A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

 

QUESTION: My grandmother loved to sew. She made her own clothes and some of those of her family. Over the years, she assembled quite a collection of sewing items. Some of the most interesting were the old sewing kits and baskets from the 19th and early 20th century. One thing I inherited from my grandmother was her love of sewing. I, too, love to sew. After she died, I got her collection of sewing items. I have no idea about the sewing kits and would like to learn more about them so that I can date them. Can you help me?

ANSWER: Before the introduction of mass-produced clothing, sewing was a way of life for every household. Usually, it was the women who took care of the making and mending of clothing. Your girls, required to master complicated sewing skills, used a variety of containers to hold their sewing tools.

The earliest sewing containers consisted of simple bags made of fabric or leather. But by the 18th century in Europe, metalworkers, jewelers, and other craftspeople had begun making fine sewing tools for ladies of the court who also required handsome boxes to hold them. Artisans used rare woods, leather, ivory, or precious metals inlaid with gems and mother of pearl on the outsides of their boxes and lined the interiors with silk or velvet. They fitted larger boxes with two or even three levels or sections.

By the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the middle class created a market for less expensive and more practical sewing boxes that were both attractive and durable. Inside, they tightly wrapped tools and notions made of steel, such as needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, buttons, hooks, and eyes to prevent them from rusting. They also used brown paper to protect delicate, colored threads from light and air, while shielding sewing silks from the elements by soft, washed leather.

A typical Victorian sewing box would be just big enough to keep all of a woman’s sewing tools, as well as a little bit of her handiwork. Inside, you’d find a needle book with a large range of sizes, along with an assortment of thread made of cotton, linen, and silk, plus buttons formed from shells, acorns, wood, and metal. Sewing implements included different types of shears and scissors, a pin cushion and needle emery, a jar of beeswax, and a folding measure or measuring tape. Some boxes even housed tools to make lace or square cords.

Victorian women considered their sewing boxes to be private—for their eyes only. Many of these boxes had locks, and ladies often kept love tokens, such as a romantic letter, a book of poetry, or an image of her beloved inside it.

Small sewing boxes known as étui in France and "lady’s companions" in England and Germany became very popular. These portable containers usually held basic tools---scissors, needles bodkin, and a thimble—required for sewing on a day trip or for a sewing circle:. Larger lady’s companions often held a small mirror, a tiny perfume bottle, a little New Testament, a lady’s knife, tweezers, or a button hook. Some containers took the shape of books with “Lady’s Companion” printed on the spine, while others resembled fold-up leather pocketbooks. Other whimsical sewing boxes had shapes like hearts, eggs, and flasks.

With the introduction of the first sewing machines in 1860, ladies discovered that their thread was too stiff to run through the new invention. As a result, George Clark introduced a six-cord, soft cotton thread for these machines in 1864, and branded it as Clark’s O.N.T. (for “Our New Thread’). In the late 19th century, the Clark Thread Company issued many sewing kits and boxes advertising this brand.

Small, lidded baskets—woven from cane, grass, rushes, willow, honeysuckle, or bamboo—also made suitable sewing containers. In 19th-century China, a bride would be presented small gifts in ornate baskets during her wedding. These baskets were exported by the thousands to the United States starting around 1880, and were popular as sewing baskets until around 1930.

By the beginning of the 20th century, baskets had become the most common sewing containers in America. Often manufacturers lined them and created spaces for a pin cushion, scissors sheath, and thimble holder sewn into the lining. Starting around 1930, wicker bucket totes became sewing containers for many women. These usually had cord handles and decal images of flowers, poodles, and sewing tools on their wooden lids.

Besides the more elaborate sewing boxes and baskets, many women created their own mending kits to hold all the necessary implements to sew or repair anything, anywhere. These mending kits also functioned as travel kits that people could easily pack and take with them.

During the 18th century, women made mending kits called “housewifes” or “hussifs” from scraps of velvet, burlap, or leather by rolling them into a pouch with compartments for tools. They also came in other forms like purses or satchels. Wealthier women purchased kits made of ivory, wood, or silver at finer stores. Mending kits included a small pair of scissors, one or more thimbles, a needle case, spools of thread, bodkins, stilettos, clamps, buttons, and pleat makers. 

During the first half of the 20th century, women often upcycled their old clothes into the season’s latest fashions by shortening skirts or changing hat trim. They completed this intricate work by hand, using tools found in their mending kits. Because these kits were small, ladies could take them everywhere. 

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Mystery Solved

QUESTION: I bought this piece of furniture recently, and I'm not sure what it's called. It has drawers on each side and a closet in the middle. The piece is extremely heavy and stands about six feet tall. Can you help me, please?

ANSWER:  Your piece of furniture is commonly called a chifforobe, a combination of the French word “chiffonier” and the English word “wardrobe.” These pieces have been somewhat of a mystery because different groups of people have given them different names over the years.

These closet-like pieces of furniture originated in 1908 and became especially popular during the Art Deco Period in the United States from 1925-1935 or so. Your piece is a good example of high-style Art Deco, similar to French Art Deco. The drawer pulls on the bottom and the front feet are in the waterfall pattern. These pieces held a lot of clothes at a time when houses had very small bedroom closets.

A chifforobe combines a long space for hanging clothes with a chest of drawers. Typically the wardrobe section runs down one side of the piece, while the drawers occupy the other side.  It may have two enclosing doors or have the drawer fronts exposed and a separate door for the hanging space.

The 1908 Sears, Roebuck Catalogue first advertised chifforobes as a "a modern invention, having been in use only a short time." Southerners seem to use the term more than anyone else. However, others use this piece of furniture but may call it an armoire or a wardrobe.

A wardrobe is a standing closet used for storing clothes. Many people argue that wardrobes are different in use and style of closets, but the French created to use as a closet. While the earliest wardrobe was a chest, it wasn’t until the homes of wealthy nobles became more luxurious that a separate room held their clothing. Builders filled this room with closets and lockers since drawers didn’t exist at the time. From these cupboards and lockers the modern wardrobe, with its hanging spaces, sliding shelves and drawers, eventually evolved.
                                                                                                
Throughout the evolutionary changes in the form of the enclosure, it more or less retained its function as a place to store a noble’s apparel. Over time, the word “wardrobe” came to mean an independent storage place for preserving precious items belonging to the home’s wealthy owner. The modern wardrobe differs  from the historical one in its triple partitioning, with two linear compartments on either side with shelves as well as a middle space made up of hanging pegs and drawers, which came later. A clothes press, placed at the height of a person’s chest, enabled servants to lay clothing that they had just ironed on a pull-out tray.

In the beginning, cabinetmakers used oak to construct wardrobes, but later oak went out of use in favor of the more elegant walnut. They based the size on a wardrobe on the eight small men method.  A good sized double wardrobe would thus be able to hold eight small men.

In the 19th century the wardrobe began to develop into its modern form, with a hanging cupboard at each side, a press in the upper part of the central portion and drawers below. More often than not, cabinetmakers used mahogany for its construction. However, fine-grained, foreign woods became easier to obtain in quantity, and cabinetmakers used them to create elaborately and magnificently inlaid wardrobes.

While furniture designers in the 18th century often created luxurious wardrobes of highly-polished woods, the ultimate refinement occurred with the introduction of central doors, which had previously enclosed merely the upper part, were carried to the floor, covering the drawers as well as the sliding shelves, and were often fitted with mirrors.

As mass production of furniture became more common in the late 19th century, furniture manufacturers abandoned the refinements of early wardrobes in favor of simpler, if not downright plain decoration. By the 1920s, wardrobes appeared in cheaper woods so that they could be sold to the growing middle class of consumers. The term “chifforobe” became an everyday household word, especially to more blue-color people who could purchase one as part of a bedroom set when they got married. However, some manufacturers still made beautiful examples in the American Art Deco or Waterfall style. 

Vintage I Do

QUESTION: I have in my possession my great-grandmother’s wedding dress and accessories. They have been passed down from mother to daughter since my great-grandmother left them to her daughter. They’re in remarkably good shape, considering that they date from the1890s or perhaps earlier. I’d like to know more about how to care for them and since I have no daughters of my own, where I might donate such vintage clothing. Can you offer me any suggestions?

ANSWER: Vintage clothing has undergone somewhat of a Renaissance. As more and more people got interested in history and antiques through shows like the Antiques Roadshow, naturally attention turned to what people wore back then. Also, the proliferation of consignment shops selling vintage clothing has brought more people in touch with well-preserved older items.

Before looking at where you can learn more about the dress and accessories you have, you should understand the difference between old clothes, vintage clothes, and vintage costumes.

Old clothes are just that. Usually, they’re items that people recycle to charities so that less fortunate people can benefit from them. They can take in any time period, but are usually more recent in age. Vintage clothes, on the other hand, are items in good condition from particular periods of history, such as the 1890s, the 1920s, or the 1950s. And vintage costumes are sets of clothes in a style typical of a particular country or historical period. While vintage clothing can be purchased and worn and accessorized to complement today’s fashion styles, vintage costumes are special and can only be worn on special occasions like fancy dress events or in film or the theater.

One of the best places to learn about vintage clothing is at your local historical society. Often the organization will have a museum in which all sorts of historical objects are on display. Some have extensive vintage clothing and costume collections, but unfortunately, most have limited gallery space, so much of the clothing doesn’t get displayed. Many colleges also have costume collections, depending on the courses they offer. These are often unknown to the public, again because of the lack of exhibition space, staff, money, or interest.

The vintage clothing and costumes are usually donated by area residents. They bring in grandmother's or great-aunt Sarah’s clothes that they discovered when cleaning out her house after she died. The items run the gamut in type and condition. Sometimes they have an interesting story or provenance. Aunt Sarah may have even pinned a note to certain items.

These donations may then sit in the institution’s attic waiting for someone to resurrect and restore them. They present opportunities for a hands-on learning experience with costumes. Volunteering at your local historical society will enable you to to gain access to reference materials and vintage costumes. You can also view, close-up, exquisite workmanship and fabrics not available to the average person.

Even though museum visitors rate costume exhibits as one of the most popular attractions, sadly, some museums have little interest in displaying their costume holdings. At one Massachusetts historic site a visiting costume conservator was horrified to find a gown made by premier Parisian designer Worth stored in a shower stall. The director's reaction to her protests was "Why should I care about a woman's dress?"

While this attitude is common and a reason more costumes aren't on display, it opens the door for those who do care. The advantage of volunteering at an unenlightened institution is that a volunteer working on costumes might have a freer hand there than at an institution where the curator considers every thread sacred.

A few museums organize groups and programs centered around their costumes. These often include special seminars and teas, access to archives and the costume collection, and a newsletter.

These are ideal places to learn how to preserve your vintage wedding items. You’ll learn to wear white cotton gloves, what cleaning methods are best, and about different fabric types and safe storage methods, plus the names of suppliers of conservation supplies, such as acid-free boxes and tissue paper.

If you don't want to get involved in volunteering or groups, but want a close-up look at period clothing, some museums will set up appointments with their curators to see their collections.

And before blindly donating your items, be sure to ask how they’ll be cared for and if they’ll ever be displayed.