DIY Vintage Lace Bowls

These beautiful bowls are a simple project with an outstanding result.  Made with vintage doilies they are both charming and useful.
Won’t your morning coffee seem so much fancier when your scones are served in vintage lace?  Guess what everyone I know is getting for Christmas?
Get the DIY after the jump…

1. Collect some vintage doilies (I got mine at the Rose Bowl Flea Market) and think about what shape you’d like your bowls to be.  Then gather your dishes to make some forms.  I balanced my forms on cups and vases so the doilies wouldn’t drag on the tabletop and harden misshapenly:

2. Cover your forms with plastic wrap:

3. Place your doilies in a plastic bag:
4. Pour your fabric stiffener in.  You can buy fabric stiffener at JoAnn’s or any craft store:
5. Squoosh it around in there to coat the fabric:
Make sure to coat all of the fabric.  You don’t want to miss a spot and have a floppy section on your final bowl like I did, but if you do don’t worry, you can just apply more to that section and let it dry.  Example of missed section:

6.  Remove your wet doilies from the bag and wipe off the excess fabric stiffener so you don’t have clumps on your final bowl.  Then carefully drape the doily over your form.  Even out any areas where the fabric is lumped together, like here I flattened the green leaves and fluffed the flowers:

and here I tried to create a fluted shape around the edge:
7. Let dry overnight.  You might want to gently lift the doily off the plastic wrap a few times as it is drying to ensure the plastic wrap doesn’t get stuck to the doily.  I didn’t have this problem but if you have too much fabric stiffener it’s possible.  When it’s dry, lift it off your form, turn it over and admire it!
examine them from all angles…
Throw some loose items in there!
Or a napkin and some scones…

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5 Comments

Ali

Wow…definitely going to try this. My grandmother left a bunch of antique doilies to me and I haven't had the foggiest idea of what to do with them. This would make them useful, but make a unique way of displaying them as well!

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