As to be expected in a territorial war of this magnitude, there were shortages. Patched clothing quickly became acceptable clothing. Only the affluent could afford garments sent through Brownsville from Yankees in New York and New England. But, Texas was a cotton state and cotton was available. Spinning wheels went to work and hand-carded cotton made hand-sewn clothes the norm for a few years.
Although the basic ingredients for cloth came from the South, the cloth itself was made in the North. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Southern women was their ability to quickly relearn how to make clothes from scratch. The sewing machine was so new and expensive that there were hardly any to be found in the South. Old spinning wheels were brought down from the attic. This homespun material was coarse and not as refined as they were used to, but the proud Southern belles began to spurn those who did not wear it. Leave it to the South to make looking like a ragamuffin fashionable.
Socks were of special value, their importance not lost of this hardworking generation. When the sock began to wear, that part was carefully unraveled and remade into new socks or another woven necessity.
Women were to sacrifice every thing they could for use in their armies camps and hospitals. Everything from blankets to the carpets on the floor were taken from the households. Talk about drafty houses.
The loss of a sewing needle prompted the upheaval of the whole house until it was found.
Buttons were made out of anything hard enough to stand up to wear and tear, from pebbles to shells to gourds. If these could not be found, people at home as well as in camp frequently hitched clothes together with locust thorn galluses or wooden pins. Tom Sawyer’s haphazard look may well have been the norm for children in the South during this time.
You could forget about the classic whalebone corset in the South during the worst of the war. And the steel springs found in some were actually taken out so the army could melt them down for machinery. As stays broke or girls grew into women, the stays were increasingly made out of hickory splints. Not as strong as whale bone, but infinitely more liberating, as it bends more with the woman. Grandma smiles.
Clothes were hand dyed from homemade colors and re-dyed after the color faded.
Hand dyes were made from many things. Sorghum molasses made an excellent blacking, when mixed with pinewood root and vinegar.
Women learned to make their own shoes and house slippers. As the leather in the old shoes began to give and was not readily available for replacement, soles were made out of wood or anything handy. In the summer and warmer months, many went without shoes to save them as a luxury for the winter months.
Skins of small mammals, such as rabbits and raccoons, made excellently warm head gear during the winter.
One disturbing item for pet lovers, there are a couple of books out there that teach women how to tan dog hide for gloves. Poor yeller.
