Housewife from The Workwoman's Guide (1838)

p. 212-213

Figures 19, 20, 21

Straight out of the pages of the Workwoman's Guide, this is the perfect project to use up scrap material.  The main outer fabric is from a vest I made Ian, the pink is from a hand-quilted bonnet my sister made, the scissor area fabric is from a v-neck fan front, and the wool for the needles is from one of Ian's Civil War projects. The pink center has three rows of stitching to keep lengths of different thread separated, as illustrated in the plate above. There is a nice large pocket under the wool flap for buttons, wax, and other small odds and ends.

Housewife

At 28 inches long, this housewife is a lot longer that the Civil War-era housewife's that soldiers carried. This example measures 11 inches long.