A sewing book

No pictures today, which doesn't mean I haven't taken any - I have been having a lovely time photographing my secret project, but since that is not for publication yet I will mention an interesting book I came across in the second hand bookshop this week.

"Needlework and Cutting Out" by Agnes Walker. This is a manual for teachers. It is also about the same vintage as "Educational Needlecraft" which I wrote about back in February, but oh, what a different approach. "Thimble Drill" ,"Needle Drill", and so forth through the lessons. And drill means exactly that - doing the actions on command, in unison. Boring plain sewing until the children (girls, although this is never mentioned, I think we can assume it) are able to do boring plain seams.

I would have been in big trouble - I could never use a thimble at school. I used to wonder why I found school sewing so hard to do, and got a nasty sore spot on my right ring finger. That is because they made me put the thimble on the finger I used to hold the needle, and I used the next one to push the needle through. Thank goodness my Mother never forced me to use a thimble, and just let me play with needles and thread, and find my own natural way of working. I learned so much more from just messing around and asking her when I wanted help than in all the school lessons. What is more, her way kept the love alive.

So it is an interesting book, and has a lot of patterns - shirts, drawers, combinations and pinafores, etc. That is enough to make it worth having, since it is fascinating how the cut of garments has changed over the years. But I am very glad I am not a little girl in 1907 - I would be learning to hate sewing, and the teacher would not think very much of my skills!