Reviews
Part of What five recurring situations reveal about owning a sewing collection
Reading beginner project with a sceptical eye
Choosing enclosures, supports and labels for a mixed sewing collection by format, plus the modern battery-powered items that should never be stored with it.
What to take away
- Choose housing by format first. Paper, metal, textile and film all want different things.
- Inert is the requirement. Cheap plastics, rubber and unbuffered card cause damage.
- Labels must outlast the adhesive that holds them. Most do not.
- Battery-powered modern items do not belong stored inside a collection.
Sort by format before shopping
A sewing collection is a mixed-format collection, which is why one type of box never suits all of it. The National Archives organizes its guidance exactly this way, publishing preservation information by media type across paper and parchment, photographs, bound materials, audio and moving image, microforms and digital media.
Format vs housing requirement
Format
- Steel and plated tools
- Dry air, inert liner
- Silver and plate
- Tarnish-inhibiting, no rubber
- Bone, horn, mother of pearl
- Stable humidity, cushioned
- Textiles and felt
- Clean, dark, unbuffered tissue
- Wooden cases
- Stable humidity, ventilated
- Manuals and leaflets
- Flat, inert, dark
- Photographs
- Inert sleeve, cool
- Early plastics
- Ventilated, isolated from metal
Housing requirement
- Steel and plated tools
- Silver and plate
- Bone, horn, mother of pearl
- Textiles and felt
- Wooden cases
- Manuals and leaflets
- Photographs
- Early plastics
Do the same sort on your own material before buying anything.
Format / Housing requirement
- Steel and plated tools
- Dry air, inert liner, no trapped moisture
- Silver and plate
- Tarnish-inhibiting enclosure, no rubber nearby
- Bone, horn, mother of pearl
- Stable humidity, cushioned support
- Textiles and felt
- Clean, dark, pest-monitored, unbuffered tissue
- Wooden cases and cabinets
- Stable humidity, off the floor, ventilated
- Manuals and leaflets
- Flat, inert folder, no adhesives, dark
- Photographs
- Inert sleeve, cool, nitrile gloves for handling
- Early plastics
- Ventilated, isolated from metal
Inert is the specification
The materials that cause the most damage are the cheap conveniences: soft flexible vinyl sleeves, rubber bands, adhesive tape, foam of unknown composition, newsprint, and cardboard boxes made for shipping rather than storage.
Avoid vs choose storage materials
Avoid
- Flexible vinyl sleeves
- Inert polyester sleeves
- Rubber bands
- Tie-on tags with inert thread
- Adhesive tape
- Acid-free enclosures
- Unknown foam
- Polyethylene foam
- Newsprint
- Unbuffered tissue for wool and silk
- Shipping cardboard
- Inert storage boxes
Choose
- Flexible vinyl sleeves
- Rubber bands
- Adhesive tape
- Unknown foam
- Newsprint
- Shipping cardboard
When in doubt, the test is simple: if it smells of anything, it is releasing something.
The other rule worth keeping is that no enclosure fixes a bad room. A perfect inert box in a damp garage still holds damp air, and a modest cardboard box in a stable dry cupboard will outperform it for years. Spend on the environment first and the enclosures second.
Labels that survive
A label that falls off is worse than no label, because the object is now anonymous and you believe it is documented. Use tie-on tags with inert thread for objects, and write the accession number on the enclosure as well as the tag. Pencil on paper enclosures outlasts almost every ink and every adhesive.
Never write on an object, and never use a self-adhesive label directly on a metal, painted or plated surface.
Modern items with batteries stay out
Lighted seam rippers, battery thread snips, small digital hygrometers and electronic tape measures accumulate in sewing storage. Batteries leak and corrode neighboring metal, and small cells present a serious swallowing hazard in a household. The Consumer Product Safety Commission publishes a specific safety notice on the dangers of button batteries for exactly this reason.
Store battery-powered items separately, with cells removed, and keep loose cells out of the collection space altogether.
Buy in two sizes and label as you go
Two enclosure sizes cover most of a small collection, and buying more than you need is cheaper than a second postage charge. The condition targets that these materials are protecting against are covered in our tool storage guide, and the situations that test the whole system are set out in the collection case studies pillar.
