{"id":13965,"date":"2011-05-19T02:57:27","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=13965"},"modified":"2012-04-15T00:26:08","modified_gmt":"2012-04-15T04:26:08","slug":"handkerchiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/19\/handkerchiefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Handkerchiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Do you use handkerchiefs?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you even have handkerchiefs?\u00c2\u00a0 They seem to be token textile remembrances from an earlier era, an item you might find in time capsule.\u00c2\u00a0 Like butter churns and girdles, they still serve a purpose but are seldom pressed into service.<\/p>\n

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This petite monogram is only 1" tall.<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, now that\u00c2\u00a0I think about it, occasionally a bride\u00c2\u00a0will carry a\u00c2\u00a0hanky which is later made\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0into a\u00c2\u00a0bonnet for her first baby.\u00c2\u00a0 But for tear jerkers and bad colds, a box of Kleenex is today’s wipe of choice.<\/p>\n

Every school day when I was 8 years old, I rode my bicycle one block to Curtis’ house where he would be waiting on the front porch for me.\u00c2\u00a0 As he mounted his Schwinn, without fail his mother would call from the kitchen, “Curtis, do you have a clean handkerchief?”\u00c2\u00a0 Without fail, he would replay, “Yes, Mama!”\u00c2\u00a0 and we rode off to school.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

My routine departure from home did not include a handkerchief check.\u00c2\u00a0 I sometimes wondered if this were a serious breach of etiquette.\u00c2\u00a0 Like every school girl in the ’50, I always wore dresses.\u00c2\u00a0 Since I had neither a pocket nor a purse in my school girl dresses to carry a hanky if I had one, I concluded that it\u00c2\u00a0must be a boy requirement.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The highly raised padded satin stitch E is surrounded by shadow work daisies.<\/p><\/div>\n

On shopping trips to the 5&Dime, I\u00c2\u00a0gazed at\u00c2\u00a0the extensive display of handkerchiefs.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Soon I had a few of my own\u00c2\u00a0and asked my mother to include pockets on the dresses she made for me.\u00c2\u00a0 But my hankies were nothing like the beauties that were available in the high end stores where I seldom shopped.<\/p>\n

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Before aloe infused tissue paper pushed lace edged, monogrammed linen squares\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0from ladies’ pocketbooks, these delicate squares\u00c2\u00a0had morphed into exquisite examples of\u00c2\u00a0expert needlework.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Hours were spent\u00c2\u00a0lavishing\u00c2\u00a0linen or cotton batiste with\u00c2\u00a0elaborate surface embroidery, fil tire’, applique’ cord, drawn threadwork, shadow embroidery, cutwork\u00c2\u00a0and Madeira applique’.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not all were stitched at home in front of the fire.\u00c2\u00a0 Around the world, by hand and machine, exquisite handkerchiefs were made for the world market.\u00c2\u00a0 I know of nowhere you can find such a concentration of fine needlework as on a ladies handkerchief.<\/p>\n

Through the years, I have assembled a nice collection of handkerchiefs, including\u00c2\u00a0 monograms, souvenirs, novelties.\u00c2\u00a0 Others were\u00c2\u00a0selected simply because they were beautiful or\u00c2\u00a0had\u00c2\u00a0creative, interesting design.<\/p>\n

They are a source of design inspiration\u00c2\u00a0 as well as a three dimensional stitch library.\u00c2\u00a0 Serious students of needlework,\u00c2\u00a0both hand and machine, could learn\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0a great deal from close examination of vintage and antique handkerchiefs.<\/p>\n

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This 16" giant must have been made for Amazon women or Northern ladies whose colds last as long as their winters. It has a tiny "Madeira" label. That is the only thing tiny about it.<\/p><\/div>\n

Some of these were purchased when it first became popular to use handkerchiefs for children’s collars.\u00c2\u00a0 That is still a great idea, but I haven’t seen any lately.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did make one for\u00c2\u00a0Rebecca when she was in 1st grade.\u00c2\u00a0 Karoline, the 2nd grader in our carpool, asked about the collar, was it really a handkerchief?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, I assured her, it was.<\/p>\n

“Good idea,” Karoline\u00c2\u00a0 replied.\u00c2\u00a0 “Then you can just blow your nose on your collar.”\u00c2\u00a0 I guess she didn’t have a pocket or a purse either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Recently, I read that someone had removed colored tatting from a handkerchief to trim a baby dress.\u00c2\u00a0 That moved me to pull out\u00c2\u00a0my hankies for a fresh look.\u00c2\u00a0 What good is a collection if you never look it over?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my monograms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am working on a monogrammed summer dress for my granddaughter Laurel.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it was quite nice until my eyes rested on these beauties.\u00c2\u00a0 Compared to them, my machine stitched monogram will be more like a laundry ID, strictly utilitarian.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Great book for anyone interested in handkerchiefs.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you use handkerchiefs?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you even have handkerchiefs?\u00c2\u00a0 They seem to be token textile remembrances from an earlier era, an item you might find in time capsule.\u00c2\u00a0 Like butter churns and girdles, they still serve a purpose but are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,25,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13965"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22199,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965\/revisions\/22199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}