Original Item. Only One Available. A housewife during the Civil War was described as “a long piece of cloth with a number of small pockets sewed along one side, and made to fold up like a pocket-book, having separate places for buttons, thread, needles, pins, etc.”. 

Most Civil War soldiers owned just one set of clothing, which was quick to wear out during long marches and bitter fighting. As you can imagine, mending clothes was a must for soldiers. Therefore, most Civil War soldiers carried a “housewife”, or sewing kit. They contained the items necessary to darn socks, replace buttons, or fix a hole in a jacket.

This is a great example of a Civil War era housewife in the popular roll-up style with a retained button and loop for closure. This example does not have buttons, thread, needles, or pins, but has several small strips of cloth for the attachment of them. When unrolled it measures roughly 5 ¾ x 8 x 1 ⅛”.

Ready for display.