Pedagogies of Historical and Contemporary American Sewing Circles
Open Access
- Author:
- Sapelly, Laura Elizabeth
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- April 18, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Yvonne Madelaine Gaudelius, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- sewing circle
united states
quilting
sewing
knitting
temperance
abolition
civil war
19th century
intergenerational
quilting bee
knitting group
sanitary commission
activism
textile activism
embroidery
sampler
colonial new england
antebellum
anti-slavery
needlework
social practice
philadelphia female antislavery society
US History
hand sewing
hand quilting
teaching
transformative learning theory
everyday ordinary aesthetics
living aesthetics
interracial
republican motherhood
cult of true womanhood
cult of domesticity
underground railroad
contraband relief association
slave quilting
authenticity
house slaves
gendered task assignment
slave seamstress
self-actualization
activist sewing circle
friendship quilts
american revolution
soldiers aid society
elizabeth keckley
WCTU
crusade quilt - Abstract:
- This dissertation explores the relationships between historical sewing circles and one formed on the Penn State campus. Through critical and feminist pedagogical theories, I discovered similar behaviors within both. Race, class, and lifestyle differences define most circles including present-day groups. Despite tendencies to socially divide, I found sewing circles to provide a space for communities of women to advise, guide, and support one another through personal and professional challenges. Either a necessity or leisurely technique of hand needlework was central to most women’s lives. Whether making for survival in preindustrial times, to sell items to raise money for war or other political causes, or for pleasure, women periodically assembled in homes or churches to sew, knit, quilt – and talk. Inspired by interracial groups formed during abolition and the intergenerational group that characterized my campus circle, I theorize an emancipatory pedagogy through the living aesthetics emerging within the sewing circle. Potentially, this space can be reclaimed for aesthetic and sociopolitical bonds to be established among women. Collegial leadership is crucial in this endeavor. Pivotal to practicing an emancipatory pedagogy is the process of critical reflection a leader/teacher must undergo in order to uncover their unconscious prejudices and agendas. If done successfully, such a leader can generate a sewing circle that works toward social transformation. I suggest that via the marginalized stitch, women can begin to break socio-politically constructed hierarchies absorbed under a society dominated by Enlightenment-based patriarchal values. In the sewing circle, women and men can possibly form coalitions to help end gendered, class, and racial discrimination– in cafés, conference rooms, galleries - and in the classroom.