Sewing needle holder

A sewing kit for storing needles made of different materials and in various shapes is an item every woman once owned. For many centuries, sewing, embroidering, and weaving, including the preparation of thread and wool, were the women's domain. They learnt them as young girls and continued to use this knowledge throughout their lives. Only their origin and standard of living distinguished what and with what thread women sewed and embroidered. In traditional folk culture, where the village is a self-sufficient, closed 'enterprise', preparing the weaving material, weaving, sewing, decorating and repairing clothes, underwear and bed linen was done by each housewife, who personally trained her daughters in these tasks. Naturally, some women were more skilled, e.g., embroiderers, who made embroideries on shirts or shawls to order for a fee in coins or in kind. It was a valued form of additional income in the countryside. The kit preserved in the Museum's collection is a valuable object. It is an example of an individual and, at the same time, creative approach to safe storage of needles. Looking at its quality, especially at the floral embroidery with little skill, the F.J. initials and the date 1820, we can assume that its author and maker was a young person, perhaps an older girl. Her kit is shaped like a booklet, with velvet 'covers' and four natural-coloured soft woollen 'pages'. Each page could be used to insert needles, pins, safety pins, sorted by function or size.

Iwona Karwowska