Linens and Lace - Tapa dura

Creative home decorating tips highlight a practical guide to buying, restoring, cleaning, and storing vintage linens, accompanied by a resource listing for reproduction linens

ss is to be found in a well-stocked linen closet Linens and Lace is about stocking that closet -- and then using its contents to bring comfort and elegance into your home. Tricia Foley, author of the best-selling Having Tea and an expert on fine linens, tells us how to find and evaluate vintage household linens -- the most intimate of antiques. We learn how to judge the age of a piece of fabric, how to spot dams and mends, how to tell machine-made lace from handmade. We learn how to care for our treasures: how to wash, iron, and store even the most delicate scraps of lace. Most of all, we learn, through Lilo Raymond's exquisite photographs, how to use lace and linens at home: An old tablecloth makes a wonderful filigreed curtain against the sun; a star-shaped doily softens the line of a bathroom shelf; a heap of plump little pillows invites us to linger in bed. Every image gives us another inventive and easy way to bring some romance to bed, bath, or table, and a thorough source guide tells us where t