Making Christmas Garlands From Vintage Thread and Memories

~ Laura

A few years ago, Aunt Theresa passed away. Aunt Theresa was a character, and I’ve written quite a bit about her life and death: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I saved a few of her things in my basement, including her vintage makeup suitcase. Check out the old ocean liner address label. I sold a few of the menus from those cruises she took to Europe in the 1950s.

I opened it last month and found a mess of sewing stuff.

I sorted out the mess and set aside the vintage thread on wooden spools.

Then I glued down the loose threads.

I lined all spools and just admired all the colors and vintage wood.

This morning, I strung up the wooden spools with wooden beads to make Christmas garland.

I’m going to make another three or four more for the tree, but here’s how it looks so far. I think Aunt Theresa would have liked this project.

Update: Here’s the finished project.

Published by Laura

9 thoughts on “Making Christmas Garlands From Vintage Thread and Memories”

  1. Can we all acknowledge that your energy level and completion of projects is not average or ordinary, that you are above average and extraordinary?

    My current project is to see what I can do with fabric paints and jeans. My college kiddo told me that she still loves the first trench/raincoat I got her from Amazon (a red potentially off brand model) that fell apart after a few of years of constant use and was replaced with a blue one and now only black and white ones are available. She won’t wear black, so I’m trying to figure out if the jacket will work with paint embellishments, which she likes.

    She sent me a picture yesterday wearing a red beret, purple scarf, and yellow coat, which is how she likes to dress.

    I have not gotten very far on my project.

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  2. That is awesome! Very creative and a nice homage to your aunt.

    The quality of products from that era is quite impressive. I “inherited” a Singer from one of my mom’s friends who had multiple sewing machines, which is in working order – though I wouldn’t know since I haven’t used it yet. It’s from the 50s or earlier. I picked it up last year as a possible mask-making machine but by the time I got it there were plenty of good mask-makers around.

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    1. af said, “The quality of products from that era is quite impressive. I “inherited” a Singer from one of my mom’s friends who had multiple sewing machines, which is in working order – though I wouldn’t know since I haven’t used it yet. It’s from the 50s or earlier.”

      My mom bought a used sewing machine (Singer?) about 50 years ago and she still uses it from time to time.

      It weighs a ton, though.

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      1. AmyP said: “It weighs a ton, though.”

        That’s a feature, not a flaw.

        The weight of the machine helps stabilize it as you sew heavier fabric (and the fabric doesn’t need to be too heavy, at that)
        I have a 1980s Bernina – bought when I was a teenager, and still going strong. It’s the last of the models with the mechanical stitch change templates (later ones were electronic).
        Weighs a ton – and I whinge a bit every time I have to shift it around.

        But, it’s a total workhorse, and has sewn through hundreds of miles of fabric over the years.
        When I was making costumes for our Playcentre (co-operative community early childhood education) – we had a sewing bee, and I could see the way that the ‘old’ Bernina out-competed the modern light-weight machines that the other mums had (some of them expensive brands) – in handling the heavier duty fabrics (fake fur, etc.)

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