Hello, my name is Kathryn and I'm going to talk about how girls learnt to sew at school.
While the girls learnt to sew, the boys were doing woodwork. The girls were taught by either sewing teachers or more often the wife of the headmaster would come in and do sewing lessons.
These girls actually did a series of stitches, called samplers. They did a sample of different stitches. As you can see here and they might have done some embroidery, some mending because they had to learn to mend their clothes as well as make them. These are buttonholes, they've got different chain stitches and counted thread work.
These are particularly lovely because they actually have the student's name, Jane Lowe, and the actual year 1896 and they've been beautifully sewn by girls in that era. We also get a snapshot of what was being worn at that time.
This is like a little apron that was created. They made miniature clothing and of course once again their embroidered as well and this one actually says 'age 11 years' so we know how old the child was when they did, the girl, did the actual sewing.
All clothes were handmade in that era and they were handed down and you actually cared for your clothing. This one is a beautiful nightshirt that you can see with very fine stitches and buttonholes and the initials on there and also how to put in sleeves and how to do the neck and the back.
All girls were taught to sew and it was a very important part of the curriculum of the early 1900s and the late 1890s.
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