Most earnest seamstress women and those that do the necessary stitch work probably have a fabricated tomato pincushion included in their sewing basket. As I again take out my tomato pincushion where all my stick pins and needles stick out making for an easy find, memories of these pincushions comes to mind.
I received my tomato pincushion 60 years ago when my mother and I were gathering all my required items needed to take home economics class in high school and learn to sew. Though I never fully understood the importance of this unusual fabric tomato in those early years, I learned to correctly sew an apron, a table cloth and I soon worked my way up to making a woman’s suit for myself in home economic class.
It wasn’t until I was given my granny’s sewing basket that I found she too had a tomato pincushion. Then a few years later, my mother gave me her sewing basket and it also had a tomato pincushion inside. Three generations of those pincushions. While researching, I learned pincushions were first used in the Middle Ages, but it wasn’t until the Victorian Era the fabric tomato pincushion came into being. Back then, a tomato meant good luck and prosperity. When someone moved into a newer home, they placed a tomato on the fireplace mantel. Of course, real tomatoes were only available during the summer months when they were in season, so during the fall and winter months, a tomato was created by stitching red and green fabric together. It was filled with leaves and sand from outside. Somehow, it was discovered these fabricated tomatoes that contained grit made good storage for pins and needles as the sand made for keeping the needles and pins sharp, and these pincushions made it easy to find the pins and needles in the sewing basket. This carried on the good luck and prosperity in the sewing projects. Some tomato pincushions have a small fabric strawberry that hangs loosely on a string from the tomato. It is said that it too is filled with sand to sharpen the pins and needles.
Many sewing baskets and other sewing containers include this fabricated tomato pincushion and are still much in use today. I’m sure many, like myself, never knew the history of these unique pincushions and now we do. When I look at those pincushions used by my granny, mother and now myself, it brings back many memories thinking of Granny sewing patches on her four sons’ jeans, or creating a new dress for her daughter, and my mother sewing away on her many quilt tops, pulling out the stick pens and needles from their tomato pincushions.
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