Indigo, Red, & Pumpkin Lightweight Striped Linen
Linen cloth, such as this Indigo, Red, & Pumpkin Lightweight Striped Linen, was woven of flax fiber in many grades and weaves. Used in every aspect of living from clothing, to household needs to furnishings to the shroud made for the corpse, linen was so common that a tax was proposed as a source of easy revenue on the coarser sorts being imported into the US towards the end of the 18th century.
Woven stripes were a common way of introducing pattern and color into textiles inexpensively. The color could be introduced with a linen yarn, or in the case of many Manchester goods, in a cotton yarn. Samples can be found in several Manchester books dating from the 1770s to early 1780s.
Blue dyed with indigo, resistant to fading in a hot wash, was a popular color choice with the Foundlings. This orangish color could be gotten with copperas, a common dye stuff sold in the colonies.
