Antique and Vintage Textiles - Quilts Fabrics Bed Linens Table Linens Kitchen Textiles

Antique and Vintage Textiles

Antique Victorian Ladies Womens Apparel and Accessories

Antique Vintage Childrens Fashions Historical Holidays Toys and Dolls

Antique Vintage Samplers Sewing Laces Buttons and Fabrics

Antique Vintage Victorian Paper Books Magazines Ephemera

The Gatherings Antique Vintage offers antique and vintage quilts dating from the Victorian era through the 1940's. Pieced, applique, crazy quilt styles, embroidered quilts, quilt tops and blocks, whole cloth and tied comforters. Pieced quilts include cotton and wool quilts while our crazy quilts are available in fancy fabrics such as silks and velvets.

Many of the quilts you see here at The Gatherings Antique Vintage have beautiful embellishments of embroidery work. Our embroidered quilts show off the the ever popular redwork and turkey red quilts. The heyday of these delightful quilts are from the later Victorian through the early 1900's.

Jacob Ladder Early 1900 Calico Quilt Blocks Squares 30 In Lot

Hand Stitched 19th C Brown Fabric Bear Claw Quilt Block

1800s Victorian Calico Bow Tie Quilt Blocks

Antique and vintage fabrics have a wide range of uses, from tidbit scraps for quilt repair to unused yardage for retro home decorating. The Gatherings Antique Vintage carries country plain, fancy dress fabrics such as Victorian silks and satins, chiffons and crepes from the Flapper Era to the 1940's.

We have more! Great vintage and antique fabrics such as wool, linen, challis, cotton, printed calicos, solid color fabrics, dimity, homespun linen and cotton plus barkcloth and other drapery and home decorator vintage fabrics.

8 Yards Vintage 1940 to 1950 Peony Floral Drapery Upholstery Fabric

Vintage Quality Formal Stripe Upholstery Fabric 2 Yards

Blue And White Check Early Factory Homespun Fabric Yardage

The Gatherings Antique Vintage carries exquisite estate bed linens, many in unused condition, dating from the mid Victorian and Edwardian era's through the 1930's. Beautiful sheets with matching pillowcases, shams, bolsters, single pillowcases cases, many with lovely hand trimmed edgings of crochet plus tatted and knitted lace edgings.

Browse through our antique and vintage bed linens with lovely embroidery monograms and other fancy work. We have bedding in linen as well as cotton fabric. Antique and vintage bedspreads made of lace, woven weave, damask, hand embroidery and more fine work from yesteryear.

Looking for antique or vintage towels? The Gatherings Antique Vintage carries fancy to plain towels including homespun. What a great gift idea for the bride who treasures antique, vintage or retro bed linens!

Round Edwardian 1920 Satin Pillow With Normandy Lace Covering

Vintage 1930 to 1950 Southern Belle Crochet Edge Sheet And Pillowcases

Pair Hand Crochet Edging Percale Vintage Pillowcases

The Gatherings Antique Vintage carries many fine and lovely estate table linens from the Victorian and Edwardian era's through the 1940's, many items unused including pieces still in the original box. Wonderful vintage tablecloths, doilies and runners in a variety of sizes and styles. Many all lace plus lace trimmed linens plus many machine and handmade edgings.

We also carry a fine assortment of antique and vintage damask cloths and napkin sets, many sets with fine monogrammed initials. These gorgeous antique and vintage tablecloths range in size from bridge table to banquet table sizes in different shapes and styles.

If your style is not the fancy white linens, The Gatherings Antique Vintage also offers colorful florals, stripes, plaids, plus embroidered tablecloths and napkins from the Depression era through the 1950's.

Hand Bobbin Lace 8 Inch Antique Vintage Table Doily

1940 Vintage Embroidered Floral Tablecloth Unfinished Edge

19th Century Victorian Drawnwork Tenerife Lace Doily

What fun to explore these "make you smile" vintage kitchen textiles, dating from the 1930's through 1960's. Embroidered kitchen tea towels with stenciled designs, especially those that tell the 7 day of week story on the towels with a flurry of barnyard animals or the figural and floral. Any can lend a charming touch to a modern as well as retro kitchen.

Not to be out done are the whimsical pot holders of equally charming characters. Unbleached muslin, flour or feed sacking as well as 100% cotton fabrics are the choice of fabrics that were used. You will find them embellished with embroidery and applique accents. There is also an amazing selection of hand crocheted pot holders in many charming styles and shapes.

~HERE YOU WILL ALSO FIND~ .... The colorful floral tableclothes of the 1940's, 1950's and into the 1960's complete with the the figurals that were so "in" during the 1960's. A style such as the cloth featured below. These pretty tableclothes seem to always be in style

~SO PART OF KITCHEN TEXTILES ...IS THE APRON~ .....The apron that served so many purposes and was such a part of yesteryear's home life. I can smell the home cooked meals and Sunday dinners now.............

Vintage 1930 Appliqued Embroidery Muslin Bib Apron

Embroidered Pigs Day Of Week Vintage Kitchen Towels

19thC Brown Calico Floral Print Unused Apron

Condition - Criteria for Purchasing Textiles.

There are probably many thoughts on this very subject both from the perspective of the dealer as well as the buyer. Each person has their own set of rules to what condition the article must reflect. I have opinions, too, but they are somewhat varied as to the type of goods I am offering for sale.

Let me start by saying when you are looking at vintage or antique textiles you are looking at old...not new from the store purchased today...but from the past, made in yesterday's past. Yesterday's items will show different degrees" of less than perfect condition". Even unused items even though looking very new may still have the telltale sign of some oxidation marks. At the other end of the spectrum will be goods in "a well worn - well loved" state. Many other items will fall in between.

So what is my criteria (this is my own personal criteria) for these categories? I believe the earliest finds, anything before the Civil War, we need to be forgiving for the damage we may find. After all many of these items will be over 150 years old so we deserve to give them a bit of a break and their due respect. Remarkably many of these textiles are still very well preserved especially if they have been lovingly cared for & stored. Silks and satins from the time period have held up better than the silks & satins from the later to late Victorian - Edwardian era due to the properties used in the manufacture of the silk fabrics . You will find a great deal of shredding of silks from this later time frame. Is the condition of these pieces worth collecting? I would venture to say it depends on how much shredding and how rare the piece and how desperately the buyer wants it. Usually when the piece starts to shred it will continue to do so. Can the piece be stabilized or the condition slowed down? Possibly by storing properly with little handling. Am I saying not to buy these beautiful pieces that show some wear? Not at all, I have and I will continue to purchase. By all means, enjoy!

I, personally, tend to buy items in good to unused condition simply as I am a little more of a perfectionist. However, here is another school of thought and one I learned very skillfully in the selection of the "well worn / well loved" category. Many collectors of country textiles love the faded, mended, well loved look. These cloth items, of course, are less than perfect and one must look beyond the holes, the stains etc. to see the endearing aspect of the piece. Possibly it is a state of mind to conjure up the struggle of families surviving all types of hardships with little financial means from our pioneers who settled this great land to the families of the Depression. The articles of cloth from this struggle show a remarkable resiliency. "Make-do", if you will and should be no less appreciated than any other.

If you are a beginning collector of textiles and want to collect buy the best you can afford to buy being mindful of the condition of the article you plan to purchase. Down the line would you be less than happy with the piece with the hole or stain or is the piece all that you want it to be? Learning about our own personal collections will also take us to a step in evaluating condition of the textiles we seek.

Welcome to The Gatherings! I am happy you stopped by for a visit.

As I am a collector at heart my thoughts are always of preservation. How to preserve these textiles I love so they can truly stand the test of time to be handed along to the next caring & loving collector.

Most textiles that can be safely cleaned are cleaned before I offer for sale. Those that can't or not easily cleaned are inspected. Possibly a good airing on a well shaded protected porch will do wonders to release odors or loose soil. Those items that can be laundered I look for any damage that would need repair prior to laundry. If not repaired before hand more damage may occur during the washing process. Please keep in mind that dirt sometimes is what is holding a piece together. It is so very disheartening to see a lovely piece shredding before your very eyes once the fabric meets the water. Occasionally it does happen. A piece which seemingly could be washed doesn't survive.

Linen and cotton are two of the most easy to clean fabrics so these two fibers will be the focus in this article. You will find as I have many cloth pieces are begging for a good bath. I must say, a good soaking does do wonders to restore vitality to the fabric, helping the piece to emerge from an unkempt desperate look. Again, there are a host of products and ways to clean these fabrics. Although I have tried many of them I find my method of choice, that works for me, is to use the product Oxiclean . This product is easy to obtain and is a relatively safe washing product, but may I stress do read the label. I start my laundry by placing a small group of textiles to soak over night in a plastic tub. Some items may take several soakings to remove all stains, changing the water a number of times during the soaking process. Upon completion of this process I rinse the items several times to remove all traces of the Oxiclean. Then, again, I fill the tub with water and a small amount of detergent to further clean and remove the remainder of residue. Repeat rinsing until no soap remains.

If you are so fortunate to have a clothes line these pieces can be lined dried. Take care of hanging delicate fragile items as the item weighted with water can place stress on the cloth. These pieces are best laid flat to dry on white Turkish towels. I have often resorted to heavy plastic hangers for drying some clothing & small items of cloth hanging on a sheltered porch. Another word of caution wooden hangers and wooden clothespins can sometimes leave a stain on freshly laundered whites so I have refrained from using.

These lovely heirloom pieces are now laundered and dried. As the pieces I launder are offered for sale ironing is the final step, however, please read the information in the following paragraph if your pieces are to be stored.

If you plan to store the items for a period of time you will want to store properly. It is not recommended to store starched iron pieces for an extended time as the starch can cause a deterioration of the cloth via insect etc. Another choice and recommendation for storing would be to purchase archival tissue paper to wrap the lovelies especially, again, if pieces are to be stored for any length of time. Another recommendation is to store the item/s in cotton sheeting as cotton is a natural fiber which will allow for air circulation and breathing of the textile. Do use 100% cotton sheeting only, with no blends or synthetic. If you don't have old cotton sheets look to purchase vintage pieces. It is a perfect solution for wrapping and storing heirloom textiles. Please, never store your treasures in plastic, cardboard boxes or against wood of a storage cupboard. The last two can cause oxidation stains to the textile. Plastic is never a good choice as it does not allow the cloth to breath.

If you have decided you want to use your treasures after freshly laundering, here are my steps for this process although you may have your own method. When I launder the pieces but before drying I use liquid starch mixed to the directions on the bottle. Each item is dipped in the solution & then aired dried to a point of being almost dry. I roll each piece and place in towel in refrigerator for a few hours or over night. Each piece is usually in a just right "dried" condition for successful ironing. Caution: all pieces must be ironed within a day or two otherwise mildew can develop

This process of ironing freshly starched textiles by this method does require more time and is more satisfactory in the end result but a method of using bottled spray starch on completely dried fabrics just before ironing can also be employed.

I am sure others have their own methods of cleaning. Plus their own choice of products of which works for them to give them the results they want. These are just a few tips that have worked for me.

This lens lovingly created and maintained by MMLLC.