Butterflies and flowers observation

[launderedlace]

Finding this beautiful handkerchief listed on eBay has prompted me to write up an observation from about five years ago which involved an identical handkerchief

The woman who’d just got on the train and sat down diagonally opposite me was in mid-conversation on her phone. Totally without warning, as far as I could see, she began a series of six loud, uncovered sneezes. Unsurprisingly, the call was interrupted, but there appeared to be no attempt by either party to reconnect. For a minute or so, the woman merely sat quietly, then the sniffing began. Quite obviously, the woman’s nose was full: the sniffs were thick and wet, but for several minutes, she did nothing about them so I began to wonder if she had anything to blow her nose. 

The risk take ensued!

That day, and it’s a habit I’ve now modified, I was carrying only prettily embroidered handkerchiefs, in other words no plain ones; they were stored away inside my bag. Quickly sorting through, I picked the butterflies and flowers handkerchief primarily as it was the most toned down one, the others had brightly-coloured embroidery, and offered it to the woman. I commented that she seemed to be struggling, and mentioned that it was my wife’s handkerchief, which was not entirely untrue. With a look close to relief, she readily took the handkerchief which was neatly laundered into squares, a sixteenth of its full size

After pausing briefly, the woman then decided to take action and was holding the clean, now partly unfolded handkerchief in her lap. Fully revealed were the exquisitely embroidered and appliqued flowers and butterflies: the woman had opened up what was now her handkerchief to a quarter of its full size and, fortunately for the observation, fully displayed the quarter that was prettily decorated. The laundered folds in the handkerchief were almost identical to those shown in the photograph

If it had still been my handkerchief, I wouldn’t have used it in this way, but the woman focused on the ornately decorated section. To be fair, the appliqued patterns didn’t add much thickness to the handkerchief’s general fabric so, very probably, she’d decided this readily-available section was just as soft and as comfortable on her nose as the rest of it would be. The woman applied the delicate flowers and butterflies to her snotty nose and squeezed; her handkerchief remained only a quarter open, so she was using four layers of the extremely fine fabric. She didn’t blow, but held the handkerchief tightly clamped and motionless, seemingly waiting and, in all probability letting some of the snot seep onto the embroidery and further into the multi-layered fabric. The handkerchief disappeared into her bag; despite not having blown her nose, she’d stopped sniffing, so it looked as though at least some of her snot must now have been smeared over the intricate embroidery

Some minutes later the handkerchief, still folded in quarters, was reproduced and the nose again held in it for about thirty seconds. Arriving at what turned out to be the stop for both of us and alighting together, the handkerchief once more in her bag, the woman and I chatted briefly. She hadn’t been feeling well but hoped she’d soon be on the mend; I also wished her a speedy recovery
 

[launderedlace]

The temptation was too great - I ended up buying that handkerchief! - here are a couple of pics of it in its 'newly arrived' state

From the feel of the very fine fabric it's clearly unused, despite being what? ... 50 or 60 years old? (any handkerchief experts here who think otherwise, please comment - I'd be interested!). Quite possibly, the original owner (I bought it from an on-line charity) simply thought it was 'too lovely to use'. Which is kind of understandable - how many hours work would have been needed for all that intricate needlework?!

But one thing's for sure: it won't be staying unused for much longer! I'll give it a bit of a freshen up, including using fabric softener, then it'll be ready to go! If interested, look out for further updates ...

[Elysnzz]

That’s a great observation/ flashback

and what a pretty, dainty handkerchief!!!