Sewing Rolls, Needle Rolls and Huswifs

Sewing rolls can tell us extraordinary stories of lives lived. These are commonplace things, often overlooked, but they are a vital part of the sewer's and repairer's kit. In the past, they were used as much by men as by women. No soldier or sailor was without his 'huswif', the old term for a sewing roll derived from the word housewife. It was what he used to keep his uniform smart and his socks darned. Dawn Cook Ronningen has collected sewing rolls for many years and has now written a book about them, called simply Sewing Rolls, Needle Rolls and Huswifs, 150 Years of History and Tradition. In it, she tracks the development of these beautiful and often worn items but also tells the story of a blue velvet roll that belonged to a woman called Sarah Allcock who lived in Ohio and Kansas and, despite the fancy roll, had a hard and difficult life.