This study deals with the design of handicrafts produced in the daily life of elderly women. Its goal is to establish a discussion between the design and the artifacts produced with needles and lines in the domestic daily life. Signaling points of divergence and convergence between the fields of design and artisan groups, identifying hybrid relationships between them, understanding the boundaries between the fields and getting to know different possibilities for the production of artifacts in the Brazilian material culture. We seek to further the discussion about the importance of the techniques allied to the acts of sewing, weaving and embroidering throughout the history of mankind, its origins and eventual consequences. Techniques such as crochet, knitting, embroidery, etc…, essentially linked to the feminine universe that today, facing industrialization, have not disappeared and are present in products and design projects, fashion and art. Through a participatory research named Projeto Retalhos de Memória, performed with approximately 150 elderly women, we could verify that these techniques are present in the imaginary and personal memories of elderly women because these techniques have been learned and lived in the domestic sphere and institutional environment through the habitus and lifestyle that was present in the education of girls of a certain generation, today elder. The lack of dialogue and the exclusion of older people of our society cause wisdom to be lost in our material and immaterial culture.