There are several related linkspages on this site – tools and equpiment, like the sewing-baskets on the baskets linkspage, as well as the pins; and related occupations, including lacemakers, drapers, and embroiderers.

(Over on the 18th century side of the site, you'll find linkspages on sewing kits, pincushions, and chatelaines of that era.)

See also Schere.

• Bone needle from the Hillhead settlement in Caithness, c. 200-800
• Bronze needles from the Roman fort at Newstead in Roxburghshire
• The textiles of the Oseberg ship, 9th century
• Bone needlecase from a Viking woman's grave in Argyll, c. 850-900
• Sewing objects from Viking graves on the Hebrides, including bone needlecases and iron needles, c. 850-925
• Bone needlecase with corroded iron needles from a Viking woman's grave in Orkney, c. 850-950
• Viking-age needles: SHM 5208:1037, SHM 5208:1038, SHM 5208:1039
• Viking-age tools for holding thread (?): SHM 5208:1642 and SHM 5208:1643
• A silver needle-case, 13th century
• A medieval wooden needle in a leather case
• Mural cycle showing the processing of silk and flax at the Kanonikerhaus in Constance, Germany, c. 1320: a woman cuts cloth
• St. Francis makes his robe in the Taymouth Hours (British Library, Yates Thompson 13, fol. 180v), c. 1325-1335
• Three queens spinning, weaving, and embroidering, Avis aus Roys (PML M.456, fol. 56r), c. 1340-1360
• Thimble and needles at the Novgorod Museum, 14th century
• Bezalel and Oholiab make a tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant with ten curtains (fol. 15v) and make holy garments for Aaron (fol. 16), The Paduan Bible Picture Book (British Library MS Add. 15277), fourth quarter of the 14th century
• Tacuinum Sanitatis (ÖNB Codex Vindobonensis, series nova 2644), c. 1370-1400: silk clothing (fol. 104v), linen clothing, and wool clothing
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, (BNF NAL 1673), c. 1390-1400: wool clothing (fol. 94); linen clothing (fol. 94v); silk clothing (fol. 95)
• Leather pin-case from the Hermann von Goch nachlaß, c. 1398 (also here, here, here, and here)
• Bronze needle found at Threave Castle in Kirkcudbrightshire, from the 14th or 15th century
• Tailor in the Liber de Moribus hominum (BNF Fr. 1166, fol. 34), end of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century
  Linen clothing: A woman cuts a length of white linen for another woman using a large set of shears. A smaller set of shears rests in an open round workbasket on the floor; there seem to be other tools in the workbasket as well, though they are hard to see.
  Woolen clothing: A man tugs at another gentleman's hem.
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century (BNF Latin 9333), 15th century: Wool clothing (fol. 103); linen clothing (fol. 103v); and silk clothing (fol. 104)
• 15th century tailors in the Mendel Hausbuch: Lienhard, c. 1425; Lorentz Sneyder, c. 1425; Cuncz Dorenberger, 1443; Hans Frumann, 1446; Hans Hoppinger, 1450; Vlrich Schneyder, 1452; Hainrich Gößwein, 1489
• A box with balls of yarn or thread from the Annunciation from the Maria am Gestade altarpiece in Vienna, c. 1460-1470; see the bentwood boxes for similar examples
• The Holy Family from a book of hours (Brit. Lib. Add. 18193, f.48v), after 1463
  A cylindrical basket next to Mary contains a pair of scissors and a bundle of white cloth.
• Drapers sell cloth in The Schachzabelbuch of Konrad von Ammenhausen (Stuttgart WLB cod. poet. 2), fols. 199v and 244, 1467
• A lady embroiders near a window by the garden, Livre des Prouffis Champestres et Ruraux (PML M.232, fol. 157r), c. 1470
• A needle and thimble from Seefeld, c. 1470-1586
• Needleworkers in the Triumph of Minerva frescoes by Francesco del Cossa at Palazzo Schifanoia, c. 1476-1484
• Liber de Moribus hominum, 15th century
  A tailor carries a set of shears and a knife (which seems to be part of the allegorical description of the game of chess), and assorted tools on his belt.
• Costanza Caetani, c. 1480-1490; among the items on the table in front of her are a thimble ring, some pins, and a needle
• Cloth merchants measuring cloth and cutting cloth, fresco at Issogne, late 15th-early 16th century
• A 15th or 16th century thimble from Kempten
• Needlecase with a couple, silver with gilding and niello, made in Italy c. 1500
• 16th century needlecase at the Museum of London
• Embroidered needlecase/etui made in 16th century Venice (more details here, here, here, here, here, and here)
• Paulina, De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 599, fol. 77v), 15th-16th century
• A thimble and pins found in Tyrol, dating to the 15th-16th century
• Detail from Mary at the loom from a fresco at the Church of St. Primus and Felicianus, Slovenia, 1504
• Wentzel Schneider, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317.2, fol. 130r), 1514
• Two cherubs help Mary wind her thread in an Annunciation from an altarpiece made in Augsburg c. 1520-1530
• Sacred Conversation by Cariani, 1524-30
  Mary sews a white piece of cloth; her lidded workbasket is open on the floor, showing some shears and white (yarn? thread?) inside.
• Concz ester Reicher, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317.2, fol. 145r), 1529
• Caricature of the fashion for ruffs, second half of the 16th century
• Detail from The Annunciation, second half of the 16th century
• The Silk-Embroiderer, The Tailor, and The Furrier, Das Ständebuch, 1568
• The Tailor by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1570
  The tailor uses a pair of scissors to cut a piece of dark-colored cloth.
• Portrait of the wife of Philipp Gundelius, The Portrait-Book Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf, c. 1575-1585
  Her sewing kit is open on the table in front of her, and includes thread (stored in a bentwood box), pins, and a pair of scissors.
• Spectacles in New discoveries; the sciences, inventions, and discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as represented in 24 engravings issued in the early 1580's by Stradanus
• Friderich Koch, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317b.2, fol. 42r), 1583
• A tailor in a Turkish illustration, 1583
• Michel Barth, Landauer Hausbuch (Amb. 279.2, fol. 61v), 1590
• Frontispiece of Johann Siebmacher's Schön Neues Modelbuch, 1597
• Ladies in a garden embroidering, Album Amicorum of Gervasius Fabricius (British Library MS Add. 17025, fol. 50), c. 1603
• Frog-shaped needlecase made in England in the early 17th century
• Additional early 17th century tailors in the Mendel and Landauer Hausbuchen: Veit Schober, 1604; Georg Widerbauer, 1607; Hanns Heinla, 1610; Wolf May, 1611; Wolf Hirn, 1612; Bartl Harder, 1613; Wolff Rauscher, 1629; Hanns Albrecht, 1632; Hanß Heffner, 1634
• An Old Woman seated sewing by Johannes van der Aack, 1655