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. 

Old Lace and Vintage Hankies

We had a awesome time at the Flea Market in Elkhorn, Wisconsin yesterday!  It's a huge market and takes hours and hours to walk through. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Sunny and about 80 degrees.

I found treasure!  Lots of treasure!  Old lace, vintage hankies, sweet little buttons and more!  This was a bag of appliques, pretty little crocheted pieces and trim.  Perfect for crazy quilting!

Next, I found yards and yards of narrow lace in different colors:

Then, some little bags of lace for $1.00 each:

Next, I found some sweet little buttons and check out that bunch of vintage millinery grapes!  Can't wait to use that on a crazy quilt piece!

I also found some pretty vintage hankies.  The small one are for mom for her door pillows.  The pink one and the one with the roses are for my crazy quilting:

Last but not least, I found a few interesting pieces.  The needlepoint piece is for mom to make something out of.  The baby applique is for mom as well.  I thought she could make a pretty little baby pillow out of it.  Last, I found that lace table runner.  I'll share with mom.  There's a lot we can do with that!

It was a really fun and nice day of treasure hunting!  Click on the pictures to enlarge them and see things up close!