Where does Linsey-Woolsey come from?

Linsey-Woolsey comes from the United Kingdom, England, where it dates to the Middle Ages.

Plate No. 139fabric

A pale linen warp crossed with a darker wool weft.

First documented: Middle Ages
Origin: England, United Kingdom
Fiber: linen, wool
Weave: linen warp, wool weft, plain woven
Family: plain

Plate No. 139 · fabric

Linsey-Woolsey

Linsey-woolsey is a coarse, strong cloth woven with a linen or cotton warp and a wool weft, combining the strength of the bast fiber with the warmth of wool. Cheap and hard-wearing but rough to the skin, it was the everyday cloth of poor and working people for centuries, and in colonial and early America it was spun and woven at home into the standard winter clothing of farm families and the enslaved. Its very name became a byword for something coarse, makeshift, or oddly mixed.

Illustration: the interior of a colonial American farmhouse in winter, a hand loom and a spinning wheel by the stone hearth, lengths of coarse undyed cloth folded on a bench, a figure at the loom seen from behind — The interior of a colonial American farmhouse in winter, a hand loom and a spinning wheel by the stone hearth, lengths of coarse undyed cloth folded on a bench, a figure at the loom seen from behind.

Named for

A rhyming compound of linsey, a linen cloth (perhaps from Lindsey in Suffolk), and wool, for its mixed fibers.

Also known as

linsey, wincey

Common questions

What is Linsey-Woolsey made of?: Linsey-woolsey is a coarse, strong cloth woven with a linen or cotton warp and a wool weft, combining the strength of the bast fiber with the warmth of wool.
Where does Linsey-Woolsey come from?: Linsey-Woolsey comes from the United Kingdom, England, where it dates to the Middle Ages.
What is Linsey-Woolsey named after?: A rhyming compound of linsey, a linen cloth (perhaps from Lindsey in Suffolk), and wool, for its mixed fibers.

Where to buy

Burnley & Trowbridge Co.
An 18th century reproduction textile and notions shop, stocking wool, linen, and cotton yardage for historical costuming and reenactment, plus in-person and online sewing workshops.
They also run sewing workshops.

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