hides. This helped to remove the hair as it was scraped. The hides were then put in a tanning vat. This was usually a hollowed-out 1og of a poplar tree. Layers of oak bark chips were put on top and under the hide. The hides would be left in this vat for weeks or months. This made the leather useable as cloth, which could be sewn. The cloth would now last a long time and not rot easily. Besides clothing, the shoes or moccasins were made from home tanned leather.

Most early pioneers did not have many clothes. It took a lot of work and a long time to make them. The extra clothing of the pioneer family hung from pegs in their log home. Sometimes the family owned a piece of furniture called a clothes press. This was a wooden closet.

Their clothes got dirty and were washed. Washing, like most household tasks was a big job. The soiled clothes were first boiled in a large kettle with handmade soap. They were then hammered on the early washboard, or on stones of the stream bank.

In order to make soap, the ash hopper was filled with ashes from the fireplace. Then, water was poured into the hopper. The liquid that came out at the bottom of the hopper was lye. Lye was added to old fat and boiled in an iron kettle to make soap.

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