As with any developing technology, needles were made of various improved substances with English steel proving to be superior. But even those early needles were prone to breaking, bending and rusting. Brass tin plated became the popular choice to overcome those deficiencies. Better needles had a gold-rimmed eye. The only time needles were not advertised as rustproof was during WWII when they were made of cheap metal to conserve on war-time materials. This also applied to other metal notions such as snaps, straight and safety pins and hooks and eyes.

The number of firms making needles is a study in itself, a maze of names like the bias tape chart from a previous column. All advertised themselves in the same manner as Beissel’s Prize Medal Needles in the 1894 Ladies Home Journal – "The finest on the globe, will not bend, break or cut thread ad are the cheapest. If once tried no other make will be tolerated."

Needles were available in many types of packaging from cloth and paper packets to tiny wooden holders. In 1895 Eclipse offered a handy package comprised of needle packets, hooks & eyes and long straight pins. One popular form of container was the needlebook, now a hot and trendy collectors item.

Well, needles throughout history were part of woman’s heritage which she prized and treasured as much as her chinaware and domestic skills and so the fair damsels were vulnerable to many a merchant’s glibness – such as the combination needlethreader/pincushion introduced in 1906.

On a modern note, needles have long been made for every imaginable purpose so it is interesting to observe how sewing machine needles are rivaling and overtaking the diversity of hand-sewing needles. And on a more significant note, needles gave birth to straight and safety pins.

Straight Pins These indispensables were fashioned of iron and bone by Sumerians around 3000 BC. They were an extension of the early needle minus the hole. By the sixth century wealthy Grecians used elaborately jeweled stick pins or stilettos to hold their garments together. With a slight adaptation to add tension, a primitive safety pin was born.

The true straight appeared sometime between 1790 to 1815. They were called two-part pins because that’s exactly what they were, a thin sliver of pointed metal which fit into a cap or head to hold it in place. In 1833 the one-piece head and shaft was invented and became commonplace by 1837. The early pins were crude and like needles, rusted and easily broke.

By the late 1800s most pins were made of brass, refined, made in universal standard sizes and advertised as rustproof. There were numerous manufacturers on either side of the Atlantic, notably -- G.L.Turney, England, which in the 1880s offered improved needle-pointed pins in mixed size points and lengths; Wallace & Sons sold brass pins under the Eagle label in the early 1900s.

There have been many names for straight pins – necessary pins c1860s-early 1900s, dressmaker pins and within that silks and standards c 1920s to current, toilet pins characterized by black glass heads c1940s and as the photos show, special decorative pins to be seen and admired on clothing.

Aside from belts, fastening pins, as they were called, remained the predominant way to fasten garments well into the 14^th century. And as clothing became more sophisticated the more pins were needed. Palace records of 1347 show 12,000 pins were needed for the wardrobe of a French princess!

The triple strand of wire hooks debuted in the early 1900s. Hooks were made of brass, nickel plated or jet black and rustproof , except during WWII when they fell victim to metal for the duration of the war. Rather than try to describe the numerous brands, styles and types, the photos of hook and eye ads and cards will tell the story.

	There appeared to be no lack of hook and eye companies. These four ads for Nub, West, Peet and Doric appeared in the May 1914 issue of Pictorial Review.

As zippers began appearing on clothing in the late 1920s, hook and eyes were mostly relegated to special areas of dress, mainly the neckline and the waist and sometimes the cuff. With the disappearance of pantaloons and emergence of bloomers and elasticized panties and petticoats becoming street length slips there was little need for hook fastenings.

Snaps attempted to compete with hooks – an ad in the January 1898 Ladies World for the Ball and Socket Fastener Co., Makers of Removable Fasteners of All Kinds, states: "Hear it Snap – no hooks, no eyes, no buttons, no bother, sews on invisible, simple, practical….endorsed by dressmakers, fastens easily and stays so, you hear it fasten, the blind can fasten it."

Ad for Wire & Ball snaps in McCall's Magazine, November 1904

An Annie Oakley rodeo exhibition? This is a German ad for Prym's snap fasteners which appeared in 1913 in Frauen Moden Zeitung [Women's Modern Magazine]. Translation -- Prym's newest hit...strongest push button....guaranteed reliable....won't open on its own....a try will convince you.           - Courtesy of Nancy Jones, Germany

References:
McCalls Magazine, November 1904
Sears Catalog, 1908
Elite Styles, October 1913
Pictorial Review, May 1914
Lippincott’s Clothing for Women, Laura Baldt, 1916
Textile, Woolman and McGowan,1926
Fabrics and Dress, Rathbone & Tarpley, 1937 and 1946
Collectors Book of Doll Clothes, Dorothy, Elizabeth and Evelyn Coleman,1975
Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, 1987
Inventions to Keep Your Clothes On, Vicky Cobb, 1989
Various vintage periodicals from the collection of author Thelma Bernard

Next Month: Cambric -- Gone with the Wind

Coming Soon: Feedbags, What Quilters Want and Building A Textile Reference Library