Imagine, you are a soldier in the First World War. You are cold, muddy and wet and your shoes never seem to dry out. It is a horrible war, and seems likely to never end. In the damp things seem to rot so quickly, and you are forever loosing buttons from your uniform. There are always little mending jobs to do, and thank goodness for the little sewing kit you have – your housewife. It contains everything you need to keep your uniform if not in good condition, at least in wearable condition.
When I showed this soldiers sewing kit (also known as a housewife) to the children, their reaction was quite odd. They of course learn about war, and about the soldiers, about the conditions they lived under and the hardships they endured. They had never thought of the everyday, normal things which the soldiers must also have done. Sewing seemed too mundane, but as one child pointed out ‘I suppose they had to do it, their Mum’s weren’t there to do it for them!’ A sewing kit also seemed like such a personal thing with needles they might have pricked themselves with and cottons which might have been used to mend a rip, sew on a patch or to fix a button. They found it quite moving.
When we think of soldiers and war, we are very unlikely to think of sewing, unless it is in the context of women at home sewing for their soldiers away at the front. Yet all soldiers, in all wars, on all sides are likely to have had some sort of sewing kit. Sometimes these were issued to the soldier, but many were improvised on the front (when the original went missing), or were made by loving wives, children and mothers for their boys away from home. The one I showed the children has 'Dad' written inside. During the American Civil War it was common for wives and mothers to make their soldier men a sewing kit and these sewing kits became known as ‘housewives’, a name which stuck.
Sewing kits were extremely important to soldiers. With a sewing kit a soldier could repair his clothes when they became damaged, thereby preventing embarassing moments, the cold, wet and dust from penetrating, and to avoid trouble during inspections! They could also sew on awards, ribbons or new ranks which were given to them, ensuring that they displayed with pride their war history. Yet sewing kits could also be used for more unlikely tasks. Think of all the unusual things you do with a bit of thread or a button and it is certain that some soldier, somewhere probably did something similar. Yet they probably also did some things with these little kits which you would never dream of. As well as the more mundane tasks of mending clothing and digging out the occasional splinter, they were occasionally used as a crude first aid. It was not unknown for the needle and thread to be used to pin skin together or even sew a wound up. On Friday Roy will be making his own soldiers ‘housewife’, so come back to see what he creates!