Saturday, January 11, 2014

a thing for hankies

My mother sang in the church choir and I'd usually go up with her.  A nice lady up there once gave me a set of three machine-embroidered handkerchiefs, and I haven't looked back since.  Years later while working in the nursing home, a patient brought out stacks of hankies she'd made years before, some with tatted edges and some with crocheted. She let me take a big stack. 



Those are all gone, but meanwhile I found that one of the fabric companies had printed some to be used for crafts.  I use them for my runny nose.

I also have three beautiful Christmas hankies my mother gave me.  Yes, I'm ironing. I'm ironing anyway.

13 comments:

  1. I like cloth hankies too! They're so much easier on the nose than a rough kleenex.
    I have two my mom gave me and two from my daughter. They're hard to find now.

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    1. After 4 years or so, I don't think we've discussed yet another thing we agree on, Anne! ;) Down below--a lady got a bunch at an estate sale for $5.00! Can you imagine the luck!

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  2. I collect them! I've found a bunch at garage sales, and estate sales. Some amazing ones that I will never use. The guy sold me a stack for 5 dollars because he had no idea what he was selling. Sometimes those old things are the best.

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  3. I grab hankies whenever I can, I prefer them for myself and the kids!

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  4. I have a stack of my Grandmother's hankies and even after washing and ironing them, they still smell like her (she died in 1996). She taught me to always carry a hankie in my purse. In addition, I have several hankies from when I was a young girl and some I used as a teenager.

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  5. Well, well - so many! I am surprised. :)

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  6. I too love to use hankies. My mother always did and I too try to have them with me at all times . If I find them at sales they are the first thing I buy.

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  7. Ditto. My family has always used them. I made some last year, and would not mind making more this year.

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  8. Those are beautiful handkerchiefs. I used to use handkerchiefs when I was younger (before I had kids).

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  9. Just another thing we all have in common, I guess! I'm still amazed.

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  10. I got here from Anne's blog. I love my mother's hankies, especially since I found them stuck away in a hankie box after she passed away in 2011. Now, I'm a "hankie girl", too--well not girl! I'm 64! There's something so much in them that remind me of her, even after I wash them, they seem to have "her lavender scent" wafting from them. And, I love that you don't just use them up and toss them away, that they last for ages, and that they have so many different patterns and edgings.Hankies make me smile.

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  11. Oh my! I commented, and then went and read all the other comments--isn't this amazing? How much we all are alike, right down to still smelling mothers and grandmothers on them after washing.How we look for them everywhere! How very cool! I'm hoping to make some for my now 6-year-old granddaughter, Maybe I'd better start soon, for I want to use the teeny-tiny hook and threads for the edging for her wedding hankie! That would be so cool.

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  12. Another cloth hankie user here. I have ladies' ones for everyday use but when I have a real cold, I use my dad's. They're big and soft from decades of going through the wash and remind me of him -- extra comfort.

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