Silk thread was suitable for finishing buttonholes and for creating trailing embroidery on garments. Silk floss, a softer thread, was used only for fancy embroideries. Many women were taught fine or decorative sewing in addition to ordinary mending and clothes construction. Silk thread for embroidery was sold in small skeins. Ebenezer H. Williams (1761-1838) purchased two skeins of black silk like these at Orlando Ware’s Deerfield, Massachusetts, store in 1803. He probably bought them for his wife, Joanna Smith Williams.