Stitching with Vintage Whites

I've been stitching this week, using some of those old white linens that were too worn to mend and use as originally intended.  Using a pattern for an Armchair Sewing Caddy by Maureen Greeson, I pieced together the pockets using the old linens.  There weren't too many spots that needed seam embellishment as I tried to use the original edges as much as possible.  But where seam embellishment was needed, simple feather stitch variations did the trick!


Each pocked ended up with a corner in need of something more, so a mother of pearl button was added. For the lining, I used some natural linen I've had for a while.  I love how it shows off the beautiful old white embroidery and lace!  The pincushion portion was stuffed with clean wool and the whole thing was bound with some vintage cotton bias tape I've had for ages.  It was just the right color of aged white!


Here it is from the top.  When I started this, I thought I'd use it on the arm of my sofa, but I didn't take into account how wide the arms of the sofa are!  But it works just perfect on the arm of my cozy chair!  Might have to make another one for the sofa!  To the side you can see two other projects I've been stitching on this week.


I started these little linen and lace hearts last year about this time.  They've been languishing in a box waiting to be finished.  Next I'll add some cord to them and they will become a small garland to hang from my old shelf!


To go with all my white things, I've been wanting to make a linen and lace pincushion.  I love the size of the CD pincushions and knew that this old round piece of crochet would be perfect in all it's irregularity. It has a couple of small stains that will not come out, no matter what I tried, so I'll cover them with a small crocheted Irish rose in the next few days.  The tatted trim around the bottom edge came from a box of lace I picked up this summer.  I believe it had been tea dyed ~ it was an ugly brown.  First I washed it with non-chlorine bleach and hot water.  It helped, but didn't bring it down to the lightness that I knew was hiding underneath all that icky brown.  A tiny bit of bleach in hot water, a very brief soak, then lots of rinsing and at last a white vinegar rinse (to neutralize the bleach) finally took away all the brown and left the lace the perfect matching white to the old linen and lace!


Every now and then, a project comes along and simply feels "like home".  These stitching projects with old white linens and lace were just that way.  So comfortable and so "right" somehow.  They were a joy to work on and I'll definitely enjoy using each of these items!