Remember the stiff crochet doilies our grandmothers used to make? The ones that they starched and formed the fluffy and decorative edges.
Well I found a second hand store where I was able to find several crochet doilies, but the edges are flat. Does anyone know how the edges were formed. I know that they were dipped in a starch and water solution, but beyond that I am not sure.
Please let me know if you have any information. I would love to put these under my Tiffany inspired lamps.
Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season.
By LINDA from NYC
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Years ago (1950s) we used to solve this problem by making up a strong solution of hot Argo Starch and then immersing the freshly washed and rinsed doily into the starch solution. Then we'd wring the excess starch out of the doily and place it on a flat surface. Then, here's the surprise, we'd use empty Coca Cola bottles or some other similarly shaped containers around the outer part of the doily and form the ruffles over the bottles.
Do you by any chance have the pattern for these doilies. I would sure love to have one. Nancy Beam
Back in the good old days, we would use sugar starch for ruffled doilies:
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is clear, hot, and all sugar is dissolved, but do not bring to a boil. Remove from heat, let stand until cool enough to handle.
Place a towel on a table, dip the doily in the starch, wring out the excess. Stretch the ruffle with your hands so it fans out as much as possible. You should also stretch the part of the doily a little that is supposed to lay flat. Lay the doily on the towel and smooth out the flat part. We would place loosely wadded pieces of waxed paper under the ruffles to prop them up. Make sure the ruffles are even. When it is just the way you want it, leave it until completely dry, then remove the waxed paper, of course.
Be forewarned that starch, whether it be regular or sugar starch, shortens the life of crochet items. Also, when you stretch, don't get too rambunctious about it, you don't want to break the thread.
Some doilies aren't meant to have the ruffled edges. My late Aunt used to make a lot of them, and she just plain used the liquid starch full strength, an then ironed them. I don't know if she ironed them when they were wet or after they dried.
The ruffles are in the pattern
Hi I have used the sugar and water to stiffen my doily but it feels sticky what have I done wrong by travelnight.
I used to mix up a strong batch of liquid starch, submerge the doily then wring it out. I took an iron and went around the edges while stretching the doily a bit. Don't pull too hard but stretch in the same direction that you're ironing. You'll have beautiful big ruffles that will last quite a while.
I too, crochet and like stiff doily's. However, I used a mixture of plain old white glue and water. I then pinned them on a piece of cardboard with straight pins until dry and the shape I want. With the glue the doily can be washed twice with out re-gluing. Also helps repel dust and dirt. Good Luck.
Your the first person that has mentioned stretching and pinning the dollies to cardboard to shape them. My Grandma and Mother did this to all of their dollies and they looked beautiful.
The method with the Argo starch is the best way, not only was it use back then, but I still use it today, Althought, since it not as easy to find the cocoa bottles like then, I use the plastic soda bottle it works just as good. The sugar method is good to.
The ruffles are crocheted in, not formed later. If your solution is thick enough, you may be able to do some finger scrunching around the edges, but they won't look like those you remember.
Doily patterns were written to create a final product that caused ruffles, some doilies were crochet that way, some were meant to lay flat, so a doily truly meant to ruffle on the edges was created/crochet to ruffle, some were not meant to ruffle and trying to force a ruffle on those meant to lay flat will only ruin the intended shape of the doily. Starching a doily created with ruffle will help the doily to hold a more uniform ruffle.
The dollies, after being starched, are shaped and pinned to a cork board/surface to dry. When completely dried remove straight pins and display.
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