19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, December 2, 1914: Am making handkerchiefs for Xmas presents. They are to be real nice and fancy, with edging of my own makings on them.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma-
The handkerchiefs sound lovely. Do they have a tatted edging? Tatting is so delicate and beautiful. I have vague memories that your married sister Besse showed you how to tat last summer:
Besse was trying to teach me tatting today. Am awful stupid about it, but still I persist in trying to make the stuff. It takes some patience.
A Hundred Years Ago 
Pretty and elegant!!!
I agree! They are beautiful.
So ladylike to have this in your handbag. Now we have disposable Kleenex, boring. I’ve seen really cute drapes pieced together with colourful vintage hankies. The white ones are pretty too. Especially that not too many North American’s know tatting now a days.
Until I read your comment, I’d never heard of using vintage hankies to make drapes. What a fun idea!
It seems like tatting is rapidly becoming a lost art. I don’t know anyone who can do it.
Another domestic art form that I find enchanting. Were any passed down thru the years? I have my own grandmother’s efforts: crocheted pot holders. But I think they were from the 1940s.
You are fortunate to have your grandmother’s crocheted pot holders. I don’t have any of Grandma’s needlework..
Love proper embroidered hankies. A real work of art.
There are some really lovely handkerchiefs. Some people have amazing needlework skills. .
I have found some lovely hankies in my de-cluttering exercise. Some might be 40 years old. I used to try to hand sew hankies. It’s actually quite tricky.
I think that finding items that have been lost or forgotten is the most rewarding part of de-cluttering. I’d never thought about the process that is used to make hankies– It’s interesting that it can be tricky.
Tricky for me, anyway! Trying to make straight hems always challenged me.
I’m sure that I’d also find it challenging. 🙂
I immediately thought of tatted edges! Although I learned to crochet and knit, I never learned to tat. Our home ec teacher told us that it was very difficult to learn, and I think that planted the idea in my head that I couldn’t do it – and never even tried to learn…perhaps I should try now…???
Wouldn’t you just LOVE to have one of Grandma’s handmade handkerchiefs?
It would be wonderful if I had one of her handmade handkerchiefs! I’ve also thought that it might be fun to learn how to tat–but then I remember that I sometimes find knitting and crocheting challenging, and think that I probably should stick with them. 🙂
try needle tatting – tons of videos on how to do it on youtube! So much easier than shuttle tatting!
Thanks for the suggestion.
Vintage linens–yay! I have about a zillion beautiful old hankies like the one pictured and I keep trying to come up with an idea to use them. They are all gorgeous and I love to think of girls like Helena working on them. I do try to pass one on to young female friends when they marry, to tuck into their wedding dress as “something old.”
I love how you give brides an old handkerchief to tuck in their wedding gowns. What a wonderful momento that they will be able to keep over the years!
I bet they ended up being beautiful. 😀
Diana xo
I agree–even though she sounds a bit frustrated when she wrote the diary entry I bet at the finished handkerchiefs looked lovely.
My mother and grandmother did tatting 🙂
I can’t remember ever seeing Grandma tat when she was an older woman–though I can remember my maternal grandmother (my other one) tatting,
Some of my greatest treasures are items tatted by my grandmother. I’d kill whoever tried to use one of those dishtowels or pillowcases. I do use some of the dresser scarves she embroidered and tatted however. Love having things like this from my family.
I like that you still use dresser scarves. I have some in stored away in a chest–and sometimes think that I should use them.
At one point in my life I had a whole box of items I had crocheted or decorated with crocheted edges, including white handkerchiefs with white or colored edging. I never did learn to tat. The crocheting was done mostly when I went with my mother to Ladies Aid Society meetings after school (grade school). They were a church function, but met in people’s homes. I wish I knew what happened to that box. It would probably be of some value now with people’s renewed interest in stuff that’s old.
My funniest adult story about crocheting is the vest I made for my daughter when she was a little girl. I had done the first half when I was at home, working full time, full time mother, full time Italian (by marriage) housewife. The second half I did on vacation in Vermont. The part I did in Vermont came out about four inches longer than the one done at home. So what does that tell you about the effect of stress?
I love it! The story about the vest clearly demonstrates how stress can affect us.
I would have loved to receive one of these.
So would I. These old hand-decorated handkerchiefs are so beautiful.
A time when Christmas presents were hand made and thoughtful not due for the dump by New Years. Nice post- whoops – diary entry by your grandmother.
In my opinion Christmas has become way too commercialized. I long for simpler times.
What lovely gifts they were! And each handkerchief was a personal work of art.
Handmade gifts like these somehow seem more meaningful than many purchased gifts.
Wouldn’t you love to have one of those? I treasure handmade items I have received.
Yes, I’d love to have one of these. Handmade gift are so special!
I’ve always liked the look of tatting, and appreciate the effort that went into making all the pretty things with it.
I also like the way tatting looks. I can remember having pillow cases with tatted edges when I was a child. I always thought that they made my bed look beautiful .