Journal

Recovering an antique sewing box

This is a tale of two items languishing for years in my sewing room. 

The first a battered sewing stool - ripped red silk with calico showing through, broken hinges, torn insides.  It is a large fabric footstool, possibly a seat.  The inside had baggy stretched silk pockets, braid held on with studs.  

The second the beginnings of a hand pieced hexagon quilt, made by my Mum in 1980s and passed onto me to do something with.

I talked about the quilt and not knowing what to do with it, in this video. 

I find hand me down unfinished projects difficult - there isn’t the impetus there to keep going that I have with my own project - so both things hung around, in a very guilt inducing way, until I had to clear the cupboard, saw them together and thought “I wonder . . . .”

The sewing stool - despite looking sad - was actually in very good condition. 

First I stripped it down to the calico - finding in the process that this wasn’t its first recovering - trapped in a seam was a tiny piece of burgundy leather.  That, along with the many, many tack holes - suggest that this was original covering and that all the bits that I was removing were from an earlier refurbishment.

That chimes with my feelings - that the fine silk, the pockets and braid along with the castors are all a bit newer than the carcass.  Castors were patented in the 1870s so some time between then and 1900 would be my guess.

I kept the interior fittings and put them carefully to one side.

Then it was a case of reversing the process. 

I carefully wrapped the patchwork, roughly cut to size, around the top of the box.

Ironing it and stretching it slightly before stapling the fabric in place.

I did the long sides, then the short sides and finally pleated the corners, cutting away the excess fabric.

I thought long and hard about whether to remove the paper backing from the hexagons - it is tissue paper and held in place with tacking stitches.  In the end I kept it in - I like the idea that this is a piece with a complicated history - that it isn’t just one person’s work.

The bottom was very similar - once I removed the castors it was clear that the bottom had been ‘wrapped’ too, rather than made from sewed together pieces.

This shows the castors and the way the silk fabric was simply gathered and tacked in place - as opposed to the calico which is carefully stitched to shape.

I followed the example of the silk!

Then I carefully put the inner sections back and reattached them with new, slightly longer, studs which would go through the thicker fabric of the patchwork.

The bottom.

and the two pieces back together.

When I got the scissors out to cut into the quilt I felt sick - all that work being sliced up.  But then I looked at it rationally - the amount of work needed to finish it as a quilt practically guaranteed that it would not be finished by me. 

And then what happens - do I hand it on down another generation?

This way it gets seen every day, all the fabrics which bring back memories are seen every day - and I do have enough left over to make into a cushion and possibly a couple of pouches that I will give to my daughters.

This is it in place in the living room, next to the “unfinished cardigan” cushion that my Mum made me.

I was very careful to keep the original piece of furniture unchanged - the reupholstery is very light touch and all original pieces bar the broken hinges were reused.

You may also enjoy …