Collection Highlight: Miniature Apron
Measuring just under 40cm square, this apron is too small to wear, even for a child. So, what is it? This miniature apron is in fact an example of a dressmaking sampler, produced by a Victorian girl to show off her sewing skills. It gives us an insight into the lives of working-class girls and young women during the late Victorian period.
Embroidery samplers, or needlework samplers, were originally created as a personal reference for an embroiderer to record the different designs and stitches they learnt. However, during the 17th century onwards, samplers became primarily a show of skill for young girls learning needlework. Our collection contains 65 samplers, of which 49 are embroidery samplers and 16 are perhaps what we would call dressmaking samplers. This apron is an example of the latter.
Although needlework is sometimes only thought of as a leisure activity of the upper class, embroidery samplers in the 19th century were made by girls of all backgrounds and social classes. They were seen as an essential educational tool taught at school by teachers or in the home by mothers. Samplers were often embroidered with the alphabet, numbers, and a passage of religious text to show literacy and piety, as well as embroidery skills.
However this sampler is not a traditional embroidery sampler. Hand-stitched at school by a young Miss W Sutherland in 1892, this apron demonstrates the ability to make and mend clothing.
In schools during the late Victorian period, children were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Working-class girls as young as nine were also taught how to sew and repair clothing and household textiles – important skills for a Victorian woman.
This sampler features various dressmaking skills such as tucking, pleating, gathering, and hemming. These are seen in the photograph above. It also shows the ability to sew on a button and create buttonholes. These are all essential for making and tailoring clothing. Clothes in the Victorian period were expensive, with working-class women owning very few garments. Clothing for the wealthy was hand-made by a tailor or dressmaker. However, in the case of working-class families, it was often made by the women in the family. Clothing was also bought second hand or handed down. This means that the ability to tailor clothing to fit someone who was not its intended wearer was crucial. We can, therefore, assume that this apron was made by a working-class girl who would be learning these skills so she would be able to make clothing for her future family.
This apron is made of linen with a cotton frill at the bottom. These fabrics were cheaper and more practical than the silks often worn by upper-class women. However, they were still precious, and all fabrics had to last a lot longer than we are perhaps used to today.
Darning and patching, crucial skills in order to mend clothing, are therefore also demonstrated on this apron. In the photograph above, we can see the bright contrasting pink and blue stitches demonstrating the ability to mend a hole through darning. Fixing holes and repairing seams in both clothing and household items, such as tablecloths or bedding, would have been part of everyday life for a woman in the 19th-century.
The incredible care with which this work is done, and the skill it would have taken to produce such a piece, is striking. The stitches are tiny and precise, and the ruffle and pleating are even and incredibly neat. Not only would this precision have been crucial when making clothing, but it was also important to demonstrate to future employers. Working-class girls were often employed in domestic work, becoming servants as young as thirteen to upper-class families. In this role they would sew and mend linens on a regular basis.
The apron is embroidered in cross stitch with ‘W. Sutherland, Silver Street School, Grimsby, Fourth Year P. T., 1892’. Little is known about Silver Street School, but there are records of a school being established in a chapel in Silver Street, located off Victoria Street, in 1786. In 1892 it is thought that this school was a junior school, later becoming a girls school.
The ‘P. T.’ could stand for ‘pupil teacher’. These pupil teachers were children, as young as 13, who would help teach the younger pupils and control classes. After a five-year apprenticeship they could become school teachers themselves. To become a pupil teacher Miss Sutherland would have been able to read with fluency, write accurately, and sew neatly. It is possible that she has created this sampler as a teaching tool for the younger children.
The history of working-class girls in the Victorian period is sadly often hidden. There is no written history of Miss W Sutherland – even her first name remains a mystery to us. However, through studying this miniature apron we have uncovered information about her education, her future employment, her clothing, and her societal status. We have gained a brief insight into her life.
Written by Chloe James
I am the Community Curator at N. E. Lincolnshire Museums Service. My role involves working with the local community to engage them with the museum and ensure they are represented in the museum’s collection. I am particularly interested in history’s untold stories, including those of the working-classes and of women. It is the personal connections between objects and people that fascinate me the most.
If you would like to contribute to the museum’s blog please contact Chloe, our Community Curator, at chloe.james@nelincs.gov.uk