In Lithuanian towns and villages of the 19th and 20th centuries females wove textiles similarly to other agrarian communities ( the weaver's stories about their work). On the other hand, works by well-known women and male weavers of Lithuania showed European culture, craftsmen's, and estate manufacturers' professional skills and Lithuanian artistic value. In time, the role of professional skills started to grow. Intellectuals encouraged maintaining, revitalising and developing the Lithuanian weaving tradition. Home-made textiles, possessing a functional significance, remained as souvenirs, ritual things or relics. Folk artists adopted and developed national weaving traditions.

In traditional society, weaving was the fulfilment of economic needs. Farmers used to raise sheep, sow flax, and hemp, and prepared and spun threads for weaving themselves. People wove clothes, bedspreads and covers for themselves, because they could not buy them. A traditional way of life was connected with weaving.
Girls would learn the craft in the family. Usually women in the country would sit at the looms in spring, during Lent, when there was more free time from other household chores, after having spun enough thread during the long autumn and winter evenings.

Every woman in a village knew how to weave linen, the so-called 'simple' fabrics. Most of them wove bedspreads, towels and table-cloths with uncomplicated patterns. These patterns were usually copied from others, and weavers would add their own interpretation. More inventive ones would decorate their fabrics with complicated patterns. Only well-known weavers could weave the so-called 'patterned' fabrics. Only a few people would create patterns. By weaving they would earn some additional money for living. They would exchange fabrics for other things or would sell them. There were few people who lived off weaving. As the agrarian politics of the country changed, traditional weaving in the country slowly disappeared, and it remained only a craft.