Yeah, the idea of charity sewing adds another dimension… The situation, theoretically, is a female relative visiting (cousin, maybe), with no problem for others to darn stockings or socks in her presence, but not expecting her to work on the immediate family’s old holey socks.
Rather than cutting a hole for her to mend, I think having charity sewing projects around would mean she could have worked on that. If it would be the norm to have projects like that in the basket, seems it would be preferred. Or, she could be working a new item, like making a shirt or shift. Something done with new stockings is “running in” the heels. Researcher Steve Rayner found a Cuthbertson reference from 1768: …"running them in the heels will strengthen them exceedingly, therefore every Soldier should learn that piece of oeconomy, as well as to mend his stockings, it being very praise worthy, besides saving him a constant expence.” Run-in heel reinforcements are something I’ve seen in extant early 19thC stockings, but before the above info I didn’t know how early we had it documented. (Pre Rev War, Yay!!!) Soooo, coming back around to the original story: If the relative could work on new stockings but not old ones, I think she could have done the heel reinforcements (running-in). Unless, by later eras, the running-in was part of the finishing done before you would buy the stockings. Maybe I’ll never find the source of the “cutting a hole” story, but it would be nice to know if it was from real experience or not. Thanks! -Carol > On Dec 21, 2015, at 7:45 PM, Elena House <exst...@gmail.com> wrote: > > (snip) > > My first thought was that it was historical fiction, but not necessarily > modern historical fiction, if that makes sense. It could have been written > say in the middle of the 20th century, when this practice might possibly > have occurred to someone--or it could be a result of the earlier pulp > fiction years, and possibly written by a male (who wouldn't know this > didn't sound quite right) under a female pen name. > > My second thought was that from what I'm thinking is the original post, by > Carol, I couldn't really tell what era this was supposed to be, or what > class the young woman/women were supposed to belong to. Surely there would > be a class divide between those who are socially expected to do 'pretty' > work to show off their accomplishments, and those who would feel they were > impressing the people they wanted to impress more by showing off their > usefulness...? A middle-upper class family's daughter in say, 1880s NYC > would certainly sew different things when a guest was there than a farming > family's daughter in Ohio in the 1940s would. > > I still find the idea of cutting a hole in NEW stocking a bit of a stretch, > but if it were a plot point in an > Isn't-Our-Heroine-Just-Too-Angelic-For-Words type of 1910s young adult > pulp, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find myself reading about it; it > sounds like the kind of story meant to show off someone's virtue. > > -E House > > > On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 6:32 PM, Marjorie Wilser <the3t...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I vote for fiction. It seems wrong on so many levels. You don’t “cut a >> hole" in a (new!) stocking to darn. You cut a thread and let it ravel a >> little. In that day, I suspect making ANY kind of hole would never have >> happened. You wouldn’t destroy new goods for any reason, much less to make >> busy work. >> >> However, the very idea of them darning stockings in a social setting is >> suspect. It just wouldn’t be done in polite circles. Wish I could help on >> the reference. >> >> ==Marjorie Wilser >> >> @..@ @..@ @..@ >> Three Toad Press >> http://3toad.blogspot.com/ >> >> >>> On Dec 18, 2015, at 2:05 PM, aqua...@patriot.net wrote: >>> >>> A young woman is visiting a household with other young women, and they >> are >>> darning some stockings. It would not be proper to give her one of the >>> family's stockings to mend, so they cut a hole in a new stocking for her >>> to darn. >>> >>> The whole idea seems silly to me, because it seems that there would be >>> some new clothing to be made or something for her to do that would not >>> require making busy work. That's why it sounds more like historical >>> fiction. >>> >>> Does it sound familiar to anyone? >>> >>> Thanks! >>> -Carol >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> h-costume mailing list >> h-costume@mail.indra.com >> http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume >> > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
