Grandma Rose gave me lots of pins and needles. I don't have many of the pins any more as they became bent or dull or rusty. I do still have some of the needles and I wanted to show them to you. Most of them are packaged in their original packaging which is what I find most interesting. Needles today are not the same quality as they were from way back when. Here are a few packages....note the pricing...5 cents, 15 cents.
And here is a package of home repair needles. I don't use these as they are too heavy duty for what I do, but you just never know when you may have the occasional need for something like this.
Back in the day, many businesses gave out gifts to their customers, normally around Christmas time. The gifts they handed out were normally useful items that had their business name imprinted on it. Needle cards were a popular item and here are three the same. These cards have varying degrees of damage to them and some contain more needles than others. The one that is open had the most needles in it and even came with a needle threader. That was missing from the other two cards.
I have a hard time these days finding good needles. While at my local quilt shop the other day, Angie showed me these straw needles and said that she likes them. So I thought I'd give them a try.
Another item in my Grandma's sewing basket was these two thread boxes. They are hard plastic. I don't use them as the thread spools I have today don't fit well.
You can see on the cover over on the left hand side that a business was giving these out to their customers and had their business name stamped on it. I like the name that is embossed on these boxes...Tidee Maid Thread Box. Gosh, I wish businesses gave out cool gifts like these still.
And here is the sewing basket Gramdma Rose gave me. I use it these days for storage.
All in all I think that many of the sewing supplies from that time in life are pretty cool, and some things I enjoy having and I suppose there are some things I'd like to have, not that I can think of anything at the moment. But I will admit, that I do like the time-saving tools we have these days, such as rotary cutters and more.
How about you? Do you have any great sewing items handed down to you or that you've purchased? What are they?