While many avid DIYers have been busy sewing costumes for Halloween, few are sewing or altering clothes on a daily basis. In Matilda’s day, it was important to have a Sewing Room and seamstress on staff to alter, repair and adjust gowns, clothes, and household items.

Today, the Sewing Room is part of our Behind-the-Scenes tour and features a dressmaker’s doll built to Matilda’s size, along with sewing machines, thread and a number of household cleaning brushes that are original to the house. Since there was no such thing as a “convenience” store at the time, Matilda bought many products, from brushes to liquor, in bulk. She may have been a little too prepared, since we still have such a great many of these objects upstairs in storage!