Hinged wooden box with key and lift out tray containing 14 miniature reels of coloured silks plus other threads, miniature needles, pin cushions and tape measure. The box also contains a child's white kid glove and a pair of doll's shoes.

Sewing for a young girl might involve sampler or other embroidery work, but also making dresses for her dolls. Several books published in the early 19th century wrote about the importance of doll's dressmaking in training for adult life. Ladies' magazines would occasionally include articles for young children on the subject. Later in the century patterns for dolls' clothes also became available, and some dolls were even sold with patterns for making their clothes.

Many young girls, however, relied on their own ingenuity in copying their own or their mothers' clothes in miniature and fitting them to their doll. The possession of a sewing box such as this one would have been a great encouragement to any young child and was a greatly treasured item.

Andere, Mary. Old needlework boxes and tools; their story and how to collect them, Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1971

King, Constance Eileen. The encyclopedia of toys, Adelaide: Rigby, 1978

Opie, Iona. The treasures of childhood: books, toys and games from the Opie collection, London: Pavilion, 1989

Antique sewing boxes

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. To be a child August 2004-