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Guildford Museum

The needlework collection covers most types of sewing and embroidery, from learning the stitches to doing complex raised work and gold embroidery. Sewing was an essential skill for all women in the past, who would have had to make and mend most clothes and household linen. The collection aims to give examples of all types of hand sewing and crafts such as lace-making, crochet and tatting. It also includes needlework tools - pincushions, needleholders, tape-measures, scissors, thimbles, lace bobbins, lucets, tatting shuttles etc. Although most women had to sew, the tools were made to be decorative as well as useful, so they are lovely to look at in their own right.

Most of the collection dates from the 17th to the 20th centuries, though there is a late medieval piece of church embroidery. Although the museum does not collect costume as such, a lot of the items are clothing, such as hand-made and embroidered baby clothes and accessories such as collars, cuffs, kerchiefs, stomachers, aprons and caps. There are household items such as tablecloths, mats, pillowcases, curtains and chair seats. Most of the bedspreads are of patchwork, in many different designs, dating from the 18th century. There is also some quilting. There is a large collection of men's smocks, including the distinctive Surrey type, and several local uniforms, such as fire brigade, police and school uniforms. There are a few garments with 20th century Guildford shop labels in them. Needlework instruction books and samplers show how little girls learned to sew and to produce a colourful record of their progress. There are also three 17th century embroidered boxes, which were the final part of a girl's needlework education. Other needlework boxes are 19th century, and include small pocket kits.

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