Originally Posted by
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.
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