Bed Linens

Though the bedroom would be the least visited room in the house, special attention was given to creating an atmosphere of cool comfort.  Bed linen was always white but usually hand decorated with embroidery and lace.

Though the furniture was heavy, a contrast was made in the small-scale prints of the upholstery,  delicate lace mats, colourful quilts and crisp white linen.

Early in the period many Canadian women were still making their own cloth and spinning and weaving, though  time-consuming, were essential household tasks.  In rural communities the making of linen was a great reason to hold the ever popular "Bee" and was held in the same fashion as the "Quilting Bee"; taking some of the drudgery out of the chore.

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If you had a little extra money, you could also purchase pre-sized muslin warps, ready for the loom, which when incorporated with a linen weft gave a nice strong fabric, referred to as Union Cloth. The Industrial Revolution which began in large part with the mechanization of the production of textiles, forever changed the fabric of women's lives; literally and figuratively.  Merchants could now offer White Goods as part of their line and cambrics, cotton, linen and muslin were sold by the mile. Ranging in price from a few pennies to as much as .25 cents a yard,  women no longer had to spend precious hours creating the cloth, but could devote more of their time in making it the some of the most beautiful artwork of their generation.  Embroidery, drawn-work, edging and insertion added the elegance and romance that has defined the Victorian Era

Linen Closets would be jam-packed and stacked high with an assortment of sheets and pillowcases and before long ready-made Marseilles and Honeycomb bedspreads; which could be purchased for between forty nine cents and two fifty; replaced the quilts and coverlets of their grandmother's day.

When Timothy Eaton opened his first store in Toronto in 1869 and offered retail goods at wholesale prices, women flocked to his establishment.  He introduced the concept of "Cash and Carry" as well as "Money Back Guarantee",  enabling even those of limited means to regularly add fresh linens to their cupboard,  But when he published his first Eaton's Catalogue in 1884, later referred to as 'The Farmers Bible' it also allowed those living in rural Canada easier access to manufactured yard goods.

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You could even buy sheets ready made that you could trim yourself or use as is for every day

Sheeting and other White Goods could be purchased by the yard in both bleached and unbleached state.

Uniquely Canadian in Victorian Times