Sioul Fagu
- nooscorner
- Feb 7, 2016
- 2 min read
The Welsh nursing shawl or 'siol Fagu' is a 6ft square of pure Welsh woollen felt, bordered the whole way round by 6 inch tassels. The nursing shawl had many uses, it could keep the wearer warm, was used to help carry baby with the wearer having the right arm free whilst the left arm helped to support the baby, it allowed for easy communication between mother and child - baby was kept up high and in sight (definitely following TICKS!). And when not being worn it could be used as a crib cover.
Wearing the baby was a family affair- the women would use the nursing shawl to carry baby during the day- it allowed them to keep house and cook and do their daily errands whilst being able to attend to the needs of their young children. National Welsh archive images show men using the shawl to carry their children on evening walks through cobbled streets and there are stories of grandfathers wearing the babies on walks every Sunday morning so the young couples could have a sleep in. My own Mother in Law has stories of her grandfather carrying her brother in a nursing shawl, and she herself used one to carry her five boys. The shawl now sits on her bed, and is used to keep my father in law warm overnight!
Today Welsh nursing shawls are still woven in the traditional way at Melin Teifi in Dreyfach- the Mill has been preserved and is operating as a museum. The shawl is woven with the fringe material left on all sides. Intermittently a gap is left in the weaving to allow for fringe on all four sides. When cut the fringe is twisted in by hand. After the fringe is twisted in the shawls are fulled in a traditional mill with wooden hammers to tighten the weave, before two stages of pressing- a hot press and a cool press.
Traditionally the shawl would be passed from mother to daughter becoming a family heirloom, but they can still be purchased through Melin Teifi
Images; my Mother in Law's traditional Welsh Nursing Shawl and an image from the 1930s showing women wearing their babies in the nursing shawl.
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