Textile Treasures

Early woollen textile production is closely linked to the farming seasons. People worked on the land in the summer and on narrow looms at home in the winter. During the industrial revolution this cottage industry was overtaken by large, modern mills. These mills employed thousands of people, especially in the Teifi Valley.

Working conditions were hard. People normally worked 12-hours a day, six days a week. The pay for most workers was low. And children of employees as young as 10 were expected to work too.

Although woollen goods made in South Wales were valued for their quality, the industry had its ups and downs. Government contracts for army uniform and blankets during the First World War was profitable. But the industry failed to modernise. Demand for lighter, fashionable fabrics during the 1920s and 1930s meant many mills closed.

Only a handful of Welsh woollen mills are commercially operational today. Yet the popularity of the traditional carthen and Welsh woven clothing, blankets and quilts is growing. Vintage pieces from the golden era of Welsh textile production connect deeply with the uniquely Welsh concepts of cynefin and hiraeth.

Welsh National Costume

The Welsh National Costume is based on the betgwn (bedgown), a style of dress popular across Europe in the 18th century. The distinctive Welsh variation of this dress evolved from the local materials that were available. Wool produced on nearby farms was usually processed with natural dyes, spun, woven, and sewn at home.

Although the popularity of the betgwn declined during the 19th century, it remained fashionable in Wales. With the rise of new fashions in cheaper materials brought to rural communities with the growth of the railways, the betgwn became a garment for special occasions rather than everyday wear.

Very few original Welsh dresses survive because they were worn by working women whose daily jobs damaged their clothes. Dresses were worn to rags because money was scarce and making clothes took a long time. Clothes were highly valued, and recycling was a normal part of our culture.

Most examples in museums are people’s best clothes. This example was probably worn on special occasions such as concerts or Eisteddfods.

What item of your clothing would you donate to a museum? What could it tell future generations about life today?

Dressing-up

Welsh working women’s dress started to be noticed in the early 19th Century when Romantic ideals of rural life and past customs became popular. Artists and writers encouraged tourists to experience the ‘wild’ beauty of Wales.

The Welsh National Costume was great marketing for tourism. Mass-produced postcards showed models in fake costume, posed doing traditional tasks such as spinning. Welsh dress became stylized. The eye-catching red and black bedgowns were the most popular. And the tall-crowned hats become so oversized that they no longer bore any historic accuracy.

The first eisteddfod with the Gorsedd of Bards held in Carmarthen in 1819 started a growing interest in Welsh culture. The influential Lady Llanover (1802-1896) took great interest in eisteddfodau and is often linked to promoting Welsh language and inventing, developing, and encouraging the use of National Costume.

Cross stitch and pockets

Samplers were a popular form of embroidery for almost 300 years. They started as long pieces of linen used by needleworkers to record their stitches and used like a reference pattern book.

As samplers gained wider popularity, printed pattern books were sold all over Europe. Standardised motifs such as flowers, hearts, and trees make it nearly impossible to know what country a sampler was made in by looking at it.

From the late 18th century, stitching samplers was a method used to teach children their numbers and letters. As well as the alphabet samplers usually contained a moralising verse. Even maps were embroidered in geography lessons. Not many samplers survive in the Welsh language because the sampler was one of the ways schools encouraged children to learn English.

One of the museum’s textile treasures are Mary Davis’s tie-on pockets. She crossed stitched her name in bold letters to let everyone know they were hers. Why do you think this was important for Mary? Pockets with names on them seem to be unique in Wales. That Mary’s pockets have been embroidered in the sampler style suggests that they may have been made as part of needlework training.

Quilts and blankets

These quilts were made during the hey-day of Welsh quilting between 1840-1940. The second half of the 19th Century was the first-time quilting became a craft that could earn money. Pretty printed fabric and Welsh flannel in bright bold colours were mass-produced and cheaper to buy. Quilts were sewn by hand by expert seamstresses. It was one of the few options for women to support their families whilst working from home.

Local seamstresses sewed quilts for their communities and ordering a quilt was much like buying new bedding today. In rural areas, travelling quilters moved between farms bringing news and gossip from around the neighbourhood.

Professional quilt-making declined after the First World War when women could earn better wages in other jobs. Mass-produced bedding also became a more affordable option. Between the war years, there were attempts to revive and promote traditional quilt-making with beautiful quilts made for high-end London hotels and country houses. But the initiative ended at the start of the Second World War and the occupation died out with the few skilled people who still practiced it.