vintage doily tote bag

so following on with the doily theme. . . .

take one plain natural cotton tote bag
{available from the lovely Vonnie's Folksy shop - Blottedcopybook's store of wonders - only £5.00 for 5 !}

pin on a pretty vintage embroidered doily -
then remember you need to sew on some buttons
{vintage of course!}
sew on the buttons, through the doily but not through the bag

machine stitch your doily to your tote with contrasting cotton,
i used different colours for top and bobbin threads
{try not to get too cross with your dumb-ass sewing machine}

select a small crochet doily from the ever expanding pile
using a matching cotton hand sew the doily to the centre of the first doily
remembering too late you should have done this before sewing on the first doily, sigh.
select a beautiful vintage mother-of-pearl button
to adorn the centre of the second doily
sew on with contrasting embroidery thread.

there you go - a cool new shopping bag!

unfortunately my photo's aren't so great this post
due to busy day with work and bad light
when i got the time to photograph
but you get the idea!
i will definately do the next bag in the right order!
you can click on any of the photo's for close up views!

vintage crochet brooch

As i'm sure you've noticed i LOVE shopping in my local charity shops!
I keep finding these gorgeous vintage doilies for bargain prices
i can't crochet myself - so i can only guess at how many hours of work
must go into these beautiful and intricate designs,
it seems rude to leave them in the shops gathering dust
so i've been snapping them up and stashing them away!

available in my Folksy shop or my Etsy shop

so the other day after finding some more pretties
i got out my doily stash and had a play
and here's what i came up with

it is a rather large brooch -
i was going to make it even bigger
but would've needed to stiffen the larger doilies
i think it will look great on a plain top or jacket
and fantastic on a bag
{i'm going to embellish some calico totes next}

to make it -
i tea-dyed the smaller doily to give a better contrast
and sewed the two doilies together with a vintage button in the centre
and stitched a brooch clasp on the back.

so next time you're in the charity shop/thrift store
and see some un-loved doilies,
don't ignore them - snap 'em up!

****

more doily fashion here
meridian ariel's Etsy shop