Your mother will never notice if you mail all those embroidered linens
to me. Trust me. Here's my address!
Seriously, hand-embroidered linens are far from rare on eBay. You can
buy oodles of embroidered pillow cases, table/dresser runners (great for
camisoles, blouses, skirt borders, and other things), tablecloths (great
for skirts), not to mention crocheted doilies (which can be hard to use,
but they are good for lace patchwork). Plain linen tablecloths are a
costumer favorite for getting cheap linen fabric to make into clothes.
The late 19th-century and early 20th-century chemises I spoke of are all
over the place. The minute I bought the four for $40 (which just arrived
in today's mail, and they are great), the seller contacted me to offer
me another four. There are oodles of eyelet-trimmed petticoats around
too, and if they are sturdy they dye up nicely for skirts, and if not,
the eyelet ruffles are often useful for trimming other garments. I am
currently adding one to the bottom of a chemise, having dyed the eyelet
in the same batch.
Most museums receive public funding to preserve artifacts. I don't.
That's not my mission in life. Everyone is welcome to make their own
decisions regarding their own property--I certainly have some items in
my collection I would not cut up. But, I haven't saved every garment
I've owned in my life for posterity, either, and everything I make from
vintage textiles is also part of history. Maybe someone will someday
display part of it is "early 21st-century upcycling." Who knows.
And if I owned a huge historic diamond and wanted to wear it, I'd
certainly consider having it recut. If you've got any diamonds around
the house, send those along too.
Fran
Lavolta Press
www.lavoltapress.com
On 3/29/2013 4:26 PM, Sybella wrote:
Ha. I'm with Fran on this one. If we saved every vintage textile we found,
we could fill a warehouse...and it would all just sit there. What would be
the point? Mom has boxes and boxes of vintage embroidered sheets, pillow
cases, dish towels, table clothes, etc. Since she wants to "save" them, we
don't use for them. Frankly, I'm sick of trying to live with boxes, lugging
them around to get to other things, and endlessly moving "useless" stuff
around the house. If I could do it without Mom noticing and getting ticked
off, I'd start mailing it all to Fran. LOL!
That said, I also understand where Isabella is coming from because I HATE
it when people take a piece of vintage jewelry and destroy it by tweaking
it into something modern. I find stuff on eBay all the time that just blows
my mind.
I cry when I read about someone who bought an historic diamond then had it
recut. If it used to be in a royal crown and can be seen in portraits from
hundreds of years ago, leave it alone! Man, oh man, I want to smack some
people!! Things like that can never be replaced.
But really, linen tunics?? Eh, they're nothing special. It's the rare
stuff, especially things that have significant history, presses my buttons.
'Bella
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