We’ve all come to associate Regency women’s fashion with delicate white muslin fabrics – sprigged muslin, spotted muslin, checked and striped muslin, and embroidered muslin. Henry Tilney, the hero in Northanger Abbey, was well-acquainted with muslins through his sister, who wore only white.
Sheer white muslin gown with whitework embroidery. Image @Vintage Textile
In the 17th century and until the late 18th century, England imported muslin, a thin cotton material, from India. The British East India Company traded in Indian cotton, silk fabrics, and Dacca (Dhaka or modern-day Bangladesh) muslins. Muslins from Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were also imported. The delicate cloth, which first originated in the Middle East in the 9th century, was perfect for clothing and curtains in hot, arid countries. – Muslin: Encyclopedia Britannica
Muslin gown, 1816
Muslin was a finely woven light cotton fabric in plain weave without a pattern, and had identical warp and weft threads. The fabric selection is quite flexible, coming in a wide variety of weights and widths. It accepts dyes and paints so successfully that today it is often used for theatrical backdrops and photographic portraits. One observation must be made: muslins of the past were made of much finer, more delicate weave than today’s muslins. – How Is Muslin Fabric Made?
Buttons on a modern muslin fabric
Muslin gown circa 1815, Bath museum
An important feature of muslin fabrics is its ability to drape. Regency fashions were based on robes and garments from antiquity. The ability to drape and maneuver the fabric on the figure was an important feature of this cloth. Today, designers use muslin as a test garment for cutting and draping a design before creating the final dress from more expensive fabrics.
Another excellent feature of muslin is its ability to take dye, paints, and embroidery. The cloth accepted many patterns, motifs and designs that made it versatile and unique. – Textile as Art
Plus the white fabric was a mark of gentility. White was difficult to keep clean or required constant cleaning. It was one thing for an aristocratic lady like Eleanor Tilney to wear white, but another for a maid to presume to wear such a high maintenance garment. Mrs Norris, that awful woman from Mansfield Park, approved of Mrs. Rushworth’s housekeeper’s action of turning away two housemaids for wearing white gowns.
Muslin evening dress. Image @Metropolitan Museum of Art
Embroidery transformed the simple white muslin gown into works of art. Whitework embroidery was particularly striking, but colored threads could be equally beautiful. The draping quality of the cloth lent itself well to columnar-shaped empire waist gowns.
Indian sprigged muslin gown, 1800. Image@Kelly Taylor Auctions Trouvais
Muslin was imported from the Far East for centuries. Then the weavers in west Scotland, who were proficient in spinning fine cottons such as linen, cambric, and lawn, began to pay attention to weaving a finer, more delicate cloth.
Sheer muslin gown, 1800. Image @Victoria & Albert Museum
Muslins, therefore (plain for the most part in Glasgow, and fancy ornamented in Paisley),were among the earliest and principal cotton fabrics produced on the looms of the west of Scotland. About the year 1780 James Monteith, the father of Henry Monteith, the founder of the great printworks at Barrowfield, and of the spinning and weaving mills at Blantyre, warped a muslin web, the first attempted in Scotland; and he set himself resolutely to try to imitate or excel the famous products of Dacca and other Indian muslin-producing centres. As the yarn which could then be produced was not fine enough for his purposes, he procured a quantity of “bird-nest” Indian yarn, “and employed James Dalziel to weave a 6-4th 12” book with a handshuttle, for which he paid him 2Id. per ell for weaving;. It is worthy of remark that the same kind of web is now wrought at 2|d. per ell The second web was wove with a-fly shuttle, which was the second used in Scotland. The Indian yarn was so difficult to wind that Christian Gray, wife of Robert Dougall, bellman, got 6s. 0 J. for winding each pound of it. When the web was finished Mr Monteith ordered a dress of it to be embroidered with gold, which had presented to Her Majesty Queen Charlotte.”1
1817 Muslin day dress. Image @Bowes Museum
Once fairly established, the muslin trade and various other cotton manufactures developed with extraordinary rapidity, and diverged into a great variety of products which were disposed of through equally numerous channels. Among the earliest staples, along with plain book muslins, came mulls, jacconets or nainsooks, and checked and striped muslins. Ginghams and pullicats formed an early and very important trade with the West Indian market, as well as for home consumption. These articles for a long period afforded the chief employment to the hand-loom weavers in the numerous villages around Glasgow and throughout the west of Scotland. The weaving of sprigged or spotted muslins and lappets was subsequently introduced, the latter not having been commenced till 1814. Although the weaving of ordinary grey calico for bleaching or printing purposes has always held .and still retains an important place among Glasgow cotton manufactures, it has never been a peculiar feature of the cotton industry; and the very extensive bleaching and print-works of the locality have always been supplied with a proportion of their material from the great cotton manufacturing districts of Lancashire. – p 501, The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literature, Volume 6, Thomas Spencer Bayne, 1888.
Embroidered muslin round gown, 1795. Image @Cathy Decker
More on the topic:
- The Grove encyclopedia of decorative arts, Volume 1 By Gordon Campbell, 2006.
- Descriptions of various cloths: very informative, on The Dreamstress
- Textile as Art
- The Little White Regency Dress, Jane Austen’s World
- Embroidered muslin gown, Cathy Decker’s site
Jane Austen's World 
I enjoyed this tremendously. The pics were wonderful. So I have a silly question. Since this fabric would take a lot to keep it clean – if white especially – would it also need ironed constantly? Does it wrinkle up like most cotton when you move about in it? You can tell I have no real idea about fabrics. If so, I can’t imagine the long hours spent by the staff to keep these items not only clean but more wrinkle free.
j’ ai beaucoup aimé cet article
l’ étude des tissus est une grande passion
actuellement en France , à Lyon il y a une exposition
passionnante ” Si le XVIII e m’ était conté ”
j’ ai mis un article sur mon blog
http://irisombreetlumiere.blogspot.com
j’ aime également passionnément JANE AUSTEN
je viens régulièrement vous faire une petite visite
à bientôt
bonne journée
EDITH ( iris )
I’ve often wondered the same. Especially when one is crushed into a chaise on the way to a ball.
Suzan and TF, I have often thought of the problem of wrinkling, especially in regard to shinier fabrics like satin and silk. Ironing was a laborious process, and I cannot imagine that dresses were ironed after a lady alighted from a carriage to attend a ball. So wrinkling (and stained hems) must have been an accepted condition of life.
And it must have been so. Thinking about the way light reflects of the satin dresses in 18th and 19th century portraits of women, those dresses were finely wrinkled, much like Princess Diana’s wedding dress was when she emerged from the limousine at the church steps. The fashion designers hovered around her on the pavement, straightening the fabric and readjusting the dress, which recovered its shape, but the skirt remained badly wrinkled. (I imagine that ladies maids helped to adjust the skirts and trains of arriving guests in the ladies cloak room.)
A light white draping fabric would not show wrinkles as readily as the stiffer satins. Also, on a damp day, the wrinkles on sheer muslin gowns would tend to soften and relax, so I think that the wrinkling problem with muslin, while it existed, was not as problematic as with other cloth. Imagine what linen skirts must have looked like after ladies emerged from cramped carriages or a day of travel!
Vic,
Great post. Pippa’s bridesmaid’s silk dress was also quite wrinkled while she walked toward the ceremony but the press avoided saying anything, and some photos touched it up later. A better fabric and design would have been preferable.
A wonderful post, and I wonder if the final chapter might make a good post, about the fate of handloomers after machine looming. I’m sure there are academic books about this but I wonder if the change in fashion, plus the change in laws and technology, have ever been documented with oral histories? I also enjoyed your previous post that dealt with this, but I am thinking of those master and journeymen (and women) weavers on this chilly September morning in Toronto…who knows, tough times may have been what led them to come to farm rocky soil in Canada in the first place?
Julia B
Muslin’s wrinkling would probably have been accepted as a part of the fabric’s natural beauty–as it is for gauze today. It would certainly have enhanced the visual effect, which at least for a while was intended to emulate the draping of antique garments. This is probably part of why fancy dress evolved to use finer fabrics–silks, satins, etc.–over the period. The further from the neoclassical movement’s birth, the further art and fashions devolved from the original, purer neoclassical aesthetic.
Thank you, Steph, you confirmed my thoughts.
And, today, we know muslin mostly for its kitchen uses. Cheesecloth! The pictures are wonderful. And, yes, I imagine that white was a way of saying that you were rich enough not to worry about dirt!
Lovely post and pictures! I wish we could touch these fabrics and see what they really feel like. Do they even make muslin this thin anymore?
Julia Bennett: That is what the Luddites were all about in 1811 and 1812. They had been displaced by weaving machines in the cotton mills and rioted, burning down cotton mills and clashing with the army until they were brought under control and the perpetrators executed. The relationships between mill owners and workers continued to be uneasy throughout much of the 19th Century. Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (published in 1854) uses this tension, as well as tension between the values and mores of southern and northern England to create her story.
As far as the wrinkling, we have to keep in mind that ladies were not as active as we are now and they didn’t just sit down in their chairs- they would smooth their gown out so that it didn’t crease more than necessary. A long carriage ride must have made a right mess of clothes, though!
Thank you for the informative post, Vic! The gowns are lovely. All the contemporary magazine articles I find emphasize the importance of muslin in fashion. I must admit I never thought about the wrinkle factor before–and I hate wrinkles!
Ironing was a laborious task and according to my great grandmother, at least in the mid 1800s, the skirts of dresses and gowns were put on stretchers while wet and allowed to dry, which kept the fabric from shrinking and mostly free of wrinkles. The more intricate parts of the gowns were pressed. It seems reasonable that if they were doing that in the 1850s, it had been done earlier in the century.
When I was a child there were curtain stretchers for the lace curtains in my grandparent’s home – many windows, lots of curtains – which were set up in the back yard so the curtains could dry in the sun which also did a bit of bleaching.
I like to try and “help” but the little pins along the edges would stab my fingers and I would be shooed away before I managed to bleed on the lace.
My great grandmother also had stretchers for her gloves and she had dozens of pairs from fine lace to silk to kidskin in various colors.
(My great grandmother was born in 1844 and died in 1949 when I was ten. My grandfather was born in 1875 and my grandmother, his second wife, born in 1905. Even in her 105th year, my great grandmother was still sharp and was a great storyteller.)
I have to agree with Carey here in that they did not do as much as we do today. A very high percentage of women of the time didn’t even take care of their own children. They didn’t cook, clean, nor give themselves a bath – there were always servants for such tasks. And lets not forget the clothes changing – numerable times a day. A morning dress, travel attire, the evening gowns, they even changed for meals.
I love this post. I always like to see what people of different eras wear, or how they lived and such. Your post are so insightful Vic.
Thanks for this post Vic. I’m always in a quandry how to describe characters’ clothes in my period writing, so this (and some of the extra links you’ve provided) will explain a lot. Too much, of course, for a mere male writer but reading all about muslin brought a solution to mind—I’m going to offer the privilege of dressing my characters to my wife. She has a much better grasp of the options and requirements for the situation, and hopefully, will enjoy the job.
Chris H.
I had the pleasure of using some Swiss Muslin a couple of years ago for a sewing project. It is very fine and has a sparkly sheen to it. It is quite see through as in the photographs above. As for ironing, I ironed it initially after I washed it to prepare it for cutting and embroidering. I used natural starch to give it a firmer hand while working with it. I made a fancy dress for my then 9 year old daughter. Any wrinkles weren’t noticed and didn’t show in the photographs. After she wore it, I hand washed it and hung it to dry. It creased in the gathers of the empire bodice, but that’s really it. The fine fabric doesn’t show the wrinkles like other cottons. It’s really a dream to work with, but, of course you have to devote some time to underclothes because it is completely transparent.
I grew up with muslin being the cheap alternative for crafts. It was poorly woven and stiff. I have never handled fine muslin. I’ve seen it at the Fashion Museum in Bath but it was through thick glass and I wanted to walk around it and examine everything about it. The beaded one was my favorite.
Thanks for the post!
The soft sheer fine muslins would not have wrinkled like today’s crisper fabrics — they would rather have rumpled. The stretchers referred to in a couple of posts (my mother-in-law had some for men’s chinos back int he 60s) would have given the soft hand a little stiffness also. But the fabric is not at all what we think of as muslin — a much stronger and tighter weave, while being very sheer and having a soft sheen. Silk fabrics, which will wrinkle in a New York minute, will also shake out those wrinkles. The fabric upkeep would not have concerned the ladies — they would have wnated the clean and neat when they put it on, but then, they would have gone on with their day. Pretty much as we do with our own toilettes today.
Interesting post. I cannot necessarliy agree that women weren’t as active then, as some of the comments have said. Perhaps the women who could afford the dresses pictured had servants, but the vast majority of the population would not have more than perhaps one servant, if that. Even women in the landed class, but not aristocracy, contributed to the household or had various hobbies and duties. And if they didn’t give themselves a bath or have sole care of their children, think only of the steps involved in drawing a bath with no indoor plumbing or keeping babies in clean diapers and then tell me they weren’t as active. Even with servants to do those tasks, they had plenty else to concern themselves with. :)
But Reina, those were not the people wearing those sheer muslin dresses- they were only worn by the upper classes who changed their clothes many times a day and had servants to dress them and do their laundry.
Hi! I have ‘lurked’ on your blog for awhile, but never commented except to enter giveaways. I am a total J.A. Right now I am reading S and S. Thanks for a wonderful blog with info all about life in Regency England.
The gowns are beautiful. I have to ask about the sheer muslins, and those that were sometimes dampened to make them even sheerer. Since spandex was not yet in existance, what did the scandelous young ladies wear beneath them?
Diana, That’s a good question. Undergarments consisted of a corseted or bodiced petticoat, a chemise, and stockings and garters. No underdrawers were worn. Click here to see the shocking result of a tumble as depicted by Thomas Rowlandson. https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/ladies-underdrawers-in-regency-times/
Only Cyprians and Vermeilleuses, women whose daring conduct scandalized proper society, would dare to dampen their muslins. Many caricaturists made fun of the low necklines and sheer gowns of the day. While some women chose not to wear petticoats or chemises under these sheer fabrics, a proper young lady would never be caught without the required layers of undergarments or be caught dampening her skirts. She would be ostracized. An aristocratic lady, whose position and fortune gave her some protection, might get away with breaking the rules, but such behavior was an exception.
Tous ces beaux tissus! J’adore les tissus! Très bel article!
Les robes étaient cousues et brodées avec délicatesse à cette époque!
Merci pour toutes ces infos!
Bises
Dentelline, Je vous en prie!
This book, even though its about America, has several references to England, Ireland and the weaving mills and to the art of weaving and spinning in industry as well as a cottage industry. This book is more thoroughly researched than even some academic books. It took her ten years to write it. Her other books, most on related topics are fascinating too. I bought Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich years ago and was totally fascinated. It took me a while to get through it, but it’s a great book and long. If anyone is interested in history, even how the European aspects influenced early America and vice versa, this is a great book.
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Homespun-Objects-Creation-American/dp/0679445943
Vic, I love this blog and also your guests and commenters! I learn so much, which in turn makes me want to learn more.
Thanks,
Mary Ellen
A really useful informative article. thank you, Ellen
Stories of dampened muslins have probably been exaggerated. Just dampening would merely make the garment wrinkle; one would have to drench the garment and the underclothes to make them cling. Besides, I think the comment was first made about French fashions in 1802. Commentators did mention that the women looked as though they were wearing transparent clothes…. again in 1802 when travel to an from France was resumed after the treaty of Amiens. The invisible petticoat and the flesh colored tights gave the impression of nudity but were probably only worn by the more dashing married women Like Lady Caroline Lamb.
The dresses are gorgeous.
A rich relative once gave me dress of much the same sort of fabric . I think it was called Swiss embroidered cotton. . It was absolutely beautiful but too rich for our lifestyle . It would have made a lovely Regency wedding gown.
Nancy, I agree about the transparency of the clothes. This image by Boilly depicts how sheer muslin was. The lady in the image is wearing a short chemise underneath her gown, revealing her legs under the transparent fabric. (A lady would have worn stockings!)
http://www.bonzasheila.com/art/archives/jul09/06.html
‘turn away v.
. . 3. To send away, dismiss; spec. to dismiss from service; . .
1602 Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor i. iii. 4, I must turne away some of my followers.
. . 1793 Regal Rambler 17 The footman‥was turned away without wages or warning.’ [OED]
Ooh nice to see a picture of sprigged muslin. It’s very pretty and feminine. Wasn’t it Mrs Allen in NA whose life revolves around clothes? I loved Austen’s portrayal of her.
regency1810 reblogged this from Regency1810's Blog.
A very interesting post, nice dresses, fashion of those times is gorgeous
The labor behind that fabric and those dresses creates part of the dark understory of the Austen age….
The muslins available in fabric stores today are not at all like Regency-era fine muslin. They’re heavier and coarser. A nice alternative for anyone wanting a Regency gown would be lawn, voile, or one of the light-weight, nearly sheer silk/cotton blends–all of which are available in solids and prints.
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[…] can take a look at how good, old school muslin fabric looks, take a gander at the jane austen museum that had the cool dress, read up on the […]