Making Beautiful Lavender Sachets With Antique Linens - The Perfect Hostess Gift

I got to thinking about the round of parties and family events coming up with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon.   Do you struggle with what to give the hostess who has everything?  Well, I do.  I don't drink so I am not going to pick out a bad bottle of wine.  I think that three of these tied in a bow is perfect for a hostess gift.

What could be better than antique beautiful pieces of lace made into lavender sachets.  Check out the beautiful ones I made below.

When you grow lavender, you must harvest this wonderful flower for sachets!  The scent is heavenly, and is supposed to help with moths and critters eating your clothes.   Of course you need to dry and screen the lavender to get rid of dirt and chaff.  Right now I am still seeing lots of lavender in the yard.

I grow a number of varieties.  Hidcote and Purple Ellagance.   I seem to ignore all advice on how to grow it.  I forget to cut it when I should, and then I'll whack it when I shouldn't.   I cut it way down into the woody stems, which is supposed to kill the plant, but it doesn't.

Anyway, I wound up with buckets of lavender.  I sometimes cheat and just put them in sachet bags like below.  They are handy to hang from hangers in the closet, so they are very useful.

Then I thought I would dress up the bags by sewing some antique scrap linen on it.  

I kept digging around and realized my box of "smalls", which is mostly antique coasters and doilies less than 4", is the perfect size for sachets.  Don't you just love the drawnwork square below?    The round wheel lace sachets are lovely too.

Below is a fabulous tape lace square I stitched to a sheer organdy "pillow".  I filled it with lavender and it looks wonderful beneath the lace.

Another trick is to make an organdy sachet for those little linen envelopes used for gloves, lingerie, etc.  Don't you just love the Victorian era-- they had so many pretty things for every purpose.   Now we can add beauty to our lives to a sachet by using them.  The one below is monogrammed, very charming!

I especially love these because you can refresh the lavender easily.

Below is a fingertip towel wrapped around an organdy pillow filled with lavender.  I really thought the embroidery was amazing and it makes a wonderful pillow.

Below is a sampling of fabulous coasters I've collected.  At first I was selling them on eBay, but you get almost nothing for these round coasters, so I decided to keep them once I got this idea.  So this is a good tip for you-- They are very inexpensive to pick up on ebay, especially if you can get a lot multiple types.
Look for the lacy if you like seeing the lavender.  Or you can buy the sacks and put scrap on the front like I did.

Any vintage scrap that catches your eye can be turned into a beautiful sachet.  I also recommend using hankies with damage on them.  looks at this lovely small doily I found for $.50 at a garage sale, they had 2.

The one below was a punchwork coaster.  I should have embroidered an initial on it.  OK, next time.

I'll end on my favorite.   Yes, they make great gifts, but don't forget to give yourself some!.

Ironing Vintage Linen Napkins With A Miele Rotary Iron

It's January, and there are things to do.  It's not spring, but I can't wait for spring cleaning.   I have a lot of linen that needs to be laundered after the holidays and all those dinners.

There's more.

 What can I say, I love monograms.  Check out the intricate design below!

 This M is a fabulous French Victorian monogram.  To die for.

 The varieties of script are endless!

Our holidays center around traditional dinners with everyone seated.  Using luxurious linen damask napkins only enhances that experience.  What's not to love about beautiful linen, sterling, crystal and fine china.  I especially like the older kids (in their 20's)  teaching the teenagers some table manners.  I always enlist the younger ones to set the table--it is a good experience for them.   The experience sure beats paper napkins!

When you have a big family (I am one of 7 children), holiday events can be quite a strain on the napkin department.   If you think about 32 people spending two days at your house, you need at least 2 meals a day x 32 = 64 napkins x 2 days = 128 napkins.  Oh my, that's 10 dozen napkins you can go through in one weekend.  It is pretty easy to add meals, like a friday night, etc.

That could be a problem for some people, but not for me.  I have hundreds of napkins.  I found myself spending a lot of time ironing napkins.

I don't have a maid.  I don't hire people to clean my house.   Even when I was working 70 hours a week I took pride in doing it all myself.  All 5400 square feet.  I  grew up with my mother cleaning houses and taking in ironing to make enough money to send us all to private school.  She grew up in Germany during the war and as part of their high school, she apprenticed in a mansion for 2 years.  She is the girl on the right in an apron.  How cute!

She would take in ironing and would get up at at 4 or 5 AM to  do the ironing before we all got up.  As a result, I think that is why I don't mind ironing.  It is quiet relaxation if you choose to look at it that way.

Well, my husband decided to surprise me on Valentines Day with a present that would upset most women, but not me!   He gave me a Miele Rotary iron.  It really is just a mangle, only without all that weight and rust.    This isn't just any iron!  This is my dream iron.  It takes a lot of time to press all those napkins, sheets, and tablecloths.  It is frustrating to iron on an ironing board and have marks the width of the ironing board.

In fact, I don't need as many napkins.  I could launder them one evening for the next, but I am busy visiting with my company.  I did have my 13 year old niece help iron a tablecloth.  She was quite impressed with my iron!

I've had it for a few years and can offer some tips on using it.  The biggest problem is created by running something wet through it.  That causes the rotary cover to wrinkle and bag.  I've talked to Meile about this and they say to take the cover off and wash it, put it back on and tie it.  Well, I am not a boyscout.   I don't know how to make knots on the side that stay in place perfectly, and then it continues to bag.   So I've come up with my own solution.   

 Below is what happens to the cover if the linen is too wet.  Put your dryer setting on damp dry and that will yield the best results.

 I just stitched the bottom edge to the roller and now it doesn't bag.  If I put an undried piece of linen it will bag again.  That causes creases in the item.

Check out the results below.  Putting in a damp napkin has it coming out amazingly flat and perfect.   I usually run them through twice.

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 They are so stiff it seems like they are starched.  I know that experts tell you not to store your linen ironed because it makes them brittle, but I don't really care.  I like to use what I have.

Isn't this damask pattern pretty!   I love ones with circular designs.

When it comes to monograms, I do run them through the rotary iron.  Some of them require monogram touch-up on the ironing board in order to get them to really stand out (you know, ironed on a fluffy towel.)

Don't be afraid to use your damask napkins  regularly.  It will only enhance the experience of a sit down dinner.  Think of  all the trouble you have gone to in preparing your meal.  Why not serve it like a fancy restaurant does?   You can skip the tablecloth and go for simple placemats, they always look great when adding a damask napkin to the picture.


I felt like Martha Stewart, until I read about her laundry room at Skylands here:

She has a couple of mangles.

 These are drying racks that actually blow air through them.  The poles slide into the cabinet

 I love this ironing table.  The cord needs to come from the ceiling though.

 OK, now I'm really jealous.  She has something called a flatwork finisher.

Ok, I won't be achieving this, but I love my rotary iron!
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P.S.
Read about my use of antique tablecloths at my daughter's wedding here.

Antique Cocktail Napkins and Coasters!

Collecting antique textiles can be fun an practical.  There are so many items that don't involve wrestling 120" long pieces of linen.  In selling linens on Ebay, I found that a lot of people give antique linen as gifts.  It is something unusual as a hostess gift:  not too expensive, but something really fun for them to use and enjoy.

The one drawback is that you do have to iron them, but they are so much more elegant to use than paper napkins, and ironing only takes a few seconds, because they're usually about 4" x 6".  Antique coasters are great to use--don't necessarily have to iron after every use, unless it gets stained, and the lace ones often don't need ironing.

If you read my post on hankies, you know that I love Madeira embroidery.  Cocktail napkins can originate from many places.  They can be home-made, and have lace on them, but mostly they have fun figural designs.  I think roosters seem to be the most common, but many animals follow.

Cocktail Napkins

These cocktail napkins have an applique rooster on them.  Aren't they adorable!

These napkins are the most common to find.  However finding a large set is very unusual.

These Madeira napkins have the original metal tag on them.  Items with this tag indicate the highest quality embroidery from Madeira.

This rooster is very well done.  I love the red.

Aren't these works of art!  I love these figural napkins.
Wouldn't you love to get these as a hostess gift!

These appliqued animals are adorable.
I would like 3 dozen, please!

Can you see these in a summer party? On July 4, cherry red works for me!

These were cute in all the colors.   The little reticella bird is adorable.

These look like Marghab napkins, but they are a knockoff.  How can you tell?  The quality-the embroidery is great on the fish, but the edging is frayed.  That doesn't happen on Marghab.  However a scissor trim would solve this. 

These are handmade applique, aren't they cute!

Elegant Madeira grape embroidery.

These for sure should be a gift to an interior designer friend!

The napkins above are harder to find than luncheon napkins.  The sets below would make great gifts and work well as a hostess gift.  Think of a dozen tied up with vintage ribbon.

Fine Madeira embroidery.

Victorian eyelit embroidery

Fabulous set of a dozen cutwork napkins.

Cream Brussels lace edged napkins

Point de Venise lace with filet lace edge.

Really fun fringed napkins with great monogram

High quality fine monogram and embroidery

Fine yellow applique work.  

Coasters

Another plentiful option is coasters.  They go for a song on Ebay--and I can't believe how cheap they are.

Check out the wonderful quality--click on photo to enlarge.
These are Madeira, of course.

Fabulous lace coasters.

Madeira applique

It's always fun when you find the original box.  These are a nice simple design.

Awesome example of drawnwork.  Each square is a little different.

These wonderful Quimper coasters were  too cute to pass up.

Royal Society silk embroidery coasters are still fairly easy to find.

The more ornate the embroidery, the more expensive they are.

 These pink rose ones are killer!

Of course, the quality of Marghab embroidery done in Madeira is superb.

A stunning set of Marghab coasters like these would be an awesome gift.

Didn't see anything that caught your eye?  Think they're a bit too spendy for your budget?  Well, we have another idea:  Fingertip towels!  Below is a photo of a few Madeira and Marghab designs.

You can always find a set of fingertip towels for $2 to $4 each.  

I hope you enjoyed this walk through antique linen!   Wouldn't you love it if someone gave you a unique item like this as a hostess gift?  I would!