Something new from something old

Sometimes I wonder what the difference is between the miser of old tales, counting his pile of gold and the way I guard my stash of fabric, yarns and trimmings (not to forget a huge box of buttons).  And what about my fourth stash box - of vintage linens?

A linen table cloth with drawn thread work in soft greens and a deep border of crochet lace began my minor obsession.  Given to me by my mother after my wedding, it had been the cloth on the table holding our wedding cake.  Periodically I have added to the collection, mainly from charity shops.  Cornish charity shops are the best!  Last weekend I added this to my collection.

A meter square linen table cloth with a large area covered in lazy daisy stitched flowers, £3.50 at the lifeboats shop.  I don't look forward to doing our laundry generally and the ironing can hang around for days (even weeks if I'm entirely honest) but I do like washing, starching and ironing my charity shop finds. Once the collection began to grow, I determined to make things out of the cloths.  This meant I could buy linens with some damage as I cut around the holes or stains and patched the good bits together.  I have made cushions, scented drawer sachets and am planning a large random patchwork quilt.

We had a bumper crop of lavender in the garden this year, so it seemed a good idea to make some little lavender bags.

Although I have a pretty huge collection now it still takes a little courage to cut into someone's handiwork.

I decided to use just the centre of this cloth today, keeping the multicoloured border for the bigger project.

All materials come from my various hordes.

Impulse buy buttons from my button box

Ribbon for the hanging loops, kept from birthday present wrapping.

The central circle of pink flowers made four bags. Made not out of necessity but for pleasure and to make use of something beautiful instead of leaving it in a box under the bed.

xx

C