Sewing circle

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title: "Sewing circle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["women's-organizations", "sewing", "lesbian-slang"] description: "Regular gathering of people to sew together" topic_path: "general/women-s-organizations" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_circle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Regular gathering of people to sew together ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Giacomo_Ceruti_-Women_Working_on_Pillow_Lace(The_Sewing_School)_-_WGA4672.jpg" caption="Giacomo Ceruti, ''Women Working on Pillow Lace'' (1720s)"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/The_Junior_Sewing_Circle_of_the_North_Lima_Congregation.jpg" caption="The Junior Sewing Circle of the North Lima Mennonite Congregation, North Lima, Ohio, 1952"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Mekong-Quilts.jpg" caption="Group working on the Mekong quilts project in Vietnam (2009)"] ::

A sewing circle is a group of people who meet regularly for the purpose of sewing, often for charitable causes.

Application to sewing

Sewing circle participants, usually women, typically meet regularly for the purpose of sewing. They often also support charitable causes while chatting, gossiping or discussing.

For example, in ante-bellum America, local anti-slavery or missionary "sewing circles were complementary, not competing, organisations that allowed [women] to act on their concern for creating a more just and moral society". Other examples of sewing circles include the Fragment Society, the Mennonite Sewing Circle, and those organized by RMS Titanic survivor Emily Goldsmith aboard the rescue ship RMS Carpathia: Goldsmith, "a talented seamstress, organized sewing circles to make garments out of cloth and blankets for those passengers dressed in nightclothes when they entered the lifeboats."

During World War II, sewing circles were formed to help people "make do and mend" in response to rationing in the United Kingdom. The Women's Voluntary Services organized sewing circles and classes during the war. Elizabeth II hosted sewing circles twice a week, with both palace staff and aristocrats attending.

Apart from charitable purposes, contemporary sewing circles may be formed into organisations on a national level, such as the Guilds in Australia and America "for people who regard sewing as a creative and rewarding activity".

"Chew the rag"

It has been speculated that the phrase "chew the rag" could be related to gossiping while working in a sewing circle.

References

References

1. (2000). "Women and Reform in a New England Community, 1815-1860". The University Press of Kentucky.
2. "The Search for the Dead".
3. Morley, Jacqueline. (2021-02-03). "Make Do And Mend A Very Peculiar History". The Salariya Book Company.
4. (1996). "Nationalising Femininity: Culture, Sexuality and Cinema in World War Two Britain". Manchester University Press.
5. "Australian Sewing Guild".
6. "The American Sewing Guild".
7. Ammer, Christine (1997, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). [[iarchive:americanheritage00amme_0/page/114

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::