I’m joined today by historian and writer Barbara Burman who has just published a wonderful new book called The Point of The Needle, Why Sewing Matters which celebrates and explores the cultural and social importance of plain stitching, using historical sources and also the voices of people sewing today.
I was asked to read a proof copy of the book earlier in the year and very much enjoyed it, and of course wanted to talk to Barbara more. In this conversation we talk a lot about the similarities between historian and artist and the power of sharing hidden or unseen stories.
Barbara Burman is an historian, formerly at the University of the Arts London and the University of Southampton. In over forty years of teaching and research, her principle interest has been the histories of dress and textiles. This field of research she feels offers both an intimate view of human life and a global perspective. She likes to work on everyday marginalised subjects. Her 2019 book The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women’s Lives, 1660-1900 co-authored with Ariane Fennetaux (Yale University Press) used tie-on pockets – think Lucy Locket – and their contents to bring the lives of women into unexpectedly intimate focus. Barbara’s new book The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters (Reaktion Books) celebrates and explores the cultural and social importance of plain stitching, using historical sources and also the voices of people sewing today.
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Ruth Singer 
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