ThayerRags

I just recently learned that we have a Works Progress Administration (WPA) building down the street a block or two from my house that included a women’s sewing room. It’s our Municipal Swimming Pool building, and was built by the WPA in 1935. A small second level over the main building housed the sewing room, that included treadle machines and cutting tables. The building is still in use, although not for sewing.

Sewing rooms were part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” to put unemployed people back to work following the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. While the men were put to work building roads, bridges, and a host of municipal building projects, sewing rooms, libraries, and gardening & canning facilities were also built by the WPA to provide jobs for women nation-wide. Clothing, household goods (including quilts), and mattresses were among the items made in the sewing rooms, and some rooms included mending and clothing repair. Wages were very low, but it was a wage. From what I have learned, by 1936 there were about a half million women working these WPA jobs, which also included school lunch programs and housekeeping duties to assist relief families suffering from illness. By 1943, most of these work projects were discontinued as the nation went to war.

The vast history of sewing in my little community is interesting to me, and I’ve only begun to learn about it. I have found a couple of threads here at QB that gives mention to WPA Sewing Rooms or machines, and wondered who else could comment on this sewing history.

CD in Oklahoma

GrandmaPeggy

I do not remember the details, but my grandmother worked for the WPA sewing, during that time period in south Texas. She was a young widow with 5 children to support. Mother mentioned, along with the story, that grandma finally was able to get a job as a cook at a local cafe. She preferred it, because she did not like taking a hand-out. I can recall them mentioning feed sack dresses, too. Unfortunately, I was young and did not take notes. Now they are both gone, so I cannot ask them.

ptquilts

when DH and I were traveling and buying antique quilts, we saw an old "cheater" quilt (whole cloth top printed to look like patchwork) and were told the fabric was distributed by the gov't during the depression so people could make quilts.

lfstamper

Very interesting.

QuiltnLady1

Fascinating -- I wonder how many of these buildings are around and in use.

Kathy T.

I thought your post was extremely interesting as I have never heard of these WPA sewing projects. Would you mind if I quoted part of your post on my blog? I would not mention your name or specific town, but would say Oklahoma if that is ok. I think it would be great to pass the word about this history. I'm going to look into it more. Thanks for this interesting topic.

ThayerRags

You can use the information in my post. I put it together from information that I found readily on the internet, and the information is duplicated and expanded on in several historical archive sites. If you do a search for “WPA Sewing Room” you’ll get plenty of returns.

I was aware of the WPA work projects, but am just learning about the Sewing Rooms. A post here in the Pictures Forum at QB talks about and shows a machine that was once part of a WPA Sewing Project. The thread is WPA Singer 31-15.

The program was set up to assist the women that were “head of households” around the nation. A husband and wife couldn’t both work on a WPA job, so not all women were eligible. Single, widowed, or abandoned women that were out of work were the intended workforce. Hand sewing was common at that time, but machine sewing was not. The Sewing Room taught women how to use the machines, while at the same time, making a wage that they could live on. The WPA furnished the machines, salaries, and sometimes portions of the cost of buildings. The community had to provide the utilities and other operating expenses to keep it going.

CD in Oklahoma

alwayslearning

I know my mother had a WPA job, but do not know what kind. A few years ago we visited a WPA camp for men that they had restored. The men worked on nearby forestry projects.

Kathy T.

I have been reading and found an article about a famous 1937 strike by the women's sewing room right here where I am in Tampa, FL. This sewing room had been initially set up as a WPA project. Who knew?!!

Thank you again for this interesting thread.

Tuxedo Mom

My Mom talked about this - she was born in 1926 and remembers the Depression well. I own a small t-shirt business and buy copyrighted/licensed patterns on t-shirts and sweatshirts that my husband and I sell at fall craft sales. One of our first sales was in the hall of the church where I grew up and where my parents had been married. I had one sweat shirt that Mom immediately picked it up and said "this is the Dresden plate pattern, it is the very first quilt pattern I learned to make during the Depression." And she went on to tell about the WPA programs and how that was where she learned to quilt as a child. Her mother had a new baby and a toddler so only had the time to show her the very basic sewing to make repairs and new blankets, nothing so fancy as quilting. About twenty minutes after Mom had walked away from our shirt booth, her sister walked up, picked up the same shirt and told the very same story about the Dresden plate pattern. Now when I see people admiring that pattern on one of my shirts, I tell them the story about WPA and how Mom and her younger sister both learned that Dresden plate as their very first quilt pattern and have kept on to quilting for almost 80 years. Sometimes they've never heard of the women's side of the WPA, and sometimes they have stories about their own family members and how they learned different things through the WPA. Sometimes we need to spend more time paying attention to our history than worrying about what the Kardashians are doing. Thanks for the great story today - I'll be doing more reading up on this because I'm even more curious now.