Thursday, July 8, 2010

Hankie Club by Baum Textile

Now, I should mention that these fabrics are not my style, but I do see the beauty in them and I do know that not everyone has my sense of fabric style. (Thank goodness). But I did llove reading the background of these fabrics and I had to share.

They are from the Hankie Club collection for Baum Textile.

Here is the history of the hankie, from their website:

In the Middle Ages ladies presented men with their handkerchiefs to show their favor. Decorated with luxury embroidery, silver and golden fibers and fringes, the handkerchiefs were used to perform church and coronation ceremonies.

However, hankies appeared in vogue during the Renaissance when they became an essential part of any upscale wardrobe.The same women who dressed in exquisite silk gowns had their tailors add lace or a scalloped edge to a fine linen cloth and elevated the handkerchief to the status of fashion accessory. A fine lacy handkerchief, or hanky, was not tucked away in a pocket but held in the hand or draped coyly across the arm.
Handkerchiefs have remained fashionable ever since. It is rumored in fashion history that Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was frustrated that handkerchiefs were offered in so many shapes; round, oval, rectangular, etc. Her husband, King Louis XVI (1754-1793), made it a law that all handkerchiefs must be square, and have remained so ever since.

An old Irish proverb advised “Always carry two handkerchiefs, one for show and one for blow.”


Finally some historians blame Little Lulu for the decline of the handkerchief. Used as an advertising icon in the 1940's, the popular cartoon character touted the benefits of using disposable paper tissues, and sales of Kleenex soared. But cloth "hankies" had been losing ground to paper since 1924, when Kleenex tissues were first marketed as cold-cream removers. Almost immediately consumers began using the disposables, instead, to blow their noses.
So ended the popular widespread utilitarian use of the cloth hankie."

Sort of cracks me up.

Via Baum Textile

Check out this panel! You can even make your own vintage hankies! Love that!

1 comment:

Sherrie said...

Thank you for sharing this! I love this panel. I can think of so many things to make with this:0)