Wednesday Workbasket: Bag for Clothes

In keeping with my article just published in the July/August edition of Piecework magazine, an item using macrame lace, as it was called in the nineteenth century. The directions for making the bag are fairly vague, in recognition of its simplicity, and adaptable to the materials at hand. Like many macrame designs of the day, a picture is presumed to be worth a thousand words. The macrame pattern is a simple combination of (it appears) loose square knots using alternating ends, with bars made of repeated square knots.—K.

Another new article, which would find ready sale at fairs, is a bag for soiled clothes, illustrated in Fig. 39. The materials are Macrame lace, lined with silk, satin, or wool goods. The lace extends only two-thirds of the length of the bag, and is finished with a ruche of satin ribbon. The bottom is completed by a handsome bow of ribbon and tassel made of the thread used for the macrame lace. Draw up the bag at the top with silk cord and tassels the shade of the lining. Fig. 40 shows the pattern of the Macrame lace.

Originally published in Potter's American Monthly, May 1881.