The fabric you choose for your reproduction outfit is as important as finding the right pattern to ensure it looks authentic.  This is especially true if you are participating in Civil War encampments, working at living history museums or demonstrating your skills at SASS events.  The type of material available during the 19th century was various weaves of wool, silk, linen or cotton.  Synthetic fabrics were not on the market yet.

Silk, fine woolens and expensive cotton was often not affordable for everyday clothing worn by working women and the middle class.  By the 1840s textile mills in the eastern United States were producing cotton cloth with an all-over pattern called calico.  The fabric designs usually featured three or four colors.  The fabric was affordable and easy to maintain.  Popular colors were blue, dark green, tan, dull gold, brown, purple, red and black.  The fabric prints often featured stripes, floral sprays, all-over small geometric patterns, tiny flowers and/or leaves.  Many pioneer women made their everyday dresses out of the darker colors, because they didn’t show stains as much as light colored fabrics.

If you are making our own outfit, you want to use fabric that is as close to the originals as possible.  Selection can become very confusing when you are standing in the middle of the large fabric stores trying to pick out fabric that will look authentic.

I’ve found that what works best for me is to use cotton quilting fabric.  There are several companies that specialize in reproduction fabrics for the quilting industry.  They come out with new designs just about every month and produce the fabric in relatively short runs.  So if you see a fabric that you like, don’t wait to purchase it.  When the production run sells out, they don’t make more in that pattern.  A couple  manufacturers that I like for reproduction fabric are:  Windham Fabrics, Andover Fabrics, and Marcus Fabrics.