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Monday, February 09, 2015

A Box Of Old Lace

My husband and I are already climbing the walls with cabin fever.  Spring fever actually.  This has not been a terribly cold or snowy Winter but every year, by mid-February, we need to get out!  So, we went a flea market yesterday.  It's an indoor flea market and not one of our favorites but it was something fun to do. 

I never find much at this flea market but this time, I hit the jackpot!  Look at this box of old crocheted and tatted lace:


There are a few pieces of manufactured lace in here but most of it is handmade.

I washed it yesterday when I got home and now it's ready for pressing. 

I don't know why, but I just can't leave a box of lace like this sitting around a dirty old flea market.  I already have more than I will ever use but this is just such a treasure to me.

If you're lucky enough to find some beautiful vintage and antique lace in a flea market, garage sale or thrift store, here are the directions for washing old lace.

In this article, I recommend a product called Orvus.  I do not know if it's still available or not.  I don't have any here and have actually been using Dawn dish washing detergent.  My thoughts on that are, if it's safe to use on precious wild life, caught in oil spills, then it's safe for textiles. 

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7 comments:

  1. Magpie's Mumblings6:19 PM

    Wow - you hit the jackpot! I wouldn't have been able to leave it there either. (btw - blue Dawn is absolutely excellent for grease stains on clothes too - has to be the 'blue' one tho').

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marly3:06 AM

    Great find: distinguished embellishments indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. El Desván de la Gata Perezosa6:02 AM

    Hola, sigo desde hace tiempo tu blog, me acabs de dar un buena idea para poner en un cojin,al aplicar esas flores recortadas.Un saludo.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lady Locust7:00 AM

    What a find. I'm with you on not being able to leave lace someplace that is sub-par when it should be treasured:)

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  5. Joyce Carter7:44 AM

    I really love lace and I love adding it to my projects. I am like you-I have way more than I could ever use. I purchased a big box at a flea market awhile back. To clean it, I just put it in the sink with Dawn dish detergent and it looked so pretty after it was dry.Almost too pretty to use.LOL

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  6. Mary Ann Tate8:46 AM

    I always use Dawn. I had a very old linen table cloth that belonged to my mum. I thought that it was a goner as it had not be used for well over 30 years. It was yellowed and stained. Dawn brought it back to life.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Abby / Linda12:46 PM

    What an awesome find! Lovely!

    ReplyDelete

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