Picture Day Hankey

Kathy didn’t have a whole collection of vintage hankies, just one.   A child’s hankey, a gray squirrel on a  pink trapeze.   But she held onto it for over 50 years.  Because the hankey comes with a story, one her mother told her about picture day in school.

Kathy was in kindergarten, and it was the day when all the students were getting their school pictures taken.  Kathy’s mom made sure her daughter had on a nice outfit and as she was leaving handed her a hankey, as she did everyday.  That day it was the gray squirrel on the pink trapeze.  When it was Kathy’s turn to be photographed, she held the hankey in her hand, not sure what to do with it.   She couldn’t give it to someone else to hold since she had used it, so she tied it around her neck.  Apparently, it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of her special outfit and she has a photo to prove it.

I stitched the hankey onto a piece of black and white checkered fabric then used a old piece of ribbon around the edge.  The ribbon picked up the design on the squirrels sash. The green around the edge is a linen napkin.  On the back I surrounded a piece of the green linen napkin with more black and white checked fabric and stitched the words “Picture Day Hankey”.