Made to Mend
Sewing tin
Every button the family ever cut off a coat.
- Made by
- The family
- Date
- 1920s onwards
- Material
- Tinplate, wood, cotton, brass
- Size
- 20 cm across
- Cost new
- A biscuit tin, reused
- Came from
- Dorothy Merrin’s house, 2009
On view Made to Mend, at the end of the case. Top floor, until 1 March 2027.
Buttons were cut off clothes before they were thrown away, so a household tin is a record of every coat a family wore out. This one holds 412 buttons; we counted them for the exhibition and then put them back in the same order.
The thimble is brass and worn through at the top. Whoever used it pushed the needle very hard, very often.
More from Made to Mend.
Dinner plate, riveted
Unknown pottery, Staffordshire, about 1900Made to Mend, in the long caseCost new: threepence; the mend, a penny
Brown teapot, mended lid
Unknown pottery, Staffordshire, about 1935Made to Mend, in the long caseCost new: tenpence
Cobbler’s last
Unknown foundry, about 1910Made to Mend, beside the bootsCost new: two shillings
Where to see it
Made to Mend, top floor.
You’ll find it at the end of the case. Made to Mend is on the top floor; the lift is by the front desk.
Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, and until 20:00 on Thursdays.