The Story of Markham - Pioneer Kids: Clothing

Keeping warm with wool

Sheep’s wool was used to make most of the clothing in our pioneer home. First, the sheep had to be sheared, which involved using hand-held shears to remove the wool from the sheep. Then the wool was washed to remove dirt and bits of debris. Then the wool had to be sorted to pull out the parts that were too coarse to make into yarn. The coarser parts were saved to make ‘batting’ or padding for quilts. Next, the wool had to be carded to make all the fleece go in the same direction. This was done by using two paddles, called “carders”, which had teeth like a comb. Once the wool was carded it was time to dye it.

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

We could get many different colours from plants, such as the leaves of dandelions or rhubarb, and other plants such as golden rod. Dyes had to be “fast”, meaning that the colour wouldn’t wash out. After dyeing, the wool was

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

ready to be spun into yarn on a spinning wheel. The wheel we used was called a “walking wheel” because the person using it had to walk back and forth, turning a large wheel with one hand while guiding the yarn with the other. Once enough wool had been spun into yarn, it was time to measure it on a “winding wheel”. This measured 40 metres of yarn which was called a “skein”. Finally we were ready to make scarves, shawls, bonnets or warm clothes.

Clothing worn by children looked very similar to the clothes worn by our parents. Fabric for making clothes took so much time and effort to make that we had to get as much use out of it as possible. Grandmother sewed and knitted almost constantly, mending clothing that was becoming worn. She used the expression “a stitch in time saves nine”, which meant if a hole was fixed when it was small, it wouldn’t get any bigger and require even more time to fix.

Clothes for Girls

If Mother had a dress that was too worn-out to wear any longer, she would pick out the stitching and save the good pieces of the fabric to make a dress for one of the girls of the family. The girl’s new dress would look much the same as the original one worn by Mother, except it would be shorter in length to prevent the younger girl from tripping.

Markham Museum
and Historic Village

Clothes for Boys

Until they were about five years old, boys were dressed no differently than their sisters. Baby boys and baby girls both wore dresses with pinafores to keep their dresses clean.

Once a boy reached the age of five or six, he would wear smaller versions of

Markham Museum
and Historic Village

his father’s clothing, complete with shirt, vest, coat, hat and pants.

Pieces of clothing were always passed down from the older children to the younger ones in the family. With the coming of summer, shoes were abandoned in favour of bare feet.

Shoes from a Traveler

For a long time, my brother and I shared a pair of boots when we went out to do our chores. The soles of the boots had to be replaced several times with new leather. We took good care of them, because they were the only shoes we owned. As quickly as we had grown into them, we grew out of them, so it became necessary to call upon the traveling cobbler. The cobbler journeyed around the countryside stopping at each farm to see if there was any work to be done. When he came upon a homestead where his
services were needed, he might stay with the

Photo Courtesy
Black Creek Pioneer Village

family for a day or two, mending broken soles or making new shoes and boots from rolls of leather. He worked at his workbench, by the light of the fire, cutting, piercing holes, and stitching, all the while delighting us children with stories of his travels.