I enjoy ironing. I think if you like to sew, you have to like to iron because ironing is such an key part of sewing.
I even have a poem about ironing in my book, called ‘Sunday Night’.
It doesn’t mean all my clothes are perfectly ironed, because I am a haphazard ironer. I only do it when I have a spare hour, which isn’t often.
The other day was a lovely sunny spring day, perfect for a bit of laundry – I got my vintage tablecloths out of storage – thinking ahead to summer meals on our porch. I gave them a wash, dried them in the sun and then spent a happy while ironing them.
One of my favourite cloths is one I picked up at an opshop, ‘The Birthday Cloth’:
It has all the months of the year around the outside, with that month’s birth-flower and birth-stone. Here are a few of my favourites:
As well as the vintagey (50s? 60s?) flowers, I love how quaint and twee it is. A cloth just for birthdays, which women must have laid on the table to serve tea and birthday cake to their friends or family.
If you like vintage textiles, there is a great New Zealand blog called Glory Box here – where they examine all manner of fascinating stuff around textiles and textile history.
I think it is important to USE the vintage textiles (and anything else!) you have – don’t worry about spills and wear. I firmly believe there is no point owning beautiful things just to store them. If they get ruined, ah well. It’s a good lesson in not getting attached to arbitrary things…nothing is permanent, nothing lasts forever.
I’ve used the birthday cloth a few times for friend’s birthdays. It makes people smile.
I like imagining all the birthdays that might have happened around this tablecloth.
Helen Lehndorf 
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