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"Tufted Bed-Spreads" [household instructions], Orleans County Monitor (Barton, Vt.), July 12, 1880, p. 4

Article · not yet checked at the source

Made by: Orleans County Monitor (unsigned household column)
Date: July 12, 1880
Place: Barton, Vermont
Held by: Library of Congress (Chronicling America)
Number: LCCN sn84022871, 1880-07-12, ed. 1, image 4
Publisher: Orleans County Monitor
Themes: Hooked & handmade rugs, Machine tufting & Dalton

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Orleans County Monitor (unsigned household column). “‘Tufted Bed-Spreads’ [household instructions], Orleans County Monitor (Barton, Vt.), July 12, 1880, p. 4.” Orleans County Monitor, July 12, 1880. loc.gov/resource/sn84022871/1880-07-12/ed-1/?sp=4.

Research notes

Newspaper household column headed "Tufted Bed-Spreads" (read from the Library of Congress OCR text; OCR is rough and the column is split on the page). It instructs: take coarse unbleached sheeting made up like a sheet, mark it into checks with a pencil and a stick "two or three inches wide", use "unprepared cotton yarn" with "twelve threads to draw through", "take as short a stitch as will draw through easily", then "Cut the threads exactly in the middle of each check, so that the tufts will be of a length. Dip the spread in water and hang up to dry without wringing. This will shrink the cloth and prevent the tufts from coming out when washing." Why it matters: Before the machine, open question "tufted work between the candlewick spreads and Catherine Evans (c. 1850-1890)": a dated 1880 printed method for making a cut-tuft cotton bedspread at home in New England, with the shrink-to-lock step later used in Dalton. Check the page image to confirm wording. Found: Chronicling America, search "tufted bedspread" (sorted by date), 2026-10-28.