

My great-grandmother lived to be 93. And she loved to crochet. She made me dozens of doilies, collars, and hankies over the years. The doilies are so beautiful that I hated to see them packed away in a box in my closet. But I wasn’t about to scatter them over my furniture either. I decided to frame some, but the trick was finding square frames. I found these four mismatched frames at a thrift store that were the perfect sizes. A little paint, and voilà—a matching set.
Supplies
Tools
1. Remove artwork and glass from frame. Trace glass onto colored paper and cut out.
2. Place frame on drop cloth. Paint one coat of primer, let dry. Then paint two coats of paint, letting them dry for at least an hour in between. Let dry overnight.
3. Clean glass and insert into frame. Center doily in frame, place colored paper behind it, and close frame with its original cardboard backing.
Supplies & tools
1. Trace each frame onto brown paper bags and cut out. Tape the brown paper cutouts to the wall where you want to hang your frames.
2. Measure from the top and side of the frame to determine the location of the hook. Do the same on the coordinating piece of paper, and mark where the nail should go.
3. Hammer a nail into that spot, then pull the paper off the wall. Then hang your frame. You just save time and saved your walls from multiple holes!
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July 29, 2008 at 4:29 pm
ooh.. love how the frames turned out. Nice work!
December 21, 2008 at 9:27 pm
This is very cute~!
February 24, 2009 at 12:04 pm
i LOVE art that MEANS something! i get hives looking at cookie cutter pictures in target or furniture stores. :)
February 24, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Devon, I am so with you on that.
April 5, 2009 at 12:57 am
I always have such trouble hanging my pictures, and this awesome tidbit of information will help me so much! Thank you for your ingenuity!! :D
April 27, 2009 at 5:19 am
I have been meaning to do exactly the same thing with my Grans’ doilys! Now I can see how fabulous it looks, I’ll be right on to it.
May 7, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I have a bunch of doilies from my Nana too (she is 101 and still crocheting!) and have been wanting to do this for ages. So, you didn’t secure the doily to the backing at all? Just used the pressure of it against the glass? I enquired about professional framing once and he wanted to sew them to the backing first.
May 7, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Aww…my great-grandmother went by Nannie. Yep, I didn’t secure the doily to the backing at all. The pressure against the glass holds them. But, it depends on the depth of your frame.
May 11, 2009 at 7:42 am
Thank you for sharing this! My grandmother passed away last year, and I have a few of her doilies that she made. Doilies are all over the craft world, being sewn onto clothes and cut up and such…but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to alter her beautiful handiwork. This is a perfect way to display the doilies! Thank you, thank you!
August 7, 2009 at 4:30 am
Love this idea!
Another doily question – did you starch them first?
Thank you!
August 7, 2009 at 10:20 am
Kerry – Yes, my great grandmother starched all her doilies. I guess I should have mentioned that.
February 4, 2010 at 3:36 pm
OH MY GOODNESS, i am in love!
You were brilliant to use your grandmothers doilies.
What a fun way to show everyone her talent!
gorgeous!
March 25, 2010 at 11:30 am
That’s the best picture hanging tip I have ever read. Thank you.
May 9, 2012 at 9:03 am
I’ve made several filet crochet “doilies” with family names to frame. I used fabric for backing and tacked the doily in a few places to make sure they didn’t sag.
May 9, 2012 at 9:05 am
What a great idea! Thank you for sharing.
May 9, 2012 at 9:53 am
I LOVE YOUR IDEA, I BEEN CROCHETING SINCE I WAS 14 AND AT THE AGE OF 54 I TILL LOVE TO CROCHET. AND YOU ARE RIGHT PUTTING THEM ON FRAME IS A GREAT IDEA.
May 9, 2012 at 11:40 am
Your doilies look lovely but I am told that you need to put spacers in the corners to hold the glass up off the doilies so that they don’t disintegrate from touching the glass. I have read this more than once when reading about preserving doilies under glass.
June 1, 2012 at 1:03 pm
I have been told that you shouldn’t allow glass to touch any fabric/needlework under glass due to moisture getting under the glass and causing mildewing. You should also make sure that the paper behind the doily is acid free to prevent discoloring of the doily and that the color of the backing will not bleed onto the doily.