1950s Happy Home Rust Proof Nickel-Plated Sewing Needle Book - Made in Japan - Most Needles Included - Antique Fertig Products Needle Book

This listing is for one of the photographed Vintage 1950s Happy Home Rust Proof Nickel-Plated Needle Booklet. Booklets have most of the needles originally included in the set, but some are missing. Made in Japan, distributed by Fertig Products in New York. The complete booklets included 50 gold-eye needles and a threader, as described on the front of the folder. The booklets show an illustration of a young girl and two women sewing at a table, a popular motif of mid-century needle books. Great condition, super interesting find! 

Hand-sewing and mending clothing was a common practice before the modern age of fast fashion, making sewing needles a necessary tool for most women before the late 20th century. Beginning in the late 19th century sewing needles would be sold in small paper folders called needlebooks. Most needle books featured illustrations of women and girls sewing together, mirroring the gendered culture surrounding sewing leading into the mid-20th century. Companies would produce these needlebooks as promotional gifts that would be given to customers. By the 1940s and 1950s most needlebooks were mass produced in Japan and distributed by companies as promotional gifts in the US.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

1950s Happy Home Rust Proof Nickel-Plated Sewing Needle Book - Made in Japan - Most Needles Included - Antique Fertig Products Needle Book