A Stitch in Time

Last December, while looking through the American Folklife Center’s “needlework” subject file, I came across a photocopy of a letter from an Elsie Reinhart, dated September 23, 1977. The letter read:

“Dear Dr. Boorstin:
My sister, A Irma Cohon, wrote you on July 3, 1977 regarding the sewing course I had taken many years ago and which just came to my attention. I’m happy that my sister took this step and hopefully it will give the young students inspiration to “compete” with and “improve” lessons in needlecraft, as done so many years ago.

One little mistake I see in my sister’s letter to you. Instead of “now in her 84th year,” it is my 83rd year. Such a difference – Ha! Ha!

Best of Good Wishes to you in your striving to promote ambition in the Young People’s Sewing Field!

Sincerely,
Elsie C. Reinhart”

Along with a copy of Reinhart’s letter, the file included a copy of the response from Peter H. Bridge, Acting Chief of the Exchange and Gift Division at the Library, as well as a detailed description of the item:

“Book of sewing examples prepared by Miss Elsie C. Reinhart for a sewing course. Miss Reinhart was born about 1894. Sandra Tinkham, a textile specialist from the Library of Congress Exhibits Office, estimated that the book dates between 1890-1920. Ms. Tinkham felt that the notebook demonstrated plainsewing garment work appropriate to the training of a housemaid rather than a seamstress. She also felt that the book was probably compiled by a teacher rather than by a student, perhaps as a part of a display for Parents’ Day or some other school function.

Notebook, bound with lacing, approximately 26 pages
Gift of Miss Elsie C. Reinhart
Received October 1977

Removed from Subject File and placed in preservation manuscript box in Manuscript Bay, September 1987.”

Yet another piece of paper in the same file specified that the preserved item was located in the AFS Manuscript Bay – in a gray box.

It was that last bit that really piqued my interest — because there is no “AFS Manuscript Bay.” At least, not anymore.

The American Folklife Center does have a significant collection of manuscript items, but the section of the Library where they are housed is not referred to as the AFS Manuscript Bay. This is a term that was likely used back when the Center was first created in 1976 but now, almost 50 years later, there would be a little bit of confusion as to the exact location of the item.

After a search that involved sorting through the Library’s main catalog, the AFC collections database, and a hopeful/naive search of the Center’s corporate subject files, I gave up and consulted the institutional memory of two of my colleagues: Jennifer Cutting and Judith Gray. At first, we were all stumped, before Judith remembered the artifacts list.

While we do have some artifacts – a banjo here, a carved wooden puzzle there, the occasional hooked rug – the American Folklife Center is largely an audio-visual archive, meaning our collections typically consist of audio recordings, film or video, and handwritten or typed manuscript items. Sometimes, as in the case of that aforementioned wooden puzzle, an artifact comes to the Library as part of a larger collection. Occasionally, though, the Center is given or otherwise acquires an item outside of these collections. These items are entered as artifacts. This was the case with Reinhart’s sewing notebook.

The book consists of twenty-four examples of different stitches and sewing techniques, including a sampler of important stitches, and a list of their names:

1. Running stitch
2. Uneven basting
3. backstitch
4. Over-handing
5. Over-casting
6. Cat-stitch
7. Chain-stitch
8. Feather stitch
9. Blanket stitch

In the case of #6, the correct term for that particular example is “catch stitch,” not the “cat stitch” recorded in the book. It is a type of stitch commonly used in garment-making, particularly on hems.

Other entries in the book include an example of darning, for patching holes in fabric

as well as inserting a hemmed patch

and an overhand patch.

According to the handwritten notes in the book, the overhand patch sample was sewn using a number 9 needle, and a number 100 thread. The instructions for inserting one of these types of patches is as follows:

“To cut model for large piece count 24 blue stripes across the goods and 22 blue stripes length of goods. This makes nearly a square, the woof threads are looser than the warp threads which makes the stripes under cut from the center of this piece a square of 11 white stripes. This will leave the blue at the edge of the whole.
For patch cut a piece of goods 15 white stripes square. Notch at the top of both pieces, so mistakes can’t be made in setting in patch.
For setting in patch, cut the corners of the hole diagonally across two stripes, turn down, two stripes all around; miter the corners of patch slightly and turn down two stripes.”

The thing I love the most about those instructions is the use of the word “woof threads,” instead of “weft threads.”

In addition to showing types of embroidery and hand-sewing stitches, along with examples of patches and hems, the sewing notebook includes a few examples of trickier techniques, such as inserting a gusset or a hemmed placket:

The dimensions of the gusset and placket sample are given as “5 3/4 inches long by 5 1/2 inches wide, gusset 2 1/2 inches square.” The placket measures 2 1/4″ long.

There is also a sample showing how to insert a sleeve placket:

Perhaps my favorite example from the entire sewing notebook, however, is this example of what Elsie Reinhart describes as “damask darning.” The accompanying page of text describes this as a “method of darning table linen.”

This method of darning is an example of “visible mending,” as opposed to the almost invisible overhand patch exhibited earlier in this post. In the case of damask darning, the goal is to create a visually interesting patch that both covers/hides the hole and adds decorative interest to the repaired piece. Although I have certainly done some visible mending in the past, none of my examples have been this decorative. After seeing this sample in the Reinhart notebook, I am tempted to go home and try my hand at the same pattern.

I will note that the stitches on many of these examples are incredibly small and precise. As someone who has been sewing for 35+ years, which includes my fair share of hand-sewing, I am in awe of some of the stitches in this notebook. Although the notebook was assessed as “appropriate to the training of a housemaid rather than a seamstress,” that largely pertains to the types of examples given – patches and hems and darning – and is not a judgement on the skill of the individual who made the samples. The tiny stitches on the gusset insertion alone are enough to give me stitch jealousy, and will indeed inspire me to, in the words of Ms. Reinhart, “compete” and “improve” my own lessons in needlecraft.