In the afternoon we went to the Museum of East Anglian Life where we learned about smocks and smocking. Smocks, while used nowadays by people like painters to keep their clothes clean while they are painting canvases, etc., used to be the attire of low and middle class people. The smocking was used to create a working garment that had a lot of flexibility and give to it. The fabric was gathered by the smocking into an area that needed to be a little tighter (across the chest, for instance), and this allowed the fabric below the smocking to be more spacious for various working conditions. A person would have two smocks, one to wear everyday to protect clothes while working, and one for good occasions. Only having two, I'm not sure when the working one would ever get cleaned. What would the farmer wear while the everyday one was drying? In the summer, he's got to work everyday, milking the cows, and so on. And the smocks are made out of cotton or linen twill, a heavy weave of fabric.
We also looked at a nice array of samplers that were done in the East Anglia area and then looked around the grounds of the museum and went through the house.
No comments:
Post a Comment