Saturday 2 September 2006

Found in a Sewing Basket III

Now, this is getting really interesting. Yesterday's photograph has been confirmed as the 10th Light Horse (a Militia at that stage) in camp at Kilmany, in Gippsland, Victoria. The story starts HERE and finishes HERE.

And I have been working me way onwards through the sewing boxes. This one is rather nice.


P05546


It is beautifully made from cane, I thin commercially, and extensively padded inside:


P05546b


Amongst the interesting threads are some Swiss rayon:


P05546h


and some Mount Mellick thread that is obviously Australian, given the Kangaroo, but no other branding.

P05546g


But the piece that interests me most, that others might discard, is this:



P05546i



I want to find out if this is netting cord from WWII - women around here sat making camouflage nets during WWII.

Can you imagine the stories that could be woven around these needlework boxes. The boys in the photos from the first needlework box went off to WWI. The next generation of women sat making the nets.

There is a sewing machine in the Stratford museum which belonged to Alice Mitchell. She was the local dressmaker, and lost three brothers and her fiancee in WWI. She sat at home making hundreds of shirts for soldiers at The Front on that machine.

Imagine the stories that could be written with these artifacts as jumping-off points.

2 Comments:

Blogger Susan said...

I think you are very lucky to be able to see and touch all these things as you catalog them.

5:05 pm  
Blogger Chelle said...

Thank you for sharing these treasures! I really enjoy looking at them.

3:11 am  

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