It is well known that Jane Austen was clever with her needle, and several fine examples are to be seen in the museum at Chawton. But what role does needlework play in the plots of her novels and the depiction of her characters? In this presentation, Maggie and Angela explore the ubiquity of sewing in women’s lives, the social as well as practical functions the activity fulfilled and, most fascinating of all, the purposes which Jane Austen made it serve in her fiction.
