The fabric is unusual in that it has, seemingly, linen warp threads and a double-faced wool weft. This unusual fabric which is soft, but also thick and warm, may have been imported from Spain in the seventeenth century. Such importations suggest a wealth in the region which allowed people the independence and ease to dress to complement their own political and mercantile opinions. This freedom was not appreciated by many in authority. The majority of the population, though, wore home-spun and woven woollens and linens.
Women wove a strong frieze for the men and a coarse flannel which they dyed red for themselves.
The everyday dress worn by women is described in a statistical survey compiled on Clare in 1808. Some wore frieze waistcoats while those of others were of imported cotton. Because of poverty many did not wear shoes everyday, but when a household could afford footwear, they gave the honour first of all to the menfolk. The style and quality of the clothing worn was related to the industry and wealth of the people. Their coarse yarn stockings, coarse linens and spun yarns as well as farm produce were used as barter or in truck for other necessaries of life - necessaries which did not then include such luxuries as tea or sugar.