S Handmade vintage 1930/40s handwoven antique fabric white linen pleated shorts

Description

Handmade on a treadle sewing machine by my German grandmother in 1930's/1940's Nebraska for my mother, this pair of white shorts has a hand-worked buttonhole on the waistband above zipper.  Grandmother cut this garment from fabric which she herself spun and wove in Germany as part of her hope chest before emigrating to the United States. This accounts for the intricate piecing of the inner leg seam area, as Grandma made the fabric in narrow rolls.  Note the wonderful variations in texture and thread size of the fabric weave in this gorgeous, but painstaking work. I believe the fabric is linen, but I am not 100% sure.  The material is surprisingly durable and strong considering it is 100 years old, or very nearly so.  A minimum of washing insures its longevity.
(A bit of provenance: my widowed grandmother was so destitute during the depression years, she had to borrow a sewing needle from the neighbor.  Could the buttonhole and hand-stitched overcasting on inner seams in the shorts have been sewn with that needle?)
I have included as the last photo a picture of my mother and grandmother around 1940 on the southern Nebraska farm.  Aren't they lovely!
Simply styled with back darts, front pleats, and back zipper opening.  Narrow hem, unlined.  5 1/4"  inner leg inseam measurement.  30 waist, 18 length.