As real tomatoes were not always available, people created fabric tomatoes stuffed with sand or sawdust. Eventually, the stuffed, decorative tomatoes were used as pin cushions. The stuffed tomato pin cushion was further popularized in the Victorian Era.
As parlor rooms became more opulent, the lady of the house displayed collections of pin cushions in various shapes fans, dolls, shoes, fruits and vegetables , taking pride in their number and variety.
But it sure is fun to speculate!! My mom still has hers from her mom. One day it will be mine. Virtually any place that sells fabric will have some also.
I either leave my pins in the clear plastic lidded containers they come in or I have made a few pincushions. One is in the shape of a little house that I use for my quilting needles. The other is a little tiny one made out of a plastic soda bottle cap that I saw a tutorial for somewhere on the internets.
I love that one because it is very portable. Really, I will. I hope. Like Stephanie I don't think I have ever seen a tomato pin cushion either - maybe someone should start shipping them to Europe so we can benefit from their special powers too!
I have several soft ones and I'm always stepping on them. I've learned to scream inwardly from that. Yep, got a tomato I didn't know what the "strawberry" was for, thanks for the info! Hahaha so funny! My hubby just asked me a few days ago what that "tomato thingie" was.
I couldn't explain to him either why pincushions are shaped like tomatoes. Interesting reasons! My mother a Texan, born and bred insists that the tomato is actually a chili pepper. I can kind of see it for the strawberry appendage, but the cushion itself is just so Yet she refuses to hear otherwise. Awesome post!
I would have never guessed that was why they are tomato shaped! I have a traditional tomato shaped one that travels with me in my kit back and forth between home and work, but my pincushion that stays at home is a miniature dressform shaped one, which is on a stand.
It's easier for me and my daughter to share. Mine is magnetic. I just throw my pins in its general direction and they stick. It's much less work for me as I like to use loads of pins.
Ahaaa, I'm wondering to what sort of folklore your sources are referring to. I have the tomato, too, and well, as this fruit was discovered by Christopher Colombus, I'm not really sure it had spread in Europe by Renaissance, so I remember a sewing shop selling pineapple ones, but they didn't seem very successful as they were on super promotion: bad voodoo vibes?
And to me, the little pendant is not a strawberry but a tiny, hot chili pepper That tomato pin cushion is probably american, because I am another european gal who has never heard of that before! I use a rectangulat cushion, shaped like a mini-pillow, inherited from my grandmother-in-law. I think she made it herself. Ok, so I went looking for a pin cushion at the store, and all I could find was a red, or purple, tomato.
I thought it was ugly? And the wee little strawberry at the end? I thought that was weight to stop your tomato from toppling over and rolling onto the floor along with your pins.
How wrong I was. But I still crave pretty pin cushions. I recently purchased some gorgeous linen and crochet ones on Etsy that are just so beautiful! Beauty banishes evil, right? Tomatoes were considered poisonous and that's why they would have been thought to contain poisons. They didn't ward them off, they attracted them: all the evil or poison in the air would go to the tomato, and not the people.
The theory would have made sense within a humor theory of medicine and disease if it's true. And the later European renaissance lasted to the 16th or 17th century by some accounts, so plenty of time for knowledge of the tomato to have spread to Europe. So, please tell my why my tomato pin cushions don't keep the evil voodoo guys away from my sewing room?
If that pin cushion worked, I would never make a mistake while sewing. So there!! My pincushion looks like a cupcake. Before that all my pins were just in a box. I have never had a tomato pincushion at all!! I've been a dressmaker for more than a decade, but I didn't feel like a "proper" needlewoman until I treated myself to a tomato pincushion last year. Thanks for a fascinating post! Tomato pincushions aren't 'the thing' in Australia either.
I had never seen a tomato pin cushion either until I started searching for the 'perfect' one. I don't think they are a 'traditional' shape here in Oz. My mum'w was the most ugly thing. Shaped like a hat.
I think she made it in school. Mine is something I made to my own design. I really wanted one for my wrist but couldn't find anything. So I made one using a square and turning it into a triangle. It was easy and it's my most favourite sewing tool. I'm lost without it.
See it here. I have a pincushion from my grandma that is a ring of sumo babies holding hands around a basketball??? I never understood what that was about or where she got it. I have it out more for it's weird cuteness and actually use a small plastic hinged box for my pins. I noticed that the pins were starting to get dull, and saw that there was a strawberry-like thing for that.
I went to our local Hancock's for one, but the only ones you could get were attached to this hideous freakin' tomato. I refuse to buy it on principal, pins be damned.
Wonder if I can make one myself? Anybody out there know how to make an emery-thing for pins? I have several, all which are different shapes. My favourite is the big square quilted one I made when I was about It's funny how much I associate with pin cushions, in fact even though I didn't inherit from my Grandmother's estate the only thing I would have liked was her pin cushion but I think my aunt took it :.
I can't believe how many of your have tomato pin cushions!!! I had never even seen one til just now! I just use a stuffed circle thing I made. It's not so good when it's on my lap cos the pins poke through to the other side : Maybe I will make a better one one of these days. You know, I was just pondering this very question the other day. Thanks for the sleuthing! I don't use a pincushion at all Probably foolish, because there's nothing to keep them from flying all over the place if I nudge the bowl, but so far so good Too funny!!
I have a pincushion that my grandmother made. I keep needles for hand sewing and pins I don't like as well in that. I also have a pincushion I bought at the World's Fair in down in Knoxville. It has little Asian stuffed figures sitting around the round part in the middle.
I guess I got it in the Asian exhibit. April 17, I always wondered what the little strawberry was for, now I know. Thanks for the info on the strawberry in the comments and thanks for the tomato memories :. October 24, I'm scared that I'll throw kerosene on the fire, but I mean, how hard is it to make the sharpener round, not tapered?
My mother had a tomato pincushion, with a strawberry full of iron filings attached, for cleaning and sharpening the needles. When I started sewing, my aunt gave me a pretty sewing box, and my mother bought me a tomato pincushion with strawberry. I still use mine, and my mother's is still in her sewing box.
My mom has been gone awhile, but I always smile when I look in her sewing box and see her tomato pincushion. I love them! September 20, Oh, the memories! I was recently organizing my late mothers sewing cabinet when I came across our two tomato pincushions filled with sawdust. I could feel all of the needles and pins that had been buried in the sawdust.
To retrieve them I disassembled the tomato and what happened was most unexpected. I was overcome with memories and emotion realizing that the last people to handle those needles and pins were my mother, aunt and grandmother.
It was an amazing closeness that I will always cherish. Thank you, Alexandra for highlighting the "tomato cushion". September 13, I have one that I received in my first real sewing kit from the 60's as a child still in my sewing kit today. It was wonderful to learn the story of why we have tomato-shaped pin cushions. Speaking of pincushions, after Christmas, I'm planning on making a decorative felt one for myself, but not in a tomato shape.
All the ladies had them in a variety of shapes. From dolls to shoes and from fruits to vegetables…. It is likely that during this era the tomato was given a bit of a makeover with the addition of a tiny strawberry springing from its stem.
This strawberry, filled with emery powder, is a handy tool for cleaning and sharpening your pins…. And just like that the tomato claimed her title as pin cushion champion and has been staple in sewing rooms ever since!
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