at Rag Rescue tomorrow.
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.
