Today I got out my vintage linens from their hiding place in the spare bedroom.
I felt I needed to give them a fondle, as I hadn’t had them out in ages. 
I have always loved this sort of napery.
My mum and Nanna always put an embroidered cloth on the table at teatimes when I was growing up. It was our one bit of mealtime formality.
Our inherited gate-leg oak dining table was far too small for all of us to fit around in comfort.
Consequently, Nanna sat on the sofa with a tray (with tray cloth) and, apart from my dad, we perched on ugly folding stools rather than sitting in dining chairs, watching telly as we ate.
But at least we all ate together.
With a proper tablecloth. 
My Nanna, who was born in Yorkshire in 1897, had been sent to learn fine needlework when she was young.
I remember her describing to me the boredom and loathing she felt, tomboy and actress that she was, confined to a large room full of similar young girls, forced to hand stitch all day long, forbidden from talking by a strict woman who strode about terrifying everyone. 
I never saw Nanna do any embroidery, although she had many beautiful linens.
She made them all for her “bottom drawer” and thereafter, scarred by her experience, never did embroidery ever again.
Though she did make dresses for my sister and I, on her old Singer hand-crank machine. 
I always try not to buy vintage linens. I really do.
But I often fail. 
Unlike those of my childhood mealtimes, my linens are never used.
They are so beautiful that I just couldn’t bear to see them get covered in curry sauce, beetroot stains and the like.
But I feel bad that their purpose is unfulfilled. So periodically I get them out, and fondle them, and consider doing something with them.
And then I fold them up neatly, and put them back on their shelf. ♥
I’m with you on this. I have a desperate weakness for heavily embroidered pillow cases in cambric, with frills and covered buttons. You know the kind, the ones that leave an embossed impression on your cheek in the morning. I never use them, I just like to know I have them! After all, if I didn’t buy them, they might have gone to someone who didn’t properly appreciate them…
Yes, apart from their beauty I think that’s what drives me to buy them too – the thought that nobody values them, evidenced by the fact that they are in the charity shop in the first place, usually being sold for next-to-nothing despite the hours of work that must have gone into them.
Oh dear me too… I have two suitcases under the bed of embroidered table cloths and pillow cases… I love them… I still hope to be able to one day have a neck that will allow me to use my sewing machine again till then like you I just get them out to Oo and Ah. Cx
What would you do with them? I’d love to hear…
it’s true, I have been looking at mine lately, they are still intact, but I don’t use them because I don’t want to mark them either! I might allow myself to chop into a couple but it’s hard because they are so lovely. I’d also like to learn some to make some of the flowers. x
I have so many embroidered cloths I could have Sunday afternoon tea with a different cloth every week for at least a year ! . . . but sadly I never have Sunday afternoon tea let alone use a cloth . . but I do look at the cloths every now and then . . just to ensure there is no new damage more than anything else. The extra precious ones are those my mother embroidered both for her use and those she gifted to my Nana that came out every Sunday afternoon for tea :0)
It’s lovely to hear that others have a similar precious box / bag / shelf full of similar treasures!
I divide mine into two – the bag full of my mum’s and nanna’s linens, which are stashed away in a cupboard (and well overdue for a fondle, just to check the moths haven’t got to them) and these embroidered treasures, which I failed to avoid buying from charity shops.
I always think of the women who embroidered them and wonder about them… did they hate the task, like my nanna? Or did they enjoy it, sitting thinking about their impending marriage perhaps, or just whiling away the evenings?
I always have embroidered tablecloths on the table for dinner time, I was luck to inherit a great number of them. and the addiction of collecting them has grown from there!