Vintage Sewing Box
About 5 years ago my husbands Aunt sadly passed away.
She had been a machinist all her life and worked in various sewing factories up in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
When I used to work for M&S suppliers she always used to ask me ‘what are the colours going to be next year?’ because she knew we would be working on the next years collections and she wanted to be ahead of the times! She always liked to talk sewing and fabric and clothing and was a lot of fun.
When the time came to clear her house we went along with the rest of the family to help out. Little did we know what awaited us when we opened the door to her sewing room. She had hoarded fabric, zips, trims, buttons, thread everything related to sewing you could ever think of.
We found numerous half-finished garments but the biggest shock of all was the sheer amount of fabric.
Being a sewer myself it was heartbreaking to see, because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to take it all and that some of it might end up being dumped.
I ended up with 4 large suitcases full and various relatives took some. Some of it wasn’t worth keeping (sorry Rona!) and my mother-in-law (from the make do and mend generation) couldn’t bear to see it wasted so my husband had to make at least 4 journeys in our estate car with the seats all down to get it back to his mums house where we stored it in her garage. Eventually the local college took a lot of it but sadly some of it had to be dumped.
I just wanted to tell that story as an example of how sewing and fabric can become an addiction. I can’t bear to throw away scraps if I think I might end up using them for something but occasionally have to force myself to go back through and get rid.
Anyway along with a whole load of fabric, zips, buttons etc I kept this cute sewing box.
I love the tag ‘A Chard Product British Made’ I also love the fact that my husband’s uncle had probably revarnished it over the years, you can see a little drip on the underside of the lid and the inside is painted pink and is scratched away in places.
I collected together lots of vintage bits and pieces that belonged to Aunty Rona and I keep them in the box.
I love the ‘Singer lubricant for electric motors’ the needle threader and the wooden cotton spools. I also keep my vintage buttons and buckles in the box and I do use them when I make my clothes but I don’t think I will ever use the other bits and pieces, for some reason I feel I should keep them.
They will probably just sit in the box and occasionally when I’m looking for buttons I will look at them and smile. Isn’t it funny how we like to keep old things, just for the fact of keeping them? I do it with other things too, I have drawers full of old sewing magazines, vintage American matchbooks and postcards. I have a box full of my nans old things in my loft – really old postcards that she used to write and send home to her sisters when she was in service in the 1920s. I rarely look at them but could never get rid of them, maybe it’s just sentimental and maybe we keep different things for different reasons.
Do you hang on to things, is it for sentimental reasons or just plain hoarding?
I enjoyed reading this entry. I find myself in my mid 40s retired and learning to love my crafts and sewing again. I have some challenges these days with the rheumatoid arthritis and carpal tunnel so I do this one step at a time. Readjust my sails and my bobbin and steady I go. I have my great grandmother’s singer sewing machine not a featherweight but looks almost identical with the golden letters and the silver sesign plate on front. It’s been around my whole life. Great grandmother passed on when I was two but grandma told me stories and sewed as I watched listened. I cherish the memories. Today not really realizing what I have I ran across a new Coats and Clark sewing kit tucked away in the
drawer. Today it’s vintage but for me it’s memories and the memories rolled from my eyes down to my cheeks. I love days like this. I intend to sew ladies hair scrunchies and donate them to a local women’s shelter. I figure this will be a great way to honor my grandmother’s and keep the singer in shipshape and keep me occupied and active in my retirement phase as I adjust to rheumatoid and retirement .
Oh Kelly, what a lovely, lovely comment, so touching to hear your story. It is so interesting how sewing and sewing machines are so intertwined with out history and memories.
I was just recommended a book to read called ‘The Sewing Machine’ by Natalie Fergie and it was fantastic, you might like it too. This is the description from Amazon
“It is 1911, and Jean is about to join the mass strike at the Singer factory. For her, nothing will be the same again. Decades later, in Edinburgh, Connie sews coded moments of her life into a notebook, as her mother did before her. More than 100 years after his grandmother’s sewing machine was made, Fred discovers a treasure trove of documents. His family history is laid out before him in a patchwork of unfamiliar handwriting and colourful seams. He starts to unpick the secrets of four generations, one stitch at a time.”
I love my grandmothers old singer machine, the sound it makes is so soothing. What I really would love is a sewing room with enough room that I can keep it out and ready to use but I just don’t have the room at the moment. I have to get my machine out and sew in my living room or kitchen and then put it away again when I’m finished, but I am grateful that I have it and can use it.
Did you know you can find out the year and the factory it was made in from the number on the front plate? There are a few websites that you can put the number into. Mine was made in Clydebank in I think 1948.
I think your great grandmother and your grandmother would be so proud of what you are doing, what a wonderful thing to do. I’m sure as you go along you will find more things to make and hopefully it might help with your arthritis.
Thank you SO much for your comment. it’s made my day!!