NEN Gallery

See a pin - safety pins did not come in until 1878 and until then babies layettes were fastened with tapes, ribbons, buttons or ordinary pins. Pins were expensive and made of brass with separate coiled heads. A cushion stuck with pins was therefore a handsome present to a new mother. Kind donors would take care not to give their present until after the baby had been born as an old tradition associated pins with pain in childbirth.
Associated activities - Making patterns on pegboards
Image courtesy of the Cambridge and County Folk Museum