Washing my lace…

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I searched Google for advice on washing all the lace I got. I thought about all the different advise and then this is what I did:
I use 2 cleaning agents- Neutrogena soap (the orange bar) and Oxy-wash type non- chlorine bleach (there are lots of brands and they all seem to say “Oxy” in the name). I used a quart jar with a lid as my mini washing machine.
Step 1-washing: I put a very small amount of oxy-wash into the jar- maybe about 1 teaspoon. I ran hot water into the jar, over the bar of soap, so the water got some soap in it. I then put some of the lace into the jar, put the lid on and gave it all a good shake.

lace wash

I let it sit for about half an hour and then scooped all the lace out of the jar and rinsed it. I examined each piece- some of it was all clean and nice, some still looked dingy or had spots. I put my jar of washing solution into the microwave and warmed it up again, and put all the rejects back into the jar to soak longer. I soaked the dirtiest pieces for a maximum of overnight. If they weren’t clean after that, I figured I could deal with it.
The clean pieces moved on to the next stage.
Step 2- drying: I collected glass jars (plastic didn’t work as well) and took off the paper labels. Take the lace and smooth it onto the glass. It will sort of stick if the lace is wet enough. The idea is that by flattening and smoothing it onto the glass, you can shape it and it will not need to be ironed. Here is one batch on glass-
wet lace

next I wrapped a piece of old Tshirt around everything to keep it in place while it dried. Lots of rubber bands were used…

lace wrapped

unwrap it when everything is dry…

lace dry
and voila!

lace done

Step 3-storing: I wasn’t sure what to do with all my lace once it was so clean and nice, so I asked people over on my favorite Yahoo group- Vintage Clothmaking. Someone said that she stored hers in plastic bags so she could handle it without getting it dirty. She puts similar types of lace (ie- tatting, tiny lace, etc) together. I thought that was a great idea- I have a box of ziplock bags that were too small for what I bought them for but are just perfect for the lace.
This is one of my favorite things in my haul- a collar with someones name inked onto it.
mary collar

Minnie and Tallulah

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Minnie

minnie

Tallulah

I’ve named them and put up a photo album with lots of pictures.
While I was working on these two, I got a sudden flash that they were like my sister and me when we were little. I didn’t want to name them after us, but decided to reference it by the first letters of our names- M and T.

Antiques Show

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On Sunday I went to an Antiques and Collectibles Show that the Red Cross sponsors every year. I had some insider information that someone had donated a large collection of lace… WoW! I sure had fun!
Isn’t this eyelet beautiful?

eyelet

I came home with a shopping bag full. I feel like a kid at the end of the night on Halloween! Now it all needs to be examined, sorted, washed, ironed and stored…

lace 1

This is going to be great! I wish I knew more about lace.

I also got a whole bag of linens- mostly napkins, in lots of great soft colors… (well except for the bright lime green set with the 3 inch purple H monogramed on them!) They were in the Bargain room and the person in charge told me I could fill a shopping bag for $1. Unfortunately they smell strongly of mildew so they are off to the washing machine.

linens

Roxbury Show

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It was a very busy weekend. Here I am at the Roxbury show… trying not to grimace for the camera.

show

The show was pretty much of a bust in terms of sales, but was lots of fun because of the people I met. Everyone who came and talked to me was interested and enthusiastic. Who knows, maybe someone who took a card will get back to me. As I always say, I am much more likely to find a buyer when I take them out of the house then when they are sitting up in my studio.

Below is a photo of the mini dolls on the stand I made for them out of K’Nex. I knew there was a reason to keep them after the boys had out-grown playing with them!

mini dolls with stand

craigslist collectible

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My GoogleAlert led me to this posting- I don’t know how this make me feel… a bit odd to be a collectible…

boston.craigslist.org > collectibles > Pottery by Mimi Kirchner (Boston area potter) wanted
last modified: Thu, 18 Nov 20:58 EST

Pottery by Mimi Kirchner (Boston area potter) wanted
Reply to: anon-49374940@craigslist.org
Date: 2004-11-18, 8:58PM EST

I am interested in purchasing some hand-built porcelain bowls by the Boston area potter Mimi Kirchner (active 1980’s and 90’s.) I am specifically interested in some of her larger soup-size bowls, with a diameter of 7″ approximately. However, I would also purchase some of her smaller size bowls if you had some to sell. Please feel free to contact me should you have some you are interested in selling. Thanks.

2 dolls progress

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Okay, so you’re thinking, they look the same as the last picture and it’s been 2 days! Well I’ve been working hard on these guys for the last 2 days, but they haven’t really been cooperating. I am having difficulty with shoes and sweaters… typical toddlers.
I have a fuzzy dark blue sweater that I thought would be perfect- I cut out a pinafore sort of thing- it just wasn’t working. Soooo, back to the stash- I pulled out another old sweater- this time a scottish cashmere, sort of icy green color, incredibly soft with only a few moth holes (yard sale- $2) and took it apart.

Here it is in pieces. I saved all the yarn that had chain stitched it together and reused it when I made my mini sweater. Below is the sweater in progress- I used the bottom ribbing (the part at the lower edge of the main body pieces) at the bottom of my sweater and also for the sleeve cuffs. I still need to put buttons on it.

sweater

Then there are the shoes… I am struggling here. The one pair I’ve made is not wanting to fit. I’ve resewn one shoe 3 times already. Time to start over… tomorrow.

While I was getting frustrated with difficult toddler dolls, I glued the wigs on, finished the edges on the jumpsuits, sewed on snaps and adjusted elastic- all the stuff that doesn’t really show in a picture. I am hoping to have these guys finished for the show on Saturday, so I have one more day.