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30 Vintage Photos of Children Sewing - Many Beautiful, Some Heartbreaking



My infatuation with time-worn photographs marries well to my enthusiasm for vintage sewing machines. Here are my favorites gleaned from all corners of the Internet.

The Little Tykes


A protruding tongue ensures a steady hand!



What? Mom gets two spools and this little cutie isn't throwing a tantrum?



I'm pretty sure that Goldilocks is wistfully eyeballin' the "grown up" machine. Her toy might be a "working sewing machine" but every turn of the hand crank nearly knocks the thing off the table. And Mother just smiles. Have a heart, lady!



Eyes on the stitch, young lady.



"You feed the baby, and I'll sew as long as my helmet hair doesn't break my little neck."



Start 'em young!



Growing Fast, Sewing Well


Photo from 1899.


Vocational students. (Albany, NY)


Students at a school for the deaf in Oklahoma. One machine in the back.


Home Economics students in the 1920s using New Home machines.


During a period of "rural electrification," this young girl relies on light passing through her window to continue sewing after dark - most likely without complaint.


Stepping forward in time, Cruella de Vil supervises.


The Boys


These small gents clearly expect the Sister to do their mending.



A family working in their apartment in New York. Third from the left, the 12-year-old boy would operate the machine when his mother was not using it. Otherwise he'd help the younger boys trim thread.


Girl Scouts


1913 in Savannah, Georgia.



1926 and still only one sewing machine. (Probably a matter of practical funding.)



Fast forward and dog gone it! Still only one machine!



The 4-H Club - Head, Heart, Hands, and Health


1940. 


Imagine the condition of this Featherweight! Who wouldn't grin ear to ear?


"Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Unless she's sewing.


1953 National 4-H Congress. Delegates hold the "tools for sewing."


1957.


1960. This lucky gal is awarded a beautiful White.


The next time you worry that your machine's belt is poorly aligned, have a look at this photo, keep calm, and carry on.



Stylishly maintaining her perfect stitch!


Child Labor & Sweatshops


Before sharing these, I'd like to quote a Facebook comment by reader Marcella Bogart who had this to say:

In textile mills, very young children worked in the looms (literally climbing under and in). They lost fingers and developed white lung, but they were cheap labor, and nimble.

The photographs are heartbreaking, but many of the most poignant and best known were taken by a man named Lewis Wickes Hine as part of his crusade for child labor reforms. In no small part, Hine's efforts to capture the hardships experienced by kids in factories helped lead Congress to pass child labor laws. So, there is an upside to these images, even if they seem sad.


Hosiery Mill - Lafayette, Georgia.


Gertrude Belier, age 15, sewing curtains in a Boston factory.


Far right, Mamie Gerhino, age 13 working in New York City.


Bessie Blitch, age 15, sewing curtains in Boston.

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