FABRIC NAMES & DESCRIPTIONS

SEWING TOOLS

SEWING TECHNIQUES

COLOUR NAMES

FUR & LEATHER NAMES

EMBELLISHMENTS

BUTTONS

EMBROIDERY

DYESTUFFS & DYEING

Sewing Tools
NEEDLES - PINS - THIMBLES - SCISSORS & SHEARS - NEEDLECASES - REELS - LUCETS
SPINDLES - SPINNING WHEELS - LOOMS

Sewing is an occupation which is historically usually, but not always, in the domain of women. During the medieval period this was no different and guilds stipulated what women could and could not produce. On a domestic level, poorer women at home produced everything.

The tools for basic sewing have not changed over thousands of years. The shapes of some of them- like scissors- have varied slightly, but pins and needles and the way women use them, have not.

Sewing tools include: needles, pins, scissors, snips, shears, thimbles, needlecases, pin cases, reels, awls, and lucets. Any of these items may be found in the modern woman's sewing basket. Fabric was usually measured with a measuring stick. The detail at the right is from a 15th century illumination of The Holy Family and shows Mary with a basket of sewing tools.

The most comprehensive listing of sewing tools comes from Hugh of St Victor when he talks about the tools required for textile arts. Although he lived between1096-1141, he cites:

Textile manufacture includes all types of weaving, sewing, and spinning which are done by hand, needle, spindle, awl, reel, comb, loom, crisper, iron or any other kind of instrument out of any kind of material of flax or wool, or any sort of skin, whether scraped or hairy, also out of hemp or cork, or rushes or tufts or anything of the kind which can be used for making clothes, coverings, drapery, blankets, saddles, carpets, curtains, napkins, felts, strings, nets, ropes; out of straw, too, from which men usually make their hats and their baskets. All these studies pertain to textile manufacture.

Needles
One of the most basic and long-lived of all the sewing tools is the needle. Along with pins, needles have been used since time immemorial.

Needles made from copper, silver, gold and bronze are recorded in ancient. Egypt. In 1370, however, we find references to needle-making for sewing from Germany. Prior to that, there are records of book-binders and shoemakers needles made from hog bristles. Needles could also be made from bone, which was readily available to poorer women.

The needle at left is made of bronze and dates between the 14th and 15 centuries. It was found at Threave Castle, in Scotland.

Pins
Pins have been used for sewing and also as a dress accessory, so many finds from archaeological digs have decorative ends with glass beads. Although it isn't certain, it is likely that the decorative pins were used for clothing- the pinning on of sleeves to gowns or to pin jewellery to a hat- and the plain pins with smaller non-decorative heads were used for pinning fabric together prior to sewing in the manner which we do today.

Shown at right are two samples of pins which are fairly typical of the medieval period. The first dates to the 4th-5th century and is a hammered pin made of silver from Athens. The second group of three pins are from the 15th century Hungary.

Thimbles
Thimbles have also been used for centuries. The dimples in the surface allowed the thimble to protect the finger while pushing a needle through fabric or leather. A thimble is generally made out of strong leather or metal, although some older manufacturers used horn and ivory.

Prior to the 18th century, the dimples were hand punched, sometimes in a docorative pattern, but more usually to cover the entire wall surface. The two thimbles shown at left are both from London, England and both from the 14th century. They are also both constructed from brass and have a small hole at the top which may or may not have been required in the manufacturing process. The thimble at the far left features a flower design, which, like the thimble next to it, has been hand punched

The two thimbles at the right are also from London, England. Both are hand-punched. The thimble to the left of the pair, is silver-gilt and bears an inscribed motto in medieval French, "MA JO IE" which means "my joy". It also has engraved leaves. Such in item would have been quite expensive and used for fine work by a wealthy woman.

The second is known as a "ring thimble" because it's design and open top lets it be worn on the finger like a ring. It is made of brass and dated to the late 15th century.

Scissors
and shears
Another of the basic sewing tools which has survived almost unchanged is the scissors. Scissors proper and sprung shears have both been found throughout the medieval period and although of varying design, are much like the ones we have today.

The group of three shown at left comes from a viking excavation which is well before our medieval ladies were sewing, and show three different types of scissors or shears. The middle ones are almost identical to the scissors we use today, and the shears on either side are identical to the ones used for hand-clipping wool used only a few generations ago.

The scissors shown at right are from the medieval period but the exact names and references I have are in Russian so you may look at the pictures until I find an English language translation, but I believe they are either from the London finds or the Novrogod finds.

The one at left of the pair are almost identical to the ones shown from the viking excavation and the ones we use today, and the ones on the far left are commonly depicted in illuminations where sheep shearing or the cutting of large bolts of cloth are shown.

The scissors shown at the right date between 1350 and 1400. They are made of iron and were found at Baynards Castle in England. They are also very similar to scissors which have been produced in the 20th century.

Needlecases and pincases
What to keep one's sewing tools in has long been a question faced by women from as long as they had tools to use.

Needlecases and pincases during the medieval period were usually more or less cylindrical with a top which lifted off but remained attached via two cords, one at each side. Many of these were made of metal and could be quite ornate although there have been a few examples of worked leather as well.

The 13th century hexagonal needlecase shown at right is made from silver and has an ornate pattern embossed into its sides. It would have belonged to a wealthy woman. The needlecase shown at right is dated from the 16th century in Venice but it is typical of the style in use in the preceeding centuries.

Bobbins, reels
and threadholders
Threadholders, bobbins and reels are another item which has rarely changed shape over the centuries. The two most popular shapes are long and thin, or shorter with a wide top and foot, similar to the ones of our grandmothers era with or without the hole at the top and bottom.

At the left is an example of an existant wooden thread holder from London. At right is a set of wooden thread holders or reels from Frieburg dating back to the 15th or 16th century.

Lucets
The lucet is a cord or lace-making tool which has been used since Viking times. By wrapping the thread around the prongs in a manner similar to French knitting, one produces a square braid or lace which is durable and doesn't easily slip when used for garment fastenings.

Many other braids and laces are made using the fingerlooping method- that is a method of looping the thread around the fingers to form a kind of knotted braid. Plaiting is also another method of making laces for clothing or shoes.

As far as I can tell, there are no illustrations of braid being made using a lucet (or lucette, in French) but braid found matches that which could be made with a two-pronged tool such as these shown here.

Shown at left is an item believed to be a bone lucet from York, in England. The decorated item at the right is made from whale bone and generally believed to be a lucet from prior to the 12th century.

Spindles
The spindle, also known as the drop spindle, had long been in use before the medieval period, and its use continued right throughout the early and middle ages, only dwindling in use towards the very end of the 15th century.

Even with the introduction of the spinning wheel, the spindle was not abandoned straight away. It was cheaper, portable, available for home production, portable and surprisingly, still produced an end product which was superior in quality to that of the thread spun on the wheel.

A spindle was essentially nothing more than a slender, shaped stick with a weight at the bottom called a whorl. The wool, already cleaned and combed on the distaff was pried from the distaff onto the spindle while it was manually spun. This produced a fine thread which could then be woven into cloth. The wooden distaff head shown at right is dated to the 15th century, and was used for linen. It is 115mm tall and was found in dordrecht. The spindle whorl pictured below at right comes from England and is made from the bone of a cow's leg.

The image detail above is from the Luttrel Psalter, which is from the 14th century, and shows a women with her spindle and distaff outside feeding the chickens.

Spinning Wheels
The late 13th century saw the introduction of the spinning wheel into cloth production. The earliest illustration of a spinning wheel in use is dated at 1237 from Baghdad. At its emergance it was, at first, not very well recieved because the thread was rough and uneven and much better results were gained spinning by hand. In 1280, it is recorded that the Draper's Guild banned its use for this very reason.

Originally, the spinning wheel was set on a table and powered by hand, as shown in the detail image from the manuscript, the Luttrel Psalter, from the 14th century. The image shows that the table is mounted on wheels at one end, presumably to allow for the wheel to be moved.

Eventually, the spinning wheel produced better results, but according the the 14th century Florentine book, Arte della Lana, it was recommended that the shorter fibres of wool be saved for use on the spinning wheel to make thread for the weft of a cloth, and the longest fibres only used for hand spinning to make the warp, which was where the fabric gained its strength. During the 15th century, the foot pedal was added, leaving both hands free to focus on the wool.

Looms
While a women was in charge of producing yarn for weaving on the spindle or spinning wheel, the actual weaver of the household was was usually the head male.

There were two styles of loom during the medieval period. The early looms were upright, the later ones were horizontal. Upright looms are still in use today for the manufacture of hand-made tapestries. Pictured at left is a detail from an illumination showing a woman working at an upright loom.

The horizontal loom was operated with appeared in Europe in the 11th century with the first reference made in the Talmudic commentaries of Rashi, of Troyes, who wrote that looms of that kind were being used by professional weavers. This new, improved loom was probably adapted from a Chinese horizontal loom which was already in use.

By the 12th century, the horizonal loom had been mechanized and was operated by foot-treadles. Instead of weaving the heddle bar through the warp threads, the weaver needed only to push his treadles and every second warp thread rose above the others. He could then pass the heddle bar through the opening it presented. The next push of the treadles pushed those threads down and raised the next set. The warp threads were rolled around a cylinder of wood at the far end of the loom and unrolled as needed. The finished cloth was gathered at the front of the loom.

By the 15th century, men's domination over the weaving industry had waned and women were also more regularly employed as weavers. At the right is a detail from a 15th century image of Boccaccio's De Claris Mulieribus. It shows the horizontal loom along with the other steps necessary to produce the thread prior to weaving- carding, spinning and cleaning.

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