Vintage Sheets

This week I am going to talk ideas for a variety of vintage linens.  It was something that just popped into my head and the next ting I know I am pulling sheets and stuff from all my hidey holes in my house.

Here are most of my vintage sheets and pillow cases that I have picked up over the years from thrift stores and estate sales.  

 

I had originally bought most of these years ago as they were going to be my decorating theme for Mr. Husband Sir and my wedding reception.  I wanted a varied menagerie of different colors and florals which I was going to use as table coverings, sitting areas, back drops, and buntings.  We wound up going a different direction (see: hunka hunka burnin' love) so now they are available for a plethora of other options.  I tend to like floral sheets but there are lots of other prints, children's prints in themes like E.T. or Strawberry Short Cake are fun also if you can find them.
So, sheets and pillowcases can be obviously used for their original intention.  However, I usually stray from that because it tends to wear them out even more by being washed so frequently.  Although I could see them being turned into a duvet cover or sewn into a quilt which doesn't need quite as much washing.

The easiest way to look at it is they are just large pieces of fabric.  They make great tablecloths (as long as you don't spill anything stainy on them), shower curtains, and window curtains.  As window curtains I would line them with some plain white sheets facing the sun so they don't become sun bleached or brittle.  My most favorite idea is to use the fabric for making clothes/costumes from sewing patterns.  It's astronomically cheaper than craft fabric.  A sheet from a thrift store will run you 2 bucks in comparison to 30 bucks for the same amount of fabric from a fabric shop.  I even save my worn out sheets (non-vintage) to use as practice fabric for sewing clothes to check the fit.  Another maybe odd thing I use pretty vintage sheets for is to cover up junk I don't like looking at.  I have a number of towers of plastic storage bins in my laundry room  (all that holiday decor has to go somewhere!) and I will drape the sheets over them to kinda hide and curtain them off from my eyes.

There's not much fabric to the pillow cases but they can be really handy used as bags since they are already in bag form.  Sew a drawstring in them and they can be cinch sacks or back packs.   I see them as feed sacks and there are plenty of vintage ideas out there for using those:  Cafe curtains, aprons, clothes for kids, stuffed animals.

Whatever you can make with fabric, sheets are there to make it cheaper and cute!

Here are a few things from the MHICTy archives I have used sheets or pillowcases for:

 2006

Pillow case smock apron

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2010

From PB's epic Star Wars party that I still haven't written about.  I used the fabric from a plain white sheet to make me a Princess Leia caftan.

I also bought a bunch of plain white pillowcases from thrift stores, dyed them tan and cut them into tunics for the padawan party guests.

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2014

I embroidered "just married"  banners for us to wear on our backs while walking around Las Vegas.  The fabric was from a vintage floral print pillow case. 

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2019

I used a thrifted yellow sheet to make the dress base of my Halloween witch outfit.

Hmmm...what else do we have in ye olde linen closet?