Handy Handkerchiefs

One of my grandmothers could always produce a handkerchief from her sleeve or décolletage – to wipe a nose or scraped knee or sticky hand. We had them when we were little – back in our wearing white gloves to church days – I inherited a lot of them – with various monograms and embroidery – but I kept them in my “I don’t know what to do with this” pile for decades.   Every now and then I would wonder about sewing something with them.  Mostly I thought of handkerchiefs as something that men kept in a breast pocket. Women’s squares of cotton are often referred to as Hankies. A name I decline to use.

I read about Desdemona’s handkerchief in Othello in an English class.   Frankly, I couldn’t follow all of the different symbolisms of the handkerchief to the various characters.  Occasionally, I would tuck one into my purse for a wedding or a funeral – for sweaty palms in the receiving lines and leaky eyes.

Once I started toting toddlers around, the lightbulb went off.  Need a napkin? No paper towel in the public rest room?  Dripping popsicle?  Runny nose? Sweaty brow? Skinned knee? Muddy dog paws?  No coaster?  Need a food wrap? Handkerchiefs to the rescue.  Lots of people, my own family included are content to wipe their hands on their clothes.  One of my girls was famous for wiping her hands on my shirt sleeve, before I raided my inheritance.  Now, I take  at least one, whenever I set foot outside the house. I keep them everywhere –  in the car, in my purse, in my traveling bag and always in my pocket – you get the picture.  I have used them to wipe off picnic tables, wet benches,shopping carts, door handles  and once as an emergency coffee filter.  I don’t actually blow my nose in one unless I am desperate. You can use handkerchiefs to make sachets or tea bags, in place of cheese cloth for straining, as gift wrap, to line a basket or as a place mat. As a bonus, they are washable for repeated uses, and you are saving trees.

In 2020 Handkerchiefs are experiencing a bit of a renaissance, as paper towel and kleenex disappeared from the grocery shelves.  Another pandemic, back to the future trend,  People have also been using handkerchiefs to make face coverings, just as the public did during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and thieves did during the bubonic plague.

Want your own?  Only 100% cotton will do. You can order handkerchiefs here.

Vermont Country Store

Liberty calls them Hankies

Liberty of London

Mask instructions from Colin Hanks – who has his own line of handkerchiefs –

Hanks Kerchiefs

Mask instructions. 

 Thank you, Della, for always carrying a handkerchief for me

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