I have and constantly use a pincushion that is just about 100 years old. According to what I have been told, it is filled with hair, metal shavings, and some sort of grit particles. I cannot get over how tightly it is stuffed - like a rock. The fabric is, I think, upholstery fabric. I would think that by this time fabric or thread would have let go and created leaks somewhere, but it hasn't. It must be well lined. I have used it and used it so someone did a good job.
Using it makes me feel at one with the other women in my family. I knew a few of my great grandmother's sisters, my grandmother, my aunt, and my mother. The cushion is a link to them as well as the ones I missed knowing. My dad died at 90 and remembered seeing it going to sewing get togethers. And the pincushion is a link to him too. He used it after mother died.
I hope someone in the next generation sews and the pincushion continues to serve as a link for all of us. I have fun thinking of all the quilts and garments, and household items and children's toys and curtains and, and, and that my pincusion participated in making. Something as humble as a pincusion.
Pat