Linen Haul - Charity Shop Find

I nipped into the Charity shop yesterday just for a poke around to see if anything new had arrived. The best bit poking around to find "treasures".  I found a vintage tablecloth and some fabric and whilst paying for them I was asked if I would be interested in some vintage linen.  So I said I would have a look and I was very surprised to find that a large percentage of the items were tatted, as well as embroidered and crocheted.  I was offered the lot at £8.00 and I quickly took advantage of this.  Here are some of the beautiful pieces. (for obvious reasons I have not shown all of the items).

Lets start with the crocheted items:

Here are the tatted items:

An embroidered chairback

I might turn this into a cushion cover as I quite like the embroidery.

There were quite a few more items besides this which were not handcrafted but machine made but they can be incorporated into something else.

I also bought a single duvet cover for the fabric more than anything else.  It will make some nice accessories for my smallest room.

You cannot see too well above but the cover is pale yellow with yellow rose panels all over it.  It will tone in well with the bedding I already have, so as I say some accessories to be made out of this.

There was also a cotton lace tablecloth (machine made I think from the look of it), but it is in relatively good order with no damage and so I think this will look good on a Christmas table with a red undercloth. It is a large cloth in any event. 

I think I just fell very lucky as there is quite a bit that I can do with these beautiful pieces.  The tatted pieces I will keep as they are as they are enormously complicated to work and a little more fragile. To show them to their full glory they need gentle hand washing, starching, blocking and drying and then pressing out with a hot iron.  You will note on the tatted pieces that the edges curl a little. A lot of people do not appreciate the difference between crochet work and tatting. 

I was enormously chuffed to be asked as I know that they normally sell the vintage pieces to a dealer who buys them on a regular basis.  Even the chair back covers are linen so I can use the fabric for embroidery and possibly make up some little fabric heart lavender sachets.

Right I had better get on.  I am due a delivery later today and I need to get ready for it.  More on that in a later post however.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

x