Crochet guide
Framing and displaying doilies
To frame a doily, clean it, block it flat and stitch it by hand to an acid-free board or a cloth backing. Use no glue. If the frame has glass, keep the glass from touching the lace, and hang the frame out of direct sun.
On this page 9 parts
Get the doily ready
- Clean it first. A doily is cleaned before it is pressed, starched or framed. How to wash crochet covers washing by hand. Keep an old doily flat and supported while it is wet.
- Block it flat. A doily is blocked damp. Pin it out to its shape and leave it to dry, or smooth it onto a clean sheet of glass and let it dry there. Blocking shows the pinning.
- Stiffen it only if it has to hold a shape. Starch is the old stiffener for doilies, and one how-to for framing starches the doily first. But starch attracts insects, and a doily that is stitched to a backing is held flat by its stitches. Stiffening crochet covers the ways to stiffen a piece that must stand.
Choose the backing
- An acid-free board. Framers call it museum board or conservation mat board. Ordinary board and bare wood are acidic. Over the years they leave brown marks on what touches them and make it yellow.
- Or cloth. A cloth backing shows the lace well. Choose a color that sets the doily off.
Fasten it with stitches
Attach the doily to the backing by hand, with stitches.
- No glue. Glued down, a piece cannot be lifted off again safely, and adhesive leaves a sticky residue.
- Pins are second choice. A doily can be pinned to its board. But pins can snag the thread, and they can rust.
Keep the glass off the lace
Glass keeps dust off. It must not touch the lace. Moisture can collect behind the glass, and a piece that touches it gets damp. Damp leads to mold.
So a doily is not pressed flat against the glass. A mat, which is a border of board that sits between the backing and the glass, holds the glass away. Ask for an acid-free mat as well.
Hang it out of the sun
Light harms thread. Over time, sunlight fades it and weakens it. Hang a framed doily where direct sun does not reach it.
Other ways to show or reuse a doily
- On a table. A doily on a side table, a coffee table or a shelf is doing what doilies were made for.
- Sewn onto something else. Old doilies are stitched onto quilt blocks, joined into blankets and made into clothing.
- Shaped into a bowl. A doily can be stiffened over a form so that it stands up as a bowl. Stiffening crochet shows how.
Storing the ones you do not show
- Store a doily flat, or rolled around a tube, with acid-free tissue paper.
- Do not seal it in a plastic bag.
- Wash out starch before a doily is put away. Starch attracts insects.
Storing yarn, hooks and patterns has more on light, damp and moths.
Questions people ask
Can I glue a doily to its backing? No. Stitch it. A glued piece cannot be lifted off again safely.
Should I starch a doily before framing it? Only if it will not lie flat without it. Starch attracts insects, and a framed doily is held flat by its backing.
Can I press a doily between two sheets of glass? The advice on framing lace is to keep glass from touching it at all, because of damp.
Where to go next
- Thread and hooks for doilies are in the thread size chart and the steel hook sizes chart.
- Doilies are worked in rounds: see working in the round.