Doil-icious: Ladies and Gentlemen Studio

We have a soft spot in our hearts for doilies, so imagine the pitter-pat when we saw these giant doily rugs! Soft on the feet, easy on the eye, they would make a pigsty seem elegant. They’re perfect for anyone who needs to live large.

The creators of the Mega Doily, Dylan Davis and Jean Lee of Ladies and Gentlemen Studio, started out their design studio as an online vintage shop chock full of discoveries from their meanderings. But they both have industrial design degrees and started creating objects "based off of vintage references, or re-appropriating existing vintage objects by celebrating its material or history," says Lee. After she found a bunch of doily pattern books from the 1930s, she started thinking about the doily as a visual object. "As much as I like the visual texture of a traditional doily, I couldn't see myself using it in my home," she admits. "So instead of just replicating the same thing as the book, I played with scale and the 'function' of a doily and decided to just go BIG ... literally."

She tried out a couple of patterns at normal scale, but quickly realized that "doing the mini version didn't even matter, since it doesn't work the same way when you change the scale of the yarn to 50 times bigger than the standard yarn!" A few false starts (and "A LOT of hand-stretching breaks") later, and the rug you see was finished. What's next? Lee intends to play around with other colors and materials, as well as "find some sucker who can help me hand crochet these Mega Doily rugs before my own hand falls off." ladiesandgentlemenstudio.com

Update: The Doily rug and how-to instructions will be included in Crafting a Meaningful Home by Meg Mateo (published by STC Craft) due out Fall 2010!