#i will never use delicate or damaged lace in a way that puts excessive strain on it

[discountalien-pancake]

This may be my most controversial sewing onion 🧅, but I think it’s okay to cut into old textile yardage or salvage usable pieces from decaying textiles to give them new life.

In my stash I have tons of vintage and antique laces, some in better condition than others. I painstakingly wash and repair them as needed. And then I put them away? What is the point of having these beautiful textiles that will never again see the light of day? Just to keep them in a box forever? Preciously tucked away to be studied by nebulous “future generations”?

These textiles were made for the express purpose of being made into garments and other goods. It doesn’t make sense to me to hide these things in storage out of fear of damaging them. They were made to be used! Not to exist in some pure, untouched, unaltered state.

If I had made this lace a hundred years ago, and I found out that a hundred years later someone found it so beautiful that they spent hours carefully preserving the usable pieces of it to make something new and beautiful and enjoyed my work every single time they wore it, I would be overjoyed.

I’m not encouraging anyone to cut up their antiques. That is a personal decision and one you should make for yourself after considering what you want most out of the items in your care. But I personally believe that the textiles in my care deserve to live outside the confines of a box, even if it means they die a little faster.