Sewing memorabilia tells a story

We’ve discovered successful women like Polish pattern designer Johanna Weigel, aka. Madame Weigel, a pioneering business woman who is said to have ‘clothed the colonies’.

Madame Weigel produced patterns from 1878 and catered for the whole family through the full life cycle of birth to matron. Her reach extended throughout the colony using shopkeepers as agents. Her business was in operation for 90 years and in 1915 alone sold over 1 million patterns.
Once part of the education curriculum, our collection also contains embroidery samplers that were used to teach students manual dexterity and coordination. Students gained basic life skills that would enable them to at least repair a button should the need arise.

In the category of sewing machines alone, we have over 10 machines dating from as early as 1920, that shows the trajectory of innovation and mechanisation of craft through the ages. They are not just a curiosity, but also show how new technology is not always better than older models. Older machines use simple mechanisms and were designed to be maintained at home. Modern machines have plastic parts that wear out and break, and are designed with built-in obsolescence that condemns them to the rubbish tip once they reach a certain age.

In addition to the historical value of preserving this collection, we also use it as a training tool. Each week we host our free mentoring program, the Exchange Project in the Gladys Mary Studio where the Heritage Collection is displayed

“One girl already had a project on-the-go but came in saying her sock had a hole in it. We talked about it and she was keen to learn how to darn the hole. We taught her to use a darning mushroom [from the Heritage Collection] and she was thrilled to fix her sock. She was so excited to go home and tell her mum that she’d learnt a skill so that if she saw a small hole in her sock she could fix it before it became bigger”.