Textiles and Stuff 

This is a small continental sampler of dressmaking techniques, a school girl’s work in strong cotton fabric probably calico, with a linen cover. It shows three pages of different kinds of finishes, run and fell seams, ordinary hems, an almost invisible joining of two fabrics and a french seam. On the third page are examples of eyelet holes and buttonholes. The final page is an alphabet sampler in red wool on canvas, with two examples of darning. It is beautifully made with the tiniest of hemming stitches and the girl has embroidered her name “H. Yonker” and her class on the bottom corner of the cover. Also on the cover are the initials VF with a cross which may be the insignia of the convent where she went to school. This sampler dates from the beginning of the 20th Century and is an excellent example of what school children were expected to produce - work of a very high standard, teaching them a skill which would be useful to them as adults, either in the home or to earn a living.