Vintage French White Linen

Linen is an obsession with many and a mystery to the rest. Nothing reminds me more of a hot night in a mediterranean country than the soft, cool feel of linen and white linen is extra special. Linen improves with age. The more you use it, the softer it becomes, the more it displays it's elegant character.

The way linen draps itself in folds, wrinkled, creased yet somehow more fascinating than ever. It creates itself anew as it re-texturises into an extension of itself. Once experienced, you find you can't live without it.

 In France, for many years, no respectable household was without it's linen. It was cared for, revered and monogrammed with the family initials. It was often laundered elsewhere so the monogram served a double purpose in not only declaring the proud initials of that family but also allowing the laundress to identify whose sheets she was washing. 

Nowadays, these monogrammed sheets are very hard to come by as the tradition of embroidering sheets and household linen as part of the brides trousseau has died out. 

The great joy of linen is it's flexibility and compatibility with other fabrics. Your summer sofa or garden seat is incomplete without the fresh, cool yet supple texture of vintage white linen. 

Choose from a unique selection of gorgeous cushion covers from plain white linen to designer and vintage fabrics combined with white line. 

We make everything to order in a selection of sizes and designs. Take a look at our made to measure section in cushion time at our website. 

www.dartyandpike.com

Antique French White Linen Cushion covers

After much hard work, and sourcing of some beautiful fabric, cushion cover production has finally sprung into action. My favourite fabric at the moment is a real joy, French vintage white linen, now very hard to find.

Years ago, several decades in fact, when a woman got married it was standard practice to enter the new marital home with a trousseau, pride of place was a full set of good, high quality bed linen, and it was real linen in many cases.

The top sheet often had an embroidered monogram. This identified, and celebrated the status of the newly married couple, but it also helped the laundry work out whose bed linen belonged to whom.

Embroidery of the monogram, would have been done by close relatives - a mother, an aunt, a cousin, or even the bride herself. Sadly, in the age of fitted sheets and washing machines, bed linen is now a much more prosaic affair. The romance and love that went into these monograms is long gone.

In France, it's still possible to come across monogrammed linen bed-sheets. Some are old and worn in places, frequently repaired and seamed together down the years. Some I've come across are in immaculate condition, and look as if they've never been used. Every sheet, tells a story, or would if it could talk - babies born and more conceived, death, adultery, sleepless nights, who knows what else. One set of sheets I've found has the original monogram embroidered on it, but next to it had a smaller, machined set of initials, leading me to suppose they must have been later passed along, maybe to a grand-daughter or daughter in law.

It's hard not to be capitvated by the feel of linen, the way it falls and folds, it's durability, it's coolness and of course, over time it becomes softened and mellow. It's a timeless, classic fabric. White, of course, matches everything and nothing is more luxurious and relaxing to fall into on a hot day.

A set of plain white linen cushion covers is perfect for summer, though keep animals and children away from them. I've got a variety of sizes available both plain and with monograms, and other details added. Check out what's available at my ebay shop:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/dartyandpike