From Crochet Magazine: Saving the Past: Part 1

Saving the Past: Part 1

Aside from finding lots of humor in her world of crochet, Donna has some seriously good ideas for preserving vintage crochet pieces that time may have forgotten by using them as embellishments on a variety of projects. In this and the next three issues, we'll share some of Donna's creative ideas for saving bits of crochet history.

First up, Donna shows how an antique crocheted nightgown yoke became a unique, old-fashioned pillow design.

Create an Heirloom Pillow By Donna Scott Remember all of those vintage and antique crocheted laces and yokes that adorned your grandmother or great-grandmother's nightgowns? Alas, too many potential treasures found their way into the trash because of tears or discoloration, or simply because they were no longer deemed useful. We like to display and honor the old by using them in a new decorating trend. If you don't have antique pieces of your own, many can be easily found in local antique shops as well as garage and estate sales. To make the pillow shown here, I chose some fabric and made a rectangular pillow as the backdrop for the antique nightgown yoke shown. Nightgowns made with these beautiful lace yokes were extremely popular in the early 1900s and are starting to make a resurgence. After stitching the yoke in place, I adorned the pillow with vintage hat pins and some ribbon. I would love to make a similar pillow for my mother. She has several antique broaches she inherited which would make wonderful accent pieces. I think a velvet hunter green pillow to match her bedspread will be the foundation for my treasure-in-the-making. It would be the perfect complement to the pineapple yoke from a nightgown she has that belonged to Great-Granny Sarah. All that's needed is to launder the yoke, as it has yellowed a little with age. I use a mild detergent and hand-wash delicate pieces such as this in lukewarm water. All that will be left then is to gather the pieces together and hand-sew the yoke to the pillow. This will make a gift that is unique to my family and will definitely be handed down to the only granddaughter. It will contain history in a style that won't fade with time.

In our next issue, Donna shares some ideas for embellishing garments with antique crochet pieces and shows a jacket adorned with some vintage crochet work. Stay tuned!