Some books teach history by taking us straight into a famous battle, a king’s court, or the life of a well-known historical figure. Then there are books like Natalie Fergie’s The Sewing Machine, which show us that history can be found in much quieter places: in a kitchen drawer, an old notebook, a piece of fabric, or ordinary household objects passed from one generation to the next. This review of The Sewing Machine includes a set of activities that go with the book and can be found at the bottom of the post.
The Sewing Machine
Published in 2017, The Sewing Machine is a historical novel spanning more than a century of Scottish history. At its heart is a Singer sewing machine, and through that one object Fergie connects the lives of several generations of people. The story moves between different periods, beginning in 1911 and eventually reaching the modern day. Its central mystery gradually emerges through notebooks, memories, family secrets and the physical traces people leave behind.
For a history-loving homeschooling family, this is one of the book’s greatest strengths. It encourages children to look at history not simply as a collection of dates and famous names, but as something made by ordinary people.
For another book set in a similar time frame, check out my Dictionary of Lost Words review:
The Sewing Machine Becomes a Time Machine
The premise is wonderfully simple.
In 1911, Jean works at the Singer factory in Clydebank, Scotland. The factory was a real and enormously important industrial employer. Jean becomes caught up in the famous mass strike at the factory, an event that will shape her life.
Decades later, we meet other people whose lives become connected with the same sewing machine. Eventually, in the modern-day strand of the story, Fred inherits his grandmother’s machine and discovers documents and notebooks that begin to reveal the history hidden behind it.
The novel therefore has several timelines, but the sewing machine provides the thread that holds them together.
It is a clever idea because the machine itself becomes almost like a character. It witnesses births, marriages, work, hardship, secrets and everyday life, without ever being able to speak. Instead, its story is told through the people who use it.
Fergie has described how the idea grew out of her interest in vintage sewing machines. She acquired an old 1897 treadle machine and later became fascinated by the history of the Singer 99K, including the 1911 strike at the Clydebank factory. Her own 99K was made in 1923, and she describes the extraordinary feeling of using an object that may have been made by workers connected to that earlier history.
That real-life inspiration gives the novel an appealing authenticity.
The history behind the story: Singer and Clydebank
One of the most fascinating historical elements is the Singer factory at Clydebank.
The Singer factory was a huge industrial complex and a major local employer. In the early twentieth century, sewing machines were not simply quaint objects associated with hobbies. They were important technologies that could transform how much work a person could accomplish.
A sewing machine could make clothing and household textiles considerably more efficiently than sewing everything by hand. It was therefore connected with both industrial employment and domestic life.
Fergie’s novel begins at a pivotal moment in the factory’s history: the 1911 Singer strike.
This historical event makes The Sewing Machine particularly valuable for older children studying social history. Thousands of workers took part in the strike after disputes over working conditions and changes within the factory. Fergie’s own research describes around 12,000 workers going on strike. She was particularly struck by the fact that the strike took place in 1911, only seven years before women in Britain gained the parliamentary vote on the same terms as men.
That offers a brilliant opportunity for homeschoolers to connect several pieces of history.
A child studying British history might learn about:
- industrialisation
- factory work
- trade unions
- workers’ rights
- women’s employment
- the women’s suffrage movement
- changing attitudes towards women
- the First World War
- changing domestic technology
- family and social history
These are completely separate topics in a textbook. The Sewing Machine helps demonstrate that they weren’t separate to the people who lived through them.
Jean is not simply a woman living in 1911. She is a young working woman in an industrial community, with employment, family expectations, relationships, and political and social circumstances all shaping her choices.
I also have an in-depth post about the history of the Oxford English Dictionary with heaps of activities your children are sure to enjoy:
Women’s History without Famous Women
One aspect I particularly appreciated is how the novel brings ordinary women’s lives into the historical picture.
History books have traditionally tended to concentrate on prominent figures: politicians, monarchs, generals, inventors, and others whose names ended up in the historical record.
But most women in the past did not leave behind famous biographies.
They worked and raised children.
They repaired clothing and kept households running.
And worked in factories, hospitals, shops and offices.
These women made things and saved things because they could not afford to waste them.
They wrote letters and diaries.
They remembered things.
And sometimes they kept secrets.
The Sewing Machine gives those ordinary lives importance.
The later sections of the story are especially interesting from a social-history perspective because sewing becomes connected with work, family, thrift and memory. One strand involves Connie working in the Sewing Room at Edinburgh Infirmary, where sewing and mending are part of her employment.
This opens up another wonderful area of study: the history of women’s work.
Children can begin asking questions that don’t necessarily have easy answers:
What counted as work for women in the past?
Why was sewing considered an essential household skill?
How much clothing did an ordinary family own?
What happened when a shirt or pair of trousers became damaged?
Why did people repair things rather than replace them?
How has technology changed domestic work?
Those questions can lead into economics, technology, sociology and environmental history as well as traditional history.
A History of Make Do and Mend
One of the most interesting themes running through the novel is the relationship between sewing and frugality.
Today, many of us live in a world of relatively inexpensive manufactured goods. If something tears, breaks or becomes unfashionable, replacing it can sometimes seem easier than repairing it.
For earlier generations, that was often not an option.
Clothing represented time, money and materials. A household might therefore mend a garment repeatedly, alter it for another person, reuse fabric or find another purpose for an old item.
This is an excellent doorway into the history of everyday life.
Ask a child to imagine they have one good winter coat and no way to order another one online. What would happen if the sleeve tore?
Suddenly, mending becomes more than a craft activity. It becomes an economic necessity.
The sewing machine therefore represents something bigger than sewing. It represents resourcefulness.
It also represents technology.
A machine that looks relatively simple to us could dramatically alter how quickly someone could stitch fabric. The Singer factory itself also shows another side of technology: the industrial manufacture of machines on a huge scale.
That allows us to move from the kitchen table to the factory floor.
I have reviewed the fascinating book, The Bookbinder of Jericho, set during World War I, full of history and with lots of fun hands-on activities to do:
Scotland as a Historical Setting
Another reason this book works particularly well for a history homeschool is its sense of place.
The story moves through parts of Scotland, particularly Clydebank, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leith. Fergie has explained that she spent considerable time walking around the locations used in the novel and researching the places where her characters lived and worked.
That makes the novel useful for geography alongside history.
Rather than simply saying Scotland, children can investigate:
Clydebank, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leith
Where are these places?
How far apart are they?
What were they like in 1911?
How did people travel?
What industries were important?
What did housing look like?
How did the cities change during the twentieth century?
This is a lovely example of how literature can turn a map into something meaningful.
If you’d like to read another post set around the same time, head over to my in-depth article about the history of bookbinding, where you will find lots of fun activities to extend your child’s learning of this period:
The Sewing Machine as a Historical Source
My favourite homeschooling connection is the idea of the sewing machine itself as a historical source.
Historians don’t only study written documents.
They study objects.
A sewing machine can tell us about:
- manufacturing
- engineering
- domestic life
- women’s work
- industrial employment
- consumer culture
- family finances
- changing technology
- fashion
- repair and reuse
And an object can sometimes raise questions that a written source doesn’t answer.
Imagine finding an old sewing machine in your great-grandmother’s house.
Who bought it?
When?
How much did it cost?
Who used it?
What did they make?
Was it used for paid work or household work?
Was it passed down?
Why did the family keep it?
Did it break?
Was it repaired?
What else was stored with it?
Those questions are historical detective work.
That is exactly the thinking The Sewing Machine encourages.
Family History and the Hidden Archive
The notebooks in the novel are another wonderful feature for homeschoolers.
Children are often told that history is found in museums and archives, but families have their own archives too.
A recipe book can be a historical source.
A photograph can be a historical source.
An old school report can be a historical source.
A postcard can be a historical source.
A receipt can be a historical source.
And a wedding invitation can be a historical source.
Even an old shopping list can tell us what people bought, what things cost, and what they considered necessary.
The novel encourages us to think about the fragments that survive.
This is especially valuable for children because it permits them to see their own family history as worthy of investigation.
What I Loved About The Sewing Machine
The strongest aspect of The Sewing Machine is its central concept.
Following one physical object through multiple generations is a beautiful way to show continuity and change.
The characters change.
Technology changes.
Cities change.
Work changes.
Women’s lives change.
Yet the machine remains.
The historical details also feel integrated into the story rather than being presented as a history lesson. Fergie brings together multiple generations and uses the Scottish setting to ground the story in social history.
I also enjoyed the way the novel encourages the reader to become a detective. Rather than giving us an entire family history at once, Fergie allows information to emerge gradually.
The notebooks and sewing machine become clues.
The reader has to connect the threads.
That’s an excellent metaphor for studying history itself.
We rarely receive the complete story.
We find fragments.
Compare sources.
Make connections.
We discover contradictions.
We ask questions.
Then we try to work out what happened.
A Note About Reading It with Children
Although this is an excellent book for inspiring history studies, I would not describe it as a children’s book.
It is an adult historical novel dealing with adult relationships, family difficulties, grief and some challenging aspects of life. I recommend that parents consider their individual child’s maturity before assigning the whole novel as a family read.
For younger children, I would use the ideas and historical setting rather than expecting them to read the novel themselves.
For teenagers, particularly those interested in social history, women’s history, Scotland, textiles or historical fiction, it could make a fascinating independent or shared read.
Problems
I suspect this could be just a me-problem rather than a problem with the book, but I found the switches between characters, places and times to be quite tricky to follow. If I were reading this out loud as a family read, I think it would be helpful to have a sheet of paper stuck on the wall reminding everyone who goes with which place and in what time period. By the end, I had it sorted in my head, but it took almost the entire book. But a menopausal brain does that to a person…
Homeschool Activities Inspired by The Sewing Machine
The wonderful thing about this book is that you don’t need to own a sewing machine to use it as a history resource.
Here are activities divided roughly by age, although many can easily be adapted.
Ages 5–7: The Story of an Object
Choose an everyday object in your home.
It might be:
- a wooden spoon
- a teddy bear
- an old book
- a watch
- a sewing needle
- an item of jewellery
- a photograph
Ask your child:
Who might have used this?
How old do you think it is?
What was it used for?
What might it tell us about the person who owned it?
Let them draw the object and invent a short “life story” for it.
Extension
Ask them to draw the object in three different time periods.
For example:
1910 → 1960 → today
What has changed around it?
Ages 5–8: Learn to Sew
Introduce basic sewing skills with adult supervision.
Start with:
- threading a needle
- running stitch
- sewing two pieces of fabric together
- making a simple felt bookmark
- sewing a button onto scrap fabric
While working, talk about the difference between hand sewing and machine sewing.
How long would it take to make something by hand?
What might a sewing machine change?
This turns a craft into a technology-history lesson.
Ages 6–9: Make a Family Timeline
Create a timeline showing four generations of your own family, where appropriate.
Instead of focusing on sensitive personal information, concentrate on historical events and everyday life.
For example:
Great-grandparents’ childhood → grandparents’ childhood → parents’ childhood → child’s childhood
For each generation, add things such as:
- popular toys
- transport
- household technology
- school life
- clothing
- popular foods
- communication
- music
Then ask:
What has changed? What has stayed surprisingly similar?
This mirrors one of the central ideas of The Sewing Machine: a family can experience enormous historical change while remaining connected through ordinary objects and traditions.
Ages 8–12: The 1911 Strike Investigation
This is where the book becomes particularly useful as a history project.
Give your child the question:
Why did workers at the Singer factory in Clydebank strike in 1911?
Have them research:
- What was the Singer factory?
- Where was Clydebank?
- What jobs did people do there?
- What were the working conditions?
- Why did workers go on strike?
- Who participated?
- What happened as a result?
Fergie herself identifies the 1911 Singer strike as one of the key historical discoveries that inspired the novel.
Make it into a Newspaper
Ask your child to produce a newspaper from 1911.
Include:
Headline:
The Singer Factory Strike
Reporter:
Write a short article explaining what happened.
Interview:
Invent historically plausible questions for a worker.
Editorial:
Was the strike justified?
Advertisement:
Create an advert for a sewing machine from the period.
This combines history, writing and media studies.
Ages 9–13: Women’s Work: Then and Now
Create two columns:
Women’s work in 1911
and
Women’s work today
Research the kinds of jobs women could do, their legal and social position, wages, working conditions and expectations.
Then investigate the women’s suffrage movement.
A particularly interesting historical coincidence is that the Singer strike took place in 1911, while women in Britain did not gain equal voting rights with men until 1928.
Ask:
Could a woman be working, paying taxes and supporting a household while still lacking the same political rights as a man?
This can lead to a fascinating discussion about citizenship, equality and political representation.
Ages 10–14: Object Detective
Choose an old object from your home or a charity shop.
Create an Object Biography.
Your child should investigate:
Object:
What is it?
Date:
When was it made?
Manufacturer:
Who made it?
Materials:
What is it made from?
Purpose:
What was it designed to do?
Owner:
Who might have owned it?
Context:
What was happening historically when it was made?
Changes:
How is this object different from its modern equivalent?
Questions:
What don’t we know?
The final question is important.
Historians need to recognise the difference between evidence and guesswork.
Ages 11–16: Build a Social History Timeline
Create a timeline beginning in 1911 and continuing to the present.
Include:
- 1911 Singer strike
- First World War
- women’s suffrage developments
- interwar years
- Second World War
- post-war Britain
- development of household appliances
- changing clothing fashions
- rise of mass production
- growth of consumer culture
- computers and digital technology
- modern attitudes towards repairing and recycling
Now add a second timeline showing the development of sewing technology.
The student can then draw lines between the two.
For example:
New technology → changes in work
Changes in wages → changes in household consumption
Mass production → cheaper clothing
Changing fashion → changing sewing practices
This transforms the novel’s central object into a study of technological and social change.
Ages 12–16: Primary Source Challenge
Older students can take the project further by comparing fiction with historical evidence.
Give them three questions:
1. What in the novel is historical fact?
2. What is historical fiction?
3. Why might an author change or invent things?
Have them investigate the 1911 strike using contemporary newspaper reports, photographs, census material or other historical sources.
Then ask them to create a table:
| Singer factory existed at Clydebank | Used as the setting for Jean’s story |
| Workers went on strike in 1911 | Incorporated into the fictional narrative |
| Sewing machines were manufactured there | The machine becomes central to the story |
| Historical workers had real experiences | Fergie creates fictional individuals within the historical setting |
The important lesson is that historical fiction isn’t a textbook.
Its purpose is to tell a story within a historical framework.
That doesn’t make it historically useless. In fact, when used alongside primary sources, it can help students imagine what particular historical circumstances might have felt like.
A Family History Project: What Objects Tell Us
For a final project, ask each family member to choose one object with a story attached.
It could be an inherited object or simply something that has been in the family for many years.
Photograph it.
Interview someone who knows something about it.
Write down what you know.
Then create a one-page museum label.
For example:
OBJECT: Grandad’s Watch
DATE: Approximately 1965
MATERIALS: Metal and glass
OWNER: Grandad
STORY: Given as a twenty-first birthday present…
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Britain in the 1960s
WHAT THIS OBJECT TELLS US: …
You could even create a little family museum at home.
And that is one of the most valuable lessons to take from The Sewing Machine.
History isn’t only ‘out there’.
Sometimes it is sitting in a cupboard.
Or written in an old notebook.
Sometimes it is hanging in a wardrobe.
Sometimes it is a photograph nobody has labelled.
And sometimes it is a sewing machine.
Final Thoughts
The Sewing Machine is a lovely reminder that history does not have to begin with a famous person.
It can begin with an object.
Natalie Fergie takes an apparently ordinary Singer sewing machine. She uses it to explore more than a hundred years of lives, connecting industrial Scotland with domestic life, women’s work, family history and changing technology. The novel’s central machine was inspired by Fergie’s own fascination with vintage sewing machines and by her discovery of the history surrounding the Singer factory and its 1911 strike.
For homeschoolers, that makes the book particularly rich.
It provides opportunities to study Scottish history, industrial history, women’s history, labour history, technology, geography, family history, textiles and social change, all through one beautifully ordinary object.
And perhaps that’s the greatest lesson of all.
We often think of history as something that happened to other people, somewhere else, a very long time ago.
But history is woven into ordinary lives.
Every object has a story.
Every family has stories.
And every generation leaves traces behind.
Just like the threads running through a piece of fabric, those stories connect us to the people who came before us.
Recommended for: Older teens and adults as a read; younger children as inspiration for history, craft and family-history activities.
Best homeschool subjects to pair with it: History, Scottish history, women’s history, geography, technology, textiles, writing and family history.
Overall: ★★★★ for its potential as a springboard into social and family history.