The textiles were fashioned by Florence Porter and her daughters, Ella and Hazel, sometime between 1910 and 1997. 

The National Trust owned property will throw open the doors of the family’s former King Street home, Miss Porter’s House Museum, to showcase the treasures in an exhibition titled Homemade. 

The exhibition promises to demonstrate “changes in twentieth century clothing and the necessities of everyday life”.

It will feature household textiles in crochet, lace and embroidery.  Attendees will also get to see household items and memorabilia of the Porter family. 

Mrs Porter’s wedding dress and the decorations from her wedding cake will also be on exhibition. Ella’s christening mug and a plaque from Mrs Porter’s coffin are in the collection.  

Souvenirs from family trips to the Blue Mountains sit alongside home-trimmed hats and hundred-year-old Christmas cards.

There will be an exhibition shop and activities for children. 

Mrs Porter moved into her marital home in 1910. She purchased a treadle sewing machine on her wedding trip to Sydney and had it delivered to Honeysuckle Point Station.

For sixty years Mrs Porter and her daughters sewed, re-purposed and mended everything from dresses, coats and underwear to curtains and pot-holders.

Mrs Porter was widowed after only nine years of marriage. She remained in the home with her unmarried daughters. 

The home with its contents is open to the public for the special event every day from May 12-20, excluding May 14.  

Miss Porter’s House is located at 434 King Street, Newcastle West. Exhibition hours are 10am-3pm. 

Entry is $8 children and students $5

More: missportershousenewcastlenta.wordpress.com or visit the Facebook page: facebook.com/MissPortersHouseNewcastle