Nothing Flowers & Fabric Can't Transform

MdeLi Mayıs 26, 2022

When making a purchase at a fleamarket I'm often asked, "What are you going to do with that?" Does that ever happen to you? (Probably.) I hardly ever have an answer except, "I don't know yet!", or "I have no idea."

I only know that there are some things that must not be left behind. . . .

These pale pink roses may be from a three piece anti-macassar set. (If you have never heard that word, I am not surprised.) Macassar oil was once used to dress the hair of men in the Victorian and Edwardian age. In order to protect the upholstered furniture from the oil, some clever woman devised a way to decoratively solve that problem.

I'm showing them on my chair for you, but these pieces might also have been a dresser set from the thirties (more likely) that had varying heights for drawers and top. The cloth would protect its surfaces from scratches and cosmetics. That use is more likely because of the materials used (later era) and because the runner is long, and finished on both edges.

But I won't be using them either of those ways. And very few people these days would. . . .

So the question remains. . . .

But there's plenty of time and inspiration out there to come up with something.

Like this book from Kathryn Ireland, for instance. (For some of you right now, thinking of summer might be just as exotic as thinking of spending it in France!) Fortunately I am an expert armchair traveller.