Of Hankies and Doilies

Hankering for Hankies


Based on comments to my Oct. 21 post, I see that many of us are devotees to the vintage handkerchief. I thought I’d share how hankies are used around Oak Rise Cottage.


This bulletin board in the downstairs office displays crystal angels with hankies and doilies and other pretties.






Here is a collection of six hankies. Each has an all-around design, with the four corners having the same design. I like the sense of completeness this gives.




When I moved into my house in 1991, I did not have money for new bedding or drapes. So I bought peach polished cotton toss pillows and dressed them up with off-white handkerchiefs hand-stitched to one side.


As pictured in my Oct. 1 post, I also selected from my kerchiefs and framed them along with vintage doilies.

On a table in front of the windows in my bedroom I use a monogrammed hankie given to me by my mother. It serves as a napkin for a cream teacup and saucer set in a small brass Chinese tray.


For a new crafter’s group here in New England I was preparing this large yellow pillow by appliquéing the colorful cotton hankie to one side.



Just as the new crafter’s online shop was about to start selling, problems arose with the Internet provider and the venture was cancelled.
[Since I had to register with Etsy in order to buy, I may just put them on sale by opening my own Etsy shop – OakRise.etsy.com. Think they would sell?]

Dallying with Doilies
Right up there with hankies as vintage linens, are doilies. I also collect doilies and have used them in various ways around the cottage.
Here are some other décor pillows I’ve worked on. Also for my bed, I took a lace-edged white cotton doily and stitched it by hand to the back of a little round pillow I had made. The lace forms edging for each side. The fabric matched my bedspread and the edging on the drapes.




In the guest bedroom is a large white pillow with crocheted edging. To this I hand-stitched a five-pointed Battenberg lace doily.

Continuing to make changes, I have selected these white buttons and pearly pin to enhance the pillow.

Intent on putting them up for sale, I took two green polished cotton pillows from Kmart’s Martha Stewart Everyday Collection and altered them with two new Battenberg lace doilies. One doily is round, the other square.



To a large lilac print pillow I stitched a round crochet doily.

For these two other yellow pillows I selected two small embroidered doilies to stitch on them. The third photo shows the rear of the pillows.



The other day I was checking on how to become an Etsy seller. Things seemed pretty straightforward, though generating traffic and sales is a challenge. Do any of you Etsy sellers or buyers think these pillows might sell? Let me know what you think. Thanks for your comments.