The Delightful Doily Display

I managed to squeeze in some time last week to work on a project I've been wanting to do for a while. Remember that huge bag of crocheted doilies that we inherited from Mama Handyluster? I had thought I would frame them all individually - but then realized that's a lot of doilies and a lot of frames that will take up a lot of wall space! So I came up with a new plan.

First, I gathered some materials: fabric scraps, a picture frame (1' x 3'), and some foam board. Using the piece of cardboard that came with the frame as a template, I cut a piece of foam board just slightly bigger. The foam board should just fit the hole in the frame, with a margin of about 1/16th of an inch from the edges.



At this point, you might want to get an extra set of hands to help you.


Next, I temporarily wrapped the foam in the fabric scraps to see how the doilies would look against the different materials.


I picked one of the fabrics and cut a swatch big enough to wrap the foam board. HandyMan ironed the fabric, using some spray starch to get it nice and flat, and we wrapped the foam board and taped off the excess on the back. After I settled on a design, I used some sewing pins to hold the doilies in place. The pins were too long so I snipped off the ends from behind. Then we put the foam board in the frame and attached the backing. Unfortunately, I had to remove the glass from the frame as there wasn't enough depth once the foam was in place.


And here is the doily art hanging in Chloe's room. I managed to use quite a few of the doilies which was great because they were all made by HandyMan's great grandmother and I wanted to keep these pieces of the family history. HandyMan's not a fan of doilies but even he had to agree this project turned out pretty cute.