How to: Display Doilies and Honor Their Story

Since we are all stuck in our own homes right now, I thought I'd do my first ever tutorial for everyone!

This shouldn't include too many things that you don't already own, that is as long as you accidentally hoard scraps like I do. You should be able to get anything you don't already have for pick up or delivery from your local craft store,¹ Walmart, or Amazon. Please stay safe and wash your hands no matter how you get your supplies!

This Doily Display Board will give you something to do with those treasures that your mom gave you that are beautiful but just don't go with the style of today's entertaining. You'll be able to get them out of that falling apart cardboard box they were given to you in and let them live a new life on your wall.

But first some history!

History of Doilies

Doilies date back to 1700s London to a cloth merchant who was probably named Doiley or Doyley that sold open work textiles and table linens. However, much of the doily's history is intertwined with women.

They became what we think of as doilies in the mid-1800s when industrialization made cotton thread easily available. Nuns had a history of making intricate lace to be sold at market and help support the convent. During the Irish Famine of 1846 many farming families were in need and looking for additional income. Convents started holding crochet lessons for women to make an inexpensive lace that could be sold and keep their families from starving. During this same time period, mass production had raised the standard of living and expanded the number of specialized serving dishes in the household.² By the late-1800s women were looking for accessories to go with their extensive servingware and women's magazines started printing patterns and how to guides for making mats, linings and coverings for all these different pieces. Thus the hobby side of the doily was born!

By the 1900s doilies were everywhere and women's magazines were filled with tips on what to do with different shapes and detailed their role in etiquette. During this time tables looked sad, cold, unwelcoming, and naked if it wasn't covered with doilies. They were signs of women's personality and visual representations of the time and effort that women put into entertaining guests and making their home inviting.

The thing about making a doily is, there is practically no way to sign it. Women put all this time and effort into a treasure but they have no way of leaving their mark on it without affecting the design. Today, we cannot look at a doily and go "oh that's a valuable one, it was designed by Anne Orr"³ More male-dominated fields did not have this problem. We know what furniture was designed by Hepplewhite, and not a single Haviland brother would have let a dish leave France without their stamp. The dedication doily production takes makes a treasure with a story that can only be passed by generations. Women's role in the home for much of history was all about making a legacy by instilling your knowledge and values into the next generation. It was only that next generation that could carry and pass along your story. The only one who would know the hard work you put into all of those doilies is your daughter. It will only continue if she too tells her daughter about your hard work and dedication to the doily and to the family. If the verbal story of your work were to stop its history is lost.

I don't know the history of my doilies. I know my grandmother didn't use them. Her mother was a single mother of three who worked, leaving her little time for creative endeavors.⁴ Past that, I don't know how people in my family spent their spare time. That family history is lost. But we still have this outline of a clue, in the form of doilies. So we work with what we've got and let the remaining treasures live on in honor of the stories that we've lost.

Now let's get cracking on this tutorial

Supplies

• Some kind of wooden base

• Project foam

• Thumb tacks

• Scissors

• Fabric

• Starch

• Iron

• Pins

• Picture hanging kit

• DOILIES

Step One: Get a base

You'll need some sort of base to start with. This is slightly smaller than the size your final product will be, so if you have a specific spot you want to hang this keep that in mind.

I suggest using something wooden because the thumb tacks and the hanging kit will hold onto it pretty well. Don't worry what the base looks like because it will be covered, so it can be any old scrap you might have around.

I am using an old kitchen cabinet door that my Grandfather couldn't bare to throw away when my Grandmother redid the kitchen in the '90s. It was covered on gunk and spiderwebs so I washed it and let it dry over night.

Step Two: Wrap it in project foam

Lay your base on the project foam and cut foam with a few inches larger than the base on every side.

Fold bottom straight up and secure with two thumb tacks. Use the ones with a flat head so they don't stick out. If you don't have any thumb tacks I think this will also work with a nail as long as its not longer than your base is deep. It will also need a wide head so the foam doesn't slip past it.⁵

Fold top straight down and secure the same way.

Next you'll want to trim some of the extra foam by the corners so its not too bulky.

Cut off a square of the end of the foam that is already folded without cutting the part that has not been folded. (pictured below)

Cut a diagonal of the remaining unfolded foam in the corner area. (pictured below)

Repeat on all four corners.

Fold in remaining two sides and secure with thumb tacks.

This is how your project should look once all the sides are secured

Step Three: Wrap it in fabric

Pick out a fabric that will help the doilies show up. Colors like white, cream or even most shade of yellow will blend too much and you won't be able to see many details in the doilies. Depending on the size of your project you can use any scraps of fabric that you've been saving because "you never know when you might need it." Now you need it!

Make sure it is large enough to cover your project and to fully wrap out the sides. If your fabric has a pattern like mine, lay it on your project face up first and align it so your don't end up with it just a little bit crooked. Pin the fabric in place with some sewing pins so it doesn't move when you flip it over.

Wrap your project in the fabric the same way you might wrap a present.

Fold in two sides and secure with thumb tacks like you did with the foam.

Fold the corners in, then fold the full side up and secure. (pictured) This gives you a better looking corner.

Repeat on remaining side.

Step Four: Get Doilies Ready

Get your doilies out of that box and look through them.

Pick out which ones you might want to use. You could pick some that all use a certain shape, or some that are all the same shade of "white" or, like me, you could pick a selection that show the variety of your collection.

I also got out way more than I actually needed.

If you think your doilies need cleaning before they get displayed wash them. They are usually pretty sturdy and made of cotton so unless one is particularly fragile you should be able to wash them on normal, but if you are really worried about them feel free to hand wash or put them on delicate. If they've yellowed with age, there are cleaners you can buy that specialize in that.⁶ I personally like the way the yellowed linens look, but I did wash a few of them with Oxi-Clean and it didn't damage anything.

Next you'll need to iron them.

Let me be clear, you don't actually have to iron them but you should starch them and ironing just speeds up that process. Starching helps them stiffen so they don't droop once they are hanging upright on your wall.

I suggest using strong hold starch, but if you only have light hold just repeat the process once or twice.

Spray with starch on both sides and iron as normal. You can also spray them and let them dry for a couple hours, but it will take longer

Let the starch dry completely. I laid them flat on the table overnight but a couple hours will probably be fine.

Step Five: Arrange Doilies

Arrange your starched doilies on your project.

Let them overlap to add interest and to get more to fit on there. Too much overlapping can also muddle together the designs so try to give them some room to breathe.

Don't be afraid to drape larger pieces over the sides or corners, because I'll show you how to pin that down later.

The most important thing to remember is that this is your project. So you can do whatever you want! I'm not going to jump out of my computer and tell you you're doing it wrong. It's right as long as you like it, so go for it!

Step six: Pin Doilies

To pin the doilies, use sewing pins because they won't damage the doilies. I'm using some that have a sort of pearl at the end because I though it would be pretty.

Insert the pin at an almost horizontal angle. This way the pin can travel through the foam lengthwise instead of going straight down and hitting the base without concealing the pin.

Pin each doily at the top.

Pin in a few more places going down curves that might tip over and droop if not secured.

Pin in some of the places where they overlap so the back one doesn't push the front one out with time.

Once you think you've probably pinned enough, pick it up and hold it up like it would hang on the wall. Shake it around, swing it, maybe walk with it a little bit. Then look and see if anything has started to tip over or folded itself.

Pin those spots down so that doesn't happen again.

Turn to the back if you have any that are draped over.

Fold the doily over the edge and pin to the part of the foam that is back there just like you did on the front.

If it is on the corner, take the remaining piece of doily and fold over just like you did the first piece.

Pin these like you did on the front, and add one or two on the sides so they don't get loose.

Step seven: Add hanging element

Find the middle of the board. This might not look like the center because of the uneven extra fabric, but don't let that lead you astray!

Mark two spots, even distance from the center for the screw eye hooks to go in.

Take a small nail and gently hit into the marked spots with a hammer to start the hole.

Screw the eye hooks into the started holes.

Google how to tie picture hanging like I did, here is the one I used.⁷

Try your best to do what she did in the video but mainly make sure it seems kind of tight.

Try not to cut the wire too terrible long or it will show above your board once you hang it.

Step eight: Enjoy!

Hang like you would any other picture and enjoy it! Tell people about your doilies (and about this blog) and continue to honor the story.

-Catherine

¹ Please support small businesses! They are hurting the most right now!

²Why have a dish that you could put anything in why you could have a dish that is Only for asparagus?

³ Anne Orr was the name of a popular doily maker booklet. Countless nameless women contributed, not unlike the Betty Crocker.

⁴ Grandmother Miles' preferred creative outlet was rearranging furniture.

⁵ I think you could also use a staple gun instead of thumb tacks, but be sure to have someone else there to call 911 if you staple your hand.

⁶ Mama's Miracle Linen Soap is one

⁷ Here is that link for tying picture wire again.

Most of my doily history came from here