Mother of pearl sewing items

at Rag Rescue tomorrow.

Rag Rescue website

Of all the sewing items, silk winders are the most beautiful. They were intricately carved both in ivory bone and mother of pearl.

Often sailors from the poorer families brought back mother of pearl gaming tokens and gave them to their sweethearts to wind their silk around.

In the past, embroidery silks were very silky and catchy so the skeins were wound around thread winders to stop them getting tangled.

The tapemeasure is a valuable aid to needlework.

Early measures, up to the mid 19th century were marked in 'nails', a measurement of 2 and a 1/4 inches, later the normal inch was used.

The earliest ones were wound into the container by a handle as in the one shown above.

Baby stops play.......

I had every intention of writing another post yesterday with a few more photographs of the items I bought at the fairs. As the title states I just couldn't get around to it. Unfortunately baby Oliver, 4 weeks old, my latest grandchild ill. On visiting my daughter yesterday I discovered that he had been vomiting after his feed, all day and night. I suggested the health visitor should be called and he then went to the doctors who sent him to hospital. The poor little mite had a racing heart beat and an uneven breathing pattern. I had to step in to look after Molly the 4 year old whilst mum was at the hospital. Fortunately they were able to bring him home later in the evening as he had kept a small feed down. On returning today with Molly I heard that he had still vomited during the night, so it is still a worry.

Any way I have been able to catch up with all of the orders today, so a big thank you for those customers who have been very patient.

Here are some more items that will be listed next week.

Vintage card boxes, mother of pearl thread winders and vintage fabric scrappy parcels.