Tuesday 23 October 2012

A Cheap Easy Way To Store Lace


If you are a collector of lace then this is a must see !

Over the years I have collected tonnes of antique lace.
It is one of the great passions in my life actually. Nothing gets me quite as excited as walking into an antique store and searching for more of the stuff ! lol

I have gone from having a small box to keep it in and then the box was replaced by a BIGGER one and then another EVEN BIGGER ONE !
Clearly the box was not working for me at all and most of all I wanted to SEE all of this beautiful lace all the time instead of only when I took the box out to take a look inside.
I thought about buying some wooden dowl rod and making some sort of wind up system like they have in the department stores but I simply don't have the room for it.
A card to wind it around was messy and unorganised because I had already tried that before.

Then one day I was washing one of my big glass bowls that I was displaying little nests in.
All of a sudden I thought about displaying my lace in it.
I just needed to come up with a neat way of rolling up my lace so it was able to fit and also be visually pleasing to the eye.

MY PEGS !!!!!!!!   I thought !
MY WOODEN DOLLY PEGS !

My wooden dolly pegs are another useful item that I buy. They are cheap and cheerful and I use them for lots of different things. I use both my vintage ones that I pick up at antique stores and flea markets and also new ones that I craft with, that I buy cheaply at dollar stores.

SO after handwashing metres upon metres of my lace and gently ironing it I found myself with a cup of tea, a comfy seat and winding my beautiful lace around wooden dolly pegs.

So no longer do I have a tangled mess of lace in a box.
Now I have a very neat and organised collection that now lives in a lovely big glass bowl with a lid on the top so as the nasty dust won't get in and deterioate my delicate lace.
I can see it everyday and it is protected.
PERFECT !

There's only one small problem.......
I need a few more glass bowls
OOPS ! (lol)

I can thoroughly recommend this idea.

Whoever created dolly pegs was a genius.
I loooove the things !
Each little dolly peg looks as though she is about to go a ball.
Some are 'wearing' big full skirts and others are wearing short tight ones !



I fastened the ends of the lace down with cellotape so as pins didn't leave a rust mark as often happens.

and all of the little 'dollies' lived happily ever after in the big glass bowl on the shelf.
Their Mummy loved them as much as any Mummy possibly could.  They were warm, cosy, dressed like princesses and very happy !

                                                                           THE END


Have you all seen my new lace jewellery line that I launched last Friday ?  If not you'll find it HERE or simply scroll down to the next post. I have made it with some of the lace pictured above.
                                                I love it !
                                                                           Melanie xo


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7 comments:

  1. Great way to display lace. Pretty and practical.

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  2. Oh, how cute! All the dollies dressed in lace!

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  3. What a great idea! And, it's pretty as well. Thank you for sharing this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

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  4. Bellissima idea... anch'io ho lo stesso problema la proverò sicuramente

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  5. Hola saludos desde Chile!! Buena idea!! Pero me puedes recomendar un sitio donde comprar clavijas de madera?? Acá en mi país no tenemos, bueno un abrazo desde Santiago de Chile!!

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  6. I have a significant amount of lace that I inherited from my mother. This is a wonderful idea to display a portion of them! My plan is to display them in a refinished vintage sewing machine drawer! Thanks for this super cute idea!

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