Acadian Textile Use

Very few in-tact Acadian garments have survived, because without large wardrobes, they were simply worn out and used up. In the second half of the nineteenth century Acadians generally adopted commercially made fabric for clothing, when it was both available and affordable. The pair of Acadian men's pants shown in Figure 1 is a good illustration of how garments were repaired and patched to prolong their useful life. This is one of the few pair of pants that have survived. The pants are made of cotonnade and most of the patches are less faded pieces of the original garment fabric. However, an interior replacement pocket and two small interior patches are made from commercial cotton fabrics. The man's shirt in Figure 2 is also of cotonnade and is faded, but in otherwise good condition. The shoulder yoke lining is made from a different fabric from the rest of the shirt. Fabric attribute data have been collected on these garments as well as four white children's garments that date from the 1930's (see Table 1).

Even though few handwoven Acadian garments exist today, quilts were often made from scraps of cotonnade, either from scraps of worn clothing or from pieces left over from cutting out new garments. These quilts are rare, but are more likely to have been preserved than the garments themselves. The quilt that is the focus of this study (Figure 3) was selected because of the similarity of the fabrics incorporated into the quilt to those used in the construction of Acadian garments. The textiles in the quilt were analyzed in an effort to learn more about this little known aspect of Acadian textile production. The textiles in the quilt are believed to have been produced within a single generation of one Acadian family, and were most likely all woven by the same weaver.