Hankie Pankie Project

While on my girl's trip in Williamsburg, our cousin Vicki generously gifted several of her mother's hankies to each of us.

The practice of carrying handkerchiefs is believed to have started with Marie Antoinette.  As she was traveling to France, away from her beloved Austria, she cried copious amounts of tears.  In order to blot those tears, she tore bits of lace and linen from her chemise.  From then on, she always carried a facsimile of those original torn pieces wherever she went.

Beautiful ladies handkerchiefs were a staple of many women up until the advent of disposable tissues.  It was not uncommon to find a handkerchief in my grandmother's purse and you can certainly find them in antique stores nowadays.

Now, the art of carrying those unique fabrics is lost, but many of those vintage hankies are hiding in the drawers and boxes of a waning generation.

What do you do with them?

Here's what I did...

I selected 3 hankies that appealed to me.  You can see the different sizes and colorways - I  especially love the scalloped edged brown hankie.  I have decided to keep that one for my purse.  I may never use it as it's intended, but I like the idea that it's in my purse anyway.

For this project, I chose the turquoise and purple one.

I started by ironing out the creases with a hot iron, set to linen with steam.

I then laid it on the diagonal to me and measured across from point to point.  It was almost 15 inches, so I tweaked the ruler and then divided that 15 inches into thirds.  I made a small mark on the hankie at 5 inches and 10 inches.

I folded the points in to meet that tiny marked dot and then finger creased the folded edges.  This gave me a guideline for sewing a straight line.

I unfolded the edges and then folded the left side point over to the right side point.  From here I went over to my sewing machine.

Starting on the crease, I sewed through both sides on the finger-creased line.  This effectively sewed those two sides together.

I took that back to my ironing pad, opened up the hankie (now a tube-like formation) and folded open the flaps left from the seemed line.

I hit it with the hot iron.

I then took the opened sides and folded them into the center, making sure that I had about 1/2 inch at the top of each side.  See where my finger is?  From the tip of my nail to the folded edge will allow me to make a casing.  This is also the point where I will sew a line from side to side.

Because hankies are rarely square, and hankies that are at a vintage stage will most likely NOT be square,  you will find that the folds will now NOT be centered.

Sew that casing line from side to side on both sides of the hankie.

Fold from top to bottom and sew down the sides.

Turn it inside out.

At this point, I rooted through my button stash and picked out two purple buttons.

I sewed the button to the end of the flap to hold it down and add a bit of detail.

TIP:  When sewing on buttons, I double the thread through the needle eye.  This gives me a 4 strand lead for sewing the button on.

I came through the back of the hankie (now a bag) and sewed two times through the buttons.

I picked a coordinating purple ribbon for the drawstring tie, using the almost finished bag as a guide for the length of the ribbon.

In order to feed the ribbon through the casing, I used a tiny safety pin attached to one end of the ribbon.

I fed it through the casing on one side and then the other.

I lined them up where they met at the openings so that the ribbon was not twisted in the casings.

I did a simple knot and cut the ends even at an angle.

And here is my finished bag, perfect for jewelry!

This is a great way to use these vintage hankies.  

You can even create jewelry bags from vintage linens as well.

It's a great way to break the rules!