Vintage Finds

I have been entertaining myself by going to estate sales. I am posting a number of wonderful items in my Etsy shop- so please check them out. Below is a sewing bird that may have been my Grandmother's. I have held onto it forever it seems, but now I hope someone else may enjoy it more than I do. If it doesn't sell I will save it for Aster's wedding. The sewing bird, also known as a sewing clamp, hemming clamp, or third hand, was used in the 18th and early 19th centuries to attach one end of a piece of cloth firmly to a table to enable the seamstress to hold her sewing taut with one hand while stitching with the other. They were not used widely in America until mid-19th century, they became popular as a luxury item, which a young man would present to his intended bride months before the wedding.