Sewing Case “Husif Grace”

This sewing case has many names. Housewife, Hussif, Huswif, also called a hussy. A hussif or huswif is an 18th century term for a basic sewing kit. If you look up the word Hussif, you will see it described as an alternative form of ‘housewife’ which originally meant a sewing-case. Traditional hussifs were a long strip of fabric from 5 to 8 inches wide, with pockets stitched acreoss the width of the fabric to hold sewing tools. You can roll the hussif up or fold it in order to store it. The pockets contained sewing items such as needles, pins, and small sewing tools such as scissors. Simple sewing kits used to be given to soldiers as their ‘housewife’ right up until the first world war.

This sewing kit includes scissors, needles, pins, thread card, needle threader, charms, notebook and pencil. Size is: 5 in w x 3 1/2 in h rolled up and 17 1/2 inch unrolled. 9cm x 13cm rolled up or 44cm unrolled.