The Indispensable Bodkin

Bodkins are tools used to pull narrow goods through casings. These useful tools would be used daily when lacing was an integral part of dress, or they might be used to insert ribbons into decorative lace edgings. Bodkins have been described as blunt-tipped thick needles, but they are found in other forms, including wide, flat, and tong styles.

The popularity of bodkins has waxed and waned over the centuries, and their sizes, styles, and uses have followed the fashion of the day. In centuries past, the term bodkin had multiple meanings, sometimes referring to needles, stilettos, knife-like daggers, and hairpins. Even today, there are other terms used for the bodkin, including ribbon threader, tape needle, yarn needle, and needle bodkin.

As a needlework tool collector, I encounter antique and vintage bodkins in a multitude of materials, ranging from mass-produced utility tools to handcrafted luxury items. Gold is one of the most extravagant materials, especially when set with jewels, and silver and mother-of-pearl bodkins are sometimes found in etui sets. Other materials include wood, bone, tortoiseshell, plastic, steel, and other mixed metals.

Early Designs

When looking at the extant bodkins in museum collections, some of the early silver bodkins of the seventeenth century were decorated with simple incised line patterns. Objects in this group are typically about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long and end in a taper, more similar to a needle than a ball or square tip. Some have openings at each end for threading, while others have one end featuring an ear spoon for earwax collection. Earwax was sometimes used in sewing to treat thread if beeswax wasn’t available. Later bodkin examples are typically shorter, and tip styles began to vary.

Keeping a bodkin close at hand—on the body—was often practical. Most clothing was laced, and the bodkin was an essential tool for dressing. A nursing mother whose bodice laced closed would, for example, have need of a handy bodkin. However, the bodkin was at times itself an object of personal decoration. Wenceslaus Hollar’s 1643 engraving known as Woman with a stiff patterned collar illustrates how some women in German regions during the mid-seventeenth century wore bodkins in their hair. Women of wealth would sometimes attach jewels to dangle ornamentally off the end of the bodkin. In later decades, some women used bodkins to bind up their hair.

Woman with a stiff patterned collar by Wenceslaus Hollar, engraving, 1643 (P1923). Photo courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto

Women’s bodkins are sometimes found with engraved sets of initials. Some have been traced to family names through generations of women. One such bodkin is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 1670 to 1680. This bodkin is from the embroidered casket (workbox) of Martha Edlin (1660–1725). It is silver, about 3-1/2 inches (9 centimeters) long, and engraved with her initials: ME. The box and contents were passed through the female line of the family for over three hundred years (see note 1). The museum also holds a collection of Martha’s embroidery, jewelry, and toys.

In the eighteenth century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote of her experiences traveling in Constantinople and meeting a sultana. “Her headdress was covered with bodkins of emeralds and diamonds” (see note 2). It was one of many observations she wrote about while traveling.

While men also used bodkins, there are no known examples in art illustrating men using their bodkins. Perhaps for men, bodkins were not as sentimental or used as extensively as they were by women. Or perhaps we are seeing what we currently call a stiletto referred to as a bodkin.

In the early nineteenth century, commemorative bodkins were sold in large numbers. Engraved examples include “GEORGE 4 DIED JUNE 26 1830 AGED 68” and on the reverse side, “REIGNED 10 YEARS AND 5 MONTHS.” An American example, “ANDREW JACKSON,” has its reverse engraved with “ELECTED PRESIDENT 1829.” The popularity of commemorative bodkins continued into the twentieth century, including a bodkin that Singer produced for the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915.

Christmas card complete with two bodkins.

Enhancement and Evolution

There are several US patents for bodkins, each attempting to improve upon the design of the previous version. In 1903, Alice Galleher Sessums received a patent for a needle-style bodkin that had a bent safety-pin-like end on the bodkin. Her patent included a variety of options for the leading end of the bodkin: rounded tip, ball tip, and banded tip. In 1913, Albert C. Gault (Patent 1,081,604) invented a bodkin with three openings spaced down the flat shaft to thread and secure the narrow goods.

Needlebooks in the nineteenth century often included bodkins along with a variety of sewing needles. Packages of bodkins were also sold in the nineteenth century wrapped in black paper to prevent corrosion. The black packages were dramatically printed with gold-toned ink, making claims such as “Best Polished Gold Eyed” by Kirby Beard and Company of England. Some packages contained bodkins in multiple sizes, and most of the black-wrapper bodkins were steel. The Montgomery Ward 1895 mail-order catalog offered needlebooks and cases with a variety of sewing needles that included bodkins. The style of bodkin in these sets had blunt tips and dual eyes. Today, bodkins are often found in plastic bags and sold in notions departments.

Sterling silver bodkins were often marketed in sets and sold in department stores. The bodkins were in graduated sizes, usually three or four in a set. They were in decorative folders, often lined in silk. One sterling example includes a stiletto and bodkin packaged together. They were advertised as “Fine Sterling Silver Novelties.” Sterling bodkins in the shape of fish continue to be popular with collectors. Simons Brothers of Philadelphia offered sterling silver examples of these clever fish bodkins in the early twentieth century.

By the twentieth century, a frequent substitute for a bodkin was a safety pin. Once the design of the safety pin was enhanced to include a rounded leading edge, it made a workable bodkin. A piece of narrow goods could be pierced with the pin tip, secured by closing the pin, and then drawn through the casing by the rounded leading edge of the pin. There are advantages to using a bodkin: Wider and heavier lengths such as elastic will thread more easily on a wide bodkin, the leading edge of the narrow goods won’t have holes from safety pins, and bodkins can be found in longer lengths than pins. As if that isn’t enough, bodkins can be beautiful!

With all the bodkins in my collection, my go-to bodkin is a modern tweezer-style steel “threading tool” that grips the narrow goods. It is about 3 inches (8 centimeters) long and easily available in fabric shop notions departments. Today, ball-point needle styles are also readily available for nominal prices and can sometimes be found in sets.

A fine etui set with fitted tray for mother-of-pearl and silver tools. A mother-of-pearl bodkin is included at center. Photo by Dawn Cook Ronningen

Bodkin Holders

Antique bodkin holders from Dawn’s collection.

If the bodkin owner wasn’t wearing the bodkin, a case was helpful in keeping track of the bodkin and protecting it from harm. Bodkins worn as jewelry were probably stored in jewelry cases. In the Victoria and Albert Museum example from the seventeenth century, Martha Edlin kept her silver bodkin in her embroidered casket in one of the small drawers among her other precious possessions.

Bodkin holders were made at home and were also sold commercially. In many etui sets of gold and silver, bodkins were included as an essential tool in the fitted tool tray.

Women and men carried bodkin cases in the seventeenth century. Hard-sided bodkin holders were similar to needle cases and were often slightly larger depending on the style of bodkin they were intended for. The terms needle case and bodkin case are sometimes used interchangeably. Although some bodkins fit nicely in needle cases, others were too large. Perhaps, if a bodkin fits, one can call it a bodkin case.

Ballou’s Monthly Magazine from 1882 describes a pincushion/bodkin holder made in the form of a bellows. The maker used paper calling cards cut to shape and covered with silk. The outer edge was stuck with pins, and the bodkin was inserted through the center (see note 3).

Some of my favorite bodkin holders are homemade and include embroidery. One such bodkin holder is shown in the 1907 Moore’s Rural New-Yorker column called Woman and Home (see note 4). It is described as a cylinder roll made of flowered silk ribbon, stuffed like a bolster pillow, and tied at the ends. Bodkins are laid on the roll lengthwise and decorative stitches hold the bodkins in place. Later examples of this style were made of skirt braid. They are sometimes found containing both sewing needles and bodkins. Some colorful and artistically hand-embroidered bodkin holders were made and sold at fairs and bazaars.

A circa 1920s full-page advertisement from antique dealers in London shows 21 bodkin cases made of fine porcelain, enamel, piqué, agate, or straw-work. These holders were sold empty for the owners to add their own bodkins or to collect as is. These examples are still sought by collectors today.

Next time you have a project that needs a narrow ribbon or tape pulled through a casing, I hope your bodkin is close at hand and helps your ribbon glide through the opening with ease.

Sterling bodkin and holder set.

Want to create some cases to hold your tools? Find the companion project to this article in the Summer 2022 issue of PieceWork and Dawn’s newest project in the Fall 2024 issue of PieceWork.

Also, remember that if you are an active subscriber to PieceWork magazine, you have unlimited access to previous issues, including Summer 2022 and Fall 2024. See our help center for the step-by-step process on how to access them.

Notes

1. Victoria and Albert Museum, Textiles and Fashion Collection, accession number T.453-1990, collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O11041/bodkin-unknown.
2. “Islamic Empire: Travel Narrative, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,” World History Commons, worldhistorycommons.org/islamic-empire-travel-narrative-lady-mary-wortley-montagu.
3. “The Ladies’ Own Page.” Ballou’s Monthly Magazine, October, 1882, 394.
4. “Woman and Home.” Moore’s Rural New-Yorker, 66, no. 3010, October 5, 1907, 744.

Resources

• Beaudry, Mary C. Findings: The Material Culture of Needlework and Sewing. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.

Dawn Cook Ronningen is the author of Antique American Needlework Tools (Schiffer, 2018). She is a collector, needleworker, teacher, and lecturer. She can be found on Instagram and Facebook sharing her collections and travels. Learn more at collectorwithaneedle.blogspot.com.