What a bargain! I think I will buy some. (Part 1)

When the stepmother of a friend passed away, she left behind an impressive collection of vintage linens. They weren't her family's heirlooms; they were simply pieces she'd accumulated over the years from estate sales and the like. My friend has been entrusted with the task of sorting through the stash to sell it, so she asked those of us in her small quilting group if we would like first dibs on what she and her dad had found so far.  (Yeah, so far.  Apparently, my friend's stepmom squirreled away things everywhere, so they're not sure when they will find it all.)

I went to take a look at the assortment last weekend. All the linens are in a spare bedroom, in boxes and on tables and the floor and overrunning the bed. Dresser scarves, table cloths, dish towels, napkins, doilies, hankies (the reasons why I was there), and gobs of other embroidered, embellished, and otherwise spiffied workaday fabric finery were all over, though each and every one of them were arranged in an orderly fashion.

I took home two (2) grocery bags worth of stuff. All for $20. I'll show my hanky haul in a later post, but in this one I want to share what was in a box of handmade trims my friend threw in for thirty cents. There are a few mystery pieces, which I show at the end. If you know what they are, please leave me a comment giving me a heads up.

First, some long pieces of filet crochet.



I think some of these are meant for pillowcases. The top, thinner one actually rests better in a circle, so I'm guessing it was meant for a neckline. The two trims wrapped around tubes are tatted. The filet crochet piece between them, with the ribbon running through it, looks like it could be a sachet since it has a front and back and is stitched together around the bottom.

A close up of the tatting.





What does one do with filet crochet butterflies?



This isn't the mystery piece, but I was puzzled by it. It looks like it could be a bikini top, huh? I wonder if it more likely came from an era when lace adorned dress bodices. Or maybe it's the top of a nightie. Was there a bride somewhere down the corridor of history who didn't get this in her trousseau? (I'm talking out of my ear, of course. I have no inkling what kind of clothing this beautifies.)

Finally, the head-scratcher.



I arranged these four things in a cross just to take the picture. I don't know how they're actually put together. Each one appears to have an upper tab, whether it be pink, blue, or white. One of my friends suggested they are scallops in a larger and never completed piece. She also wondered if they're dresses for a kind of filet crochet Sunbonnet Sue. It all sounds good to me because I am clueless. What do you think? If you don't know, make something up and jot it down in the comments anyway.



I've posted this to

• The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday
• Debbiedoo's Garage Salen