‘whatever they traded they made their own’
Stroud cloth is found on many aretfacts from all over the globe. The red cloth travelled far and found many uses and reinventions as it travelled. I am really interested in the fact that many traders integrated it into their own traditions of material culture.
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‘Large pieces of cloth were used to make clothing. For many American Indian communities the cloth replaced animal hides which took a long time to clean and prepare for use in clothing. The cloth was ready to use and easier to sew. As the cloth was dyed it provided a colourful ground for decoration. Smaller pieces of cloth were used as decoration on hide or textile objects, such as the broad red cloth tassels on a Burmese bag or the cloth panels and cuffs on North American moccasins.’
you can buy a version of Stroud cloth today at the Crazy Crow store .. which is amusingly called Stroud cloth, sold in North America and made in India …. ! This links well to trade journeys of the past .
The striped edge or ‘saved list’ was traditionally used as a decorative element by many North American peoples who were particular about the characteristics of the cloth they wanted.
‘Saved list ‘An undyed selvedge in a piece dyed cloth. This is achieved by binding the edge tightly in canvas which is sewn into place before dyeing to stop the dye reaching the yarns in the selvedge.
Red museum object : moccasin with stroud red cloth 
February 24th, 2010 at 01:58 pm
the ideas of perception and taste are interesting here; for the British traders the edge of the cloth was an appendage, but to the North American Indians this was a decorative, and therefore very important, part of the cloth.
also just a sense of irony in the ‘beauty’ or ‘quality’ of this cloth, universally appreciated by those who used it, yet the strong sense of injustice in the unfair trade that was common in this era; and the idea of empire which in many ways was quite a brutal and inhumane system