Dressmaker’s Tool
For several years, I’d ask myself, “What is it?” as I walked by this strange looking tool among the collection at the museum.
I wondered about its purpose and value.
It is made of wood with a 30-inch ruler, and a metal tube is attached to a small glass bottle. At the top, there is a rubber bulb and it’s all secured on a metal base.
Come to find out, it’s a tool used by dressmakers to measure the length of hems.
The dressmaker put powered chalk into the glass container. She measured the dress while the person was wearing it. Once they determined the desired length, the dressmaker would squeeze the bulb at the top and a straight line of powder would shoot onto the fabric as a “marker” for where the alteration needed to be made.
We don’t know to whom this belonged, but likely it was a dressmaker’s or from one of the clothing stores in town.
Mrs. Isaac Bollman was a Sturgis seamstress and we have several pieces of clothing she created. One is a full black tuxedo she made for Rehm Brothers in Sturgis. They were Charles F. and Henry C. Rehm, the predecessors and relatives of Carl Rehm.
This may have belonged to Mrs. Bollman, but so far we haven’t found paperwork to go with the tool.
