Final Score: Teneriffe maker 4, Me 1.That means I win! Behold the one that worked:

 

So now I need to find other things to make using the large Teneriffe lace maker. I would like to make one with the darning stitch. I have the thread and the maker on the table and I have been looking hard at the pictures and figuring out how to lace it with thread.

Yesterday I finally got one of my items out of the Biz bucket. Not that it was dirty, it was that even after washing I could still detect the slight patina of mold. I hate mold and I don't want the smell of it amongst my old lace.

I suppose have to back up to explain why I buy these things.

Exhibit A - A badly discolored and broken tablecloth I bought in Paris. Someone had painstakingly removed one of the crochet panels leaving a gaping hole and an unusable table cloth. Besides being a dirt inspired molted brown with a lovely scent of Eau de musty, it was in beautiful shape and best of all, being broken it gave me permission to further "break" it. I like to call it "repurposing".

I removed all of the edging and left the center part intact.  The center design was the pulled thread strip intermixed with the rose crochet. Three weeks later, after multiple changes of water infused with Biz, I had my "Fabric".  What you see above is the after Biz picture.

Exhibit B - Right about that time, I found my inspiration. Isn't it pretty?

I tried this on at Zara (guilty - taking pictures in the changing room) and although cute, it was too short in the waist and it was, well, made with modern materials. It was also $100. My piece formerly known as Moldy Brown cost a fraction of that.

I modified a simple pattern I found so that there was no shoulder seam. I did not want a seam through the beautiful crochet work and as much as possible I wanted it to be one piece.

Front

Back

This has become my favorite go-to piece. The center front and back are modern pieces I picked up at a yard sale. They match the tablecloth perfectly. The waist and around the neck are done with an old heavy weight insertion that I was told later was used to hold underwear around the waist.  You can see the crochet edging, on the bottom and the sleeves, that once went all the way around the table cloth. The front is held together with string loops that attach from one side to a button on the wrong side of the other side of the double edged modern front piece.

Cost? Less than $30. Best of all, I have enough left for a tank top.

Exhibit C - Two views of one of my newest acquisitions. It, like the first one from Paris, is broken.  It has been expertly patched in places and someone added tucks, perhaps to fit a table. Wear says it was once well loved.

Poly Blend Center

Edging/ pulled thread work/Crochet

Dissecting it, I do this a lot, shows that the middle section was added later. judging by the center which is a poly blend piece of garbage (I have no opinion on that part of the table cloth as you can see). The crochet and the thread work areas are hand whip stitched together as is the edging. Later someone added tucks (I removed before washing) by machine, the center poly thing (no opinion) by machine, and the hem was changed, again, by machine.

I have it laying out to see if it wants to be something soon. it is very large and I can easily work around the expertly patched areas. Who knows, I might incorporate them into the design somehow.