Hello, my name is Dianne. I'm going to show you some sewing books and items sewn by primary school girls in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
All the girls had weekly sewing lessons. I'm using a needle and thread to sew a cross stitch at the moment. But when I was in fourth grade I sewed a knitting bag made all by hand.
This knitting bag was made by another student from another school. As you can see we all did very similar things.
Some of the first items that the girls made in third class were a pinwheel - safe place to keep your pins - and a needle book - a very safe place to store your needles. Both the needle book and the pinwheel were safely kept inside the sewing box.
The girls recorded their sewing work by pasting sewn samples into their sewing book and that was a record of their skills and techniques. Top-stitching, tacking and hemming right through to embroidery.
In our collection we have sewing books for girls who attended a variety of schools across New South Wales. The good condition of them indicates that the girls took great pride in their work and that the books were treasured by their owners.
When we examine each one we find that the contents are identical. This indicates that each girl was to learn exactly the same set of skills.
At a time when women sewed and mended the books became a handy reference.
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