ideas for old embroidery

by judi
(Kansas)

I have several old pieces of cloth that have beautiful embroidery. The cloth has stains and tears but the needlework is in excellent condition. Do you have any crafty ideas the embroidery could be used for?

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by: Anonymous

There are many ways you can "recycle" old embroidered items. If there are small enough sections, use them on covered buttons for a pillow, curtain tie backs, or even garments. You can use slightly bigger pieces for jar toppers or clothing and quilting appliques, or the front of a greeting card. Make sachet bags or top a hat box or glove box. Use it to make the top of a throw pillow. Hopefully these ideas will get your creative juices flowing and you can come up with many more!
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by: Valerie Kalyani

Depending on the damage there are things you can do. First patch anything you can using fabrics as close as possible to the original. I do not recommend iron-on patches for this. Use something like Stitch Witchery (available at fabric stores) to adhere your matching fabric.

Then you need to clean as best as you can. As long as there are no strong colours (dark reds, purples and greens) it may be possible to gently wash it like warm water with mild soap such as you would use for a baby. If it is silk, don't wash it. You also consider giving a tumble in the dryer using an in-home dry-cleaning sheet (these are great). If the soil is a little too much you could distress it bit more on purpose to give it a more uniform look by tea-dying the whole piece.

Then we get to what to do with it. You don't want to make anything that would get a lot of wear, for instance an eyeglasses case would be probably be handled too much for an old piece. Think about things that get to 'lie around' like a cover for a toaster or other kitchen appliance.

You could:
Frame it.
Cut it into a doily and put trim around it.
Use it to make a lid for a basket top.
Cut it and mix with other fabrics and make a quilted wall hanging.
A doll or teddy bear dress.

Have fun with you project, I hope these ideas were helpful.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Crazy Patchwork is beautiful
by: Carol

Judi, you lucky girl! I think if it was me I would cut out the good sections and use them in a crazy patchwork piece.

Basically you start with a background cloth and lay various shapes of pretty fabrics wherever they will fit and attach them around the edges with embroidery stitches.

It is common to then decorate some of the patches with embroidery, but in your case that part would already be done!

You could make a crazy patchwork cushion/pillow if you can't face doing a whole bed quilt. If you wanted to you could join sections together with plain bands in between.

Let's see what ideas other visitors come up with for you.

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