Stitching Through History

One of my favorite things to do is search the Library of Congress photo archives. In simply looking up “sewing,” I came across a wealth of photos from all sorts of situations. While the first photo took my imagination (what is written on that notecard with the safety pins?), the caption of the second photo, “every soldier his own sewing society,” was the most poignant of them all.

Captions for the rest of the photos are noted at the bottom of each picture. I love how they show people in quiet moments (although the LOC archives also has lots of photos of people sewing in factories!) and working to fix something, whether it’s a uniform, a community or a country. That’s one of the best gifts of craft, I think, that we all belong to a long legacy and that every stitch we take has been done by thousands of individuals before us.

(And as for the last two, there were some pretty interesting photos I found along the way, too, including what has to be the hottest photo taken in 1875 and a puppy sewing.)

Navy sewing kit

every solider his own sewing society

alice pavl sewing

Miss Alice Pavl is shown sewing the thirty-sixth star on the suffrage ratification banner, the stars having been added from time to time as the various states ratified. (1920)

bedding 1918

Legion of Loyal Women, Mrs. Mary Logan Tucker, Sewing on Bedding for Hospitals (1918)

iowa sewing quilt

Wife of Iowa corn farmer sewing choir robes for Methodist church. Greene County, Iowa (1940)

arts and crafts

Philadelphia, Penna., Mar. 1941, girls engaged in knitting and the making of toy animals in the handicraft class of the St. Simon’s Youth Center of the National Youth Administration (1941)

sewing seat cushion

Wife of migrant auto wrecker sewing seat cushion of wrecked auto, Corpus Christi, Texas (1939)

FHA

In the sewing class, a WPA (Work Projects Administration) project, at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) labor camp. Caldwell, Idaho (1941)

moravian

Lititz, Pennsylvania. The Moravian sewing circle quilts for anyone at one cent a yard of thread and donates the money to the church (1942)

sewing copy

Another button off (1875) (No, really, that was the caption.)

puppy sewing

Patch-work (1914) (If you do one thing today, please click on this photo… It is a puppy sewing the pants of another puppy on its lap.)

Stitching for Ourselves: Remembering to Make Time for Us.

Last week was heavy on the “refresh” button. I’m sure you know those weeks, where it all feels like every second is another chance to hit “refresh.” Refresh. Drink some tea. Refresh. Do a little work. Refresh. Go say hi to your co-worker. Refresh. Drink some more tea. Refresh. Refresh. And so on.

This weekend was one of waking up early, doing laundry, cooking for the rest of the week, scrubbing grout, doing more laundry, vacuuming (getting out the crevice tool!), buying groceries, and running errands. A weekend away from the refresh button, and largely away from technology entirely.

Now it’s Sunday night; I find myself creeping back to technology, wondering where the weekend went, then remembering when I see my clean house and the cooked food in in the fridge.

And I wonder if perhaps that’s one of the reasons why I love stitching so much; it marks our time. It shows us in no uncertain way that we were there, we had a quiet moment with our thoughts (or with our friends and/or family) where time was marked and there was no wondering what we did with that time.

It reminds us to take some time for ourselves, doing what we want, instead of plodding along solely doing what has to be done (like most of my weekend) and what we think should be done (hitting refresh waiting for a response in our favor).

While you may be with a group or by yourself, either way it’s still very much just you and your work. Marking time in a very literal way. It shows us quietly how time moves on, no matter how hard we try to hold on to it. Even if we must pick out stitches, the yarn feels different never to be the same again, the linen bears the holes, nothing is ever the same again as it once was.

It’s a moment. It’s a breather. It’s “just one more row.” It’s feeling the thread as it get pulled through the aida cloth. It’s a microcosm of where our mind should be all the time. Not hitting refresh expecting something that may never come, not spending our time solely crossing off to-do lists.

But while we’re stitching, we’re there. Active, but not harried. Making something from nothing. Bringing forth new work into an old world. As the new week begins, may you find time to do work just for you this week, to remember that time is passing, and slipping, like a needle through cloth.

Also, if you haven’t already, The New York Times magazine this week was the Inspiration issue. Brilliant stuff. Thanks for the heads up on that one, @kirstinbutler and @percolate!

Fine Cell Work Selling Exhibition This Thursday!

In or near East London this Thursday (the 19th) between the hours of 1pm and 6pm? Go check out Fine Cell Work’s selling exhibition of their wares! Their new film (below) will also be shown at the event, so hop to it!

Leathersellers’ Hall
15 St. Helen’s Place,
London
EC3A 6DQ

Having seen their work in person before, I definitely recommend going! This charity is one of my favorites the world over. The quilt shown in the video will be part of the V & A Museum’s exhibit Quilts 1700-2010, which will be from March 20 – July 4 2010.

There was a video here but it seems to have disappeared? Keeping the link in case it miraculously goes back up.

Want more?

*A Stitch Doing Time
*Doing Time: Patchwork as a Tool of Social Rehabilitation in British Prisons