In search of Finnish roots/Home-made

Home-made

Home made culture includes, of course, all the objects used in everyday life. Presented here are some rarities and some very common textiles and clothes.

Woven materials for everyday use

A smock with strait sleeves. Vöyri. FBdbs
Pieces of skirt fabric. Lapväärtti. FBdbs.

Linen, and later cotton fabric was woven in every household. Bed linen, shirts for women and men, and summer trousers for men, were all of white home woven fabric. Like in the women’s smock seen in the picture, the visible part of the garment was made of finer fabric than the lower part. Over the long smock women wore a skirt; which could be made in grey rough thick whole woolen fabric or lighter woven in linen warp. Later the wool was dyed red or black.
From the beginning of 1700, weaving skills got better and also the peasant women began to weave fabrics with wide stripes for the skirts and bodice. The precious clothes were often made of bought fabrics including the striped and checked wool, linen, silk and cotton ones. The foreign way of weaving was added to the tradition in the west and the middle Finland. Coming towards the middle and end of the eighteen hundreds, the stripes also got thinner on the western coast.

Textiles for beds and sleighs

A blanket, decoration is stitched on the cloth. Model from1829. Isokyrö. 4717:54. NBA.
The blanket, lined with lam. Soini, Mäkelänkylä. 5032:772. NBA.

A winter blanket could only be made of sheep skin or sewn together with a woven textile. The so-called “välly” was used also in winter as a sleigh cover, which also could be a rug piled on one or both sides. Precious needle decorated blankets was made in the middle and western parts of Finland. It was often a wedding present or an inherited treasure.

Needle techniques and special knitting and crocheting

Needled mitten. Pyhtää. FBdbs.
Korsnäs sweater. Korsnäs. MN.

Thread or any kind of wool fiber and needle were the first used elements in making warming patches, which were wrapped around the feet before socks became common use. In some parts, women needled legless socks to use inside of the house or in the shoes, even though the tradition was to be barefooted near the house, during both summer and winter. Mittens were used inside leather ones. The felted woolen mittens were warm and easy to make of all kinds of wool.

The Korsnäs sweater is one of the widely admired knitted handicrafts from the Gulf of Bothnia; its specialty is a combination of crocheting and knitting. The decoration in three colors is crocheted and the white dotted part is knitted. Little bags, bridegroom’s suspenders and sweaters have been made in Korsnäs from the beginning of the eighteen hundreds and the sweaters are still knitted and used today.

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