Sarah A. Gordon uses home sewing to examine domestic labor, market practices, changing standards of femininity, and understandings of class, gender, and race. Though industrialization increased the availability of ready-made garments, many women, either by necessity or by choice, continued to make their own clothing at home. In doing so, women used a customary female skill both as a means of supporting traditional ideas and as a way of preserving personal agency. Sewing became a contested space where businesses promoted sewing machines as tools for maintaining domestic harmony; women interpreted patterns to suit--or flout--conventions defining appropriate appearances, and girls learned to sew in ways that reflected class, race, and region. Gordon draws on established as well as obscure sources, including workbooks and paper dolls, to argue that home sewing is a unique vantage point for viewing the larger picture of American culture.
