Trousseau Sets.

A few generations ago, girls would buy or make household linens for their trousseau or 'glory box'.  We had tablecloths, doilies, aprons, tea cosies, etc. lovingly stashed away in a trunk or box, waiting for the day we got married and moved into our own home and could use them.   The designers of linens took advantage of this and produced all kinds of sets ready to embroider, sometimes sold through women's magazines.  Here are two such items.  One is partially embroidered, with the tea cosy finished.  I always wonder about the background of these.   Was this set being worked on during the War?  Perhaps her man never came back, and this was abandoned in the grief of her loss.

The other one distributed through New Idea magazine, has part of one doiley stitched.    If it had been mine, I can sympathise with the stitcher, taking a while to do this small bit, then looking at the total area still to be done, and thinking "No way!"