The question I am asked most frequently is "where do you get the handkerchiefs?" The answer is everywhere! Yard sales, thrift shops, estate sales, and antique co-ops to name a few. We recently thrifted along Route 1 in Maine, from Arundel to York, spending the afternoon checking in to a few of our favorite shops. See the gallery below of some hankies spotted for sale.
Usually when the seller isn't exclusively selling linens the hankies will be on the bottom shelf or even on the floor under the booth. Look for plastic bags or piles of fabric and take a moment to check - you may discover some hankies to rescue. During this trip I saw single hankies priced from $1 to $18 and bundles of hankies for up to $30. Yes, I did find a few to buy, but the search, to me, is the best part of thrifting.
The last and my favorite way to aquire hankies is when ordinary folks give them to me. The gifting usually comes with a story of their mother, grandmother or aunt always carrying a handkerchief. They have kept the hankies through the years but are moving or cleaning out. They like the idea that the hankies will live on, have a second life, make someone else happy, maybe even attend a wedding or become a bonnet for a baby...
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