Why is the fact that Colonial America was very much a consumer based society so hard for folks to understand?
We have a do it your self mentality for ml. It’s one of the few hobbies that emphasize that aspect. And museums are full of folk art that was pressed into service.
However, contrary to the myth people were not jacks of all trades. Even on the frontier there were plenty of professional making stuff. Traveling outfits of brick makers and carpenters. A trading post would soon have an innkeeper/tavern, soon a cooper a shoemaker and ofcouse a blacksmith.
Boone is recorded shooting fine Irish linen in his gun. Pewterware was a given, and if you had a rusty hole to block there were plenty of tinkers.
I am often struck by descriptions of fire starting. City folk could beg a coal from someone near and oft didn’t need to strike a light.
If you’re a newbie, and you wonder how to make a bag, you’re in the same boat as others now and back then. You didn’t know how.
Starting a farm was hard work. Chances were you didn’t have time to make the stuff, even the small stuff you needed. When your farm was up and running you had the wealth to buy good stuff.
Your clothing may be home made, but the cloth, your knife belt buckle, buttons ect came from England.
Gunsmiths bought boxes of locks and barrel blanks too. Their tools were turned out by professionals
A look at goods sold in trading post or at rendezvous shows what people got even on the wild frontier.
Yes there was a lot of homespun goods, but in general if you owned it you bought it.