A few days ago, I got the curtains out of the cupboard, did some alterations, added a middle section, sewed the curtains into one piece and turned them into a table cloth. When I laid our table with that cloth, those doilies felt as if they'd come home at last and were made to grace our table. Now I have the pleasure of seeing those old doilies - some of them with family history - much more often. With just a little work, it's become part of my every day. I much prefer to use what I have instead of keeping them in a cupboard. And it's made up a beautiful cloth that used to be part of my family history into part of daily life.
You can make something like this too. Search for doilies, embroidered table cloths and hand towels, tea towels and old handkerchiefs, or even small pieces of fancy fabric you like the look of. If you don't have enough, stitch a few pieces of plain fine cotton copying the older styles in the pieces you have. Try to make each piece fairly similar in weight. My cloth has very soft handkerchief cotton, light linen and a lot of fine cotton but most of them are very old, have been washed a lot and have lost any heaviness they once had. Set all your pieces out on a bed first to work out your patterns and size and to be sure of the colours and shapes, then pin it and sew on the sewing machine.
Do you have a cloth or curtains like this? Do you have any handiwork that reminds you of your family?
Judy has started a thread at the forum about this, click here to go there.