Lay my sewing down...

No matter what century or world we talk about there are always things that get left behind. Sometimes it is because something better comes along, sometimes because we forget about it and sometimes just because. I am always on the hunt for these little treasures of things that we have long since stopped using. One of them I discovered three years ago was the sewing pillow. Yea you read that right. It is one of those items that aren't talked about in sources. I know a lot of what I talk about isn't well documented but this is one of those items we can source but not in the written word. It is however documented in a number of paintings from the 1500s and 1600s hundreds.

Nicolaes Maes 1634-1693. Not only is she sewing with a sewinp pillow she has a bobbin lace on a pillow sitting on the chair 

When I was first shown this helpful tool I shrugged it off. Why would I need such a thing? Yet as time went one I grew to love it so much that I made myself one for my home use. They are pretty easy to make, just stuffed a square pretty good with wool, cotton or if you’re adventurous scrap cloth. This little pillow sits on your lap and holds your project in place bringing it to a more comfortable position for your body and your eyes. I have even pinned my project to the pillow so that it wouldn't blow around in the wind when I was working outside or was setting a seam.

The Needle woman (1635-1643) by Diego Velazquez hanging in the national Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.. sewing on a pillow

Now the word pillow according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a bag filled with soft material that is used as a cushion, usually for the head of a person who is lying down. They are filled with feathers, down, sponge rubber or plastic fiber, (it forgets to mention wool). It also refers it to “a cushion or pad tightly stuffed and used as a support for the design and tools in making laces with a bobbin.” (It should read making bobbin lace, since that is really the only lace that requires a pillow but then again I am being nit-picky.) The noun comes from the Middle English word,  pilwe or Old English, pyle and the Latin word pulvinus and predates the 12^th Century. As a verb it isn't seen until 1629 but you can guess that it was probably in use about 20 years before that.

Gerard Terborch (1617-1681) Woman sewing. Not only is she sewing on a pillow, but she hasa baby next to her, she has an awsome coif and well look at the color of the pillow, it is blue.

What has all that to do with sewing pillows? Well evidence of them being used in sewing is seen in engravings and paintings by Johannes Stradanus, Jacob Cats, Phillipe Gale and more. Some of them have tassels hanging off the corners making them a bit fancier, while others are appear plain. They seem to be in the shapes of squares and rectangles and about a lap’s width. They appear to bring the women’s project up more to the waist line as they work. They are very well stuffed, almost appearing firm, and are most likely stuffed with cotton or wool. My first attempt at one, I stuffed with bits of cloth that were in my scrap pile. It worked well but is too heavy for my lap and so I re-stuffed it with stuffing from Jo-Ann’s. I have a few different sizes, so depending on my project I can pick one over another. Plus I can leave them in all my different sewing locations and kits.

So why have sewing pillows become a forgotten tool among sewers? That I don’t know. What I do know is I love my forgotten useful tool.