Making clothes was very important to farming women. Farm wives
wove woolen cloth from yarn, spun from the fleece of sheep.
Some were colored with dyes made from certain barks, berries,
roots or walnut coals such as linen and woolens. They made
leather with cow hide and deer skins which made shoes and
leggings. The poor women wore a dress of linen or wool, a
petticoat and a single undergarment called a shift in the winter
time. In the summer time the not so fortunate women wore a
dress made from the fleece of sheep with no overcoats. Children
that were poor, or from farms wore what there mothers and
fathers wore. For their hairstyles women wore bonnets over
their hair and didn't do much with it or really care about it.
The rich women during the 1700's mostly wore fashionable
clothes from London and from Taylor's who copied the latest
fashions. In the winter time wealthy women wore a lowneck
dress with a tight fitting bodice, and ruffles at the elbows. A
full skirt, looped back to let people see all the brightly colors on
their petticoats. Underneath they wore a hoop of six feet to
support the skirt. They wore a tight corset at the waist. For shoes
they wore silk stockings and silk or leather shoes.