This survey looks at 4 larger projects I have rolling around in my head. Please take a moment to answer the questions to help me plan.
Skill
For this seventeenth day of #historyinherhands , I offer this collection of antique straw motifs. While in the latter twentieth and twenty-first centuries straw worked into figures such as these has become an art and craft in itself, many of these motifs were used in nineteenth century millinery. Straw leaves were worked separately and added to bonnets or hats as well as being worked directly on a piece. Straw balls and baubles were created over wooden and cotton bead-like cores.
Image
On this 16th day of #historyinherhands , I offer this assortment of stereoviews. Each dual images offered a story as it was viewed. Some told stories familiar. Some told stories of far away.
Paper
On this 15th day of #historyinherhands , I offer one of the many crafts of paper. This mid-twentith century box was constructed by hand of card stock and covered in paper inside and out. The pages of children’s books and ladies’ magazines were filled with useful and playful crafts made with paper.
Organize
On this 14th day of #historyinherhands , I offer this blue silk sewing case. This excellent piece is both an example of how women organized their sewing tools and organization in construction as this is made almost entirely from a length of ribbon.
Fragile
On the thirteenth day of #historyinherhands , I offer bonnet veils. Lace worked on delicate silk net, can make bonnet veils quite fragile as a decade and a half passes.
On my much neglected to-do list is to re-roll the modest assortment of veils I have in archival paper.
Labor
For this twelfth day of #historyinherhands , I offer this carte de viste of milliners with their work in hand. While milliners get most of the attention in the bonnet and hat making trade, we must not forget the many assistants, straw plaiters, straw sewers, flower makers, lace makers, and more who’s labor made the beautiful confections possible.
Invention
For this eleventh day of #historyinherhands , I offer a pinking machine. Pinking machines replaced pinking dies or pinking irons in the second half of the nineteenth century. No longer did a dressmaker or milliner need to cut scallops an inch or so at a time. Lengths of silk could be quickly run through a pinker with the turn of a crank. This meant yards and yards of decorative trim could be created in a fraction of time with a fraction of effort. As the twentieth century progressed pinking machines were replaced with pinking scissors and pinked fabric transitioned from decoration to utility hidden inside garments.
Women’s Employments Crossword
I made a fun little crossword. You can do it online here:
https://crosswordlabs.com/view/womens-employments-in-the-19th-century
Or print this pdf version:
Footwear
For this tenth day of #historyinherhands , I offer this stocking shaped needle-book. Footwear, including boots, shoes, and stockings, were popular shapes for making needle-books and pin cushions. These appear throughout women’s monthly publications and books of fancy work with recommendations of making them for gifts or fairs.
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 