Perhaps you heard your grandmother refer to the mending basket. Or sewing basket. Or darning basket.
In many mid-19th century households, this would have been a literal basket — not the toffee tin, cigar box, or shoebox of my childhood.
After the workday, and time spend on orders for the shop, Polly Black, a seamstress, also had household mending waiting for her needle and thread. A garment or two would require new buttons. A small tear needed to be mended. A stocking waited to be darned.
A household of one adult and one child (almost as small as a household could be in 1851) continued to have items to mend. Polly put other things in her generous sewing basket also — including a storybook saved as a surprised.
What sort of tales do you think a young boy enjoyed in 1850’s Illinois?
Check out Stitching a Dream, a sweet historical romance, for one answer to this and many other questions. Here’s a link to the Kindle edition: https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh
