Kristina Hodgetts - Generations of Family Doilies Outdoor Umbrella

I inherited generations of family doilies from ancestors on all sides of our family trees. My goal was to preserve them all in this umbrella, even the stained ones. I saved an old 7-foot eight-section outdoor umbrella frame for this project. On a base from a leftover piece of sun shade fabric, I layered the white, off-white, ecru, and beige colored doilies, overlapping them to cover it completely. I had to heavily pin them in place so that I could use long stitches with each pie shape section to hold even the most open-laced doilies to the base. At each section, I left a little bit of the doily to hang over the edge. A happy accident of using the shade fabric is that it allows you to see the intricate doily patterns from the underside of the umbrella!

I am so glad I was able to use these doilies for a purpose. I’m just too attached to get rid of them, my sisters didn’t want them, and I couldn’t bear to donate them either. Now I can’t wait to host teas time with my girlfriends!