New ways to use Vintage Lace

I had a sudden inspiration the other day when thinking about the only craft fair I'm doing this year.

I have gathered a ridiculously large collection of old lace, I've used a small amount to make pieces of jewellery, but while thinking about what to make that would be 'Christmasy' I decided to make some garlands, or something like them.

The first idea was to gather a length of lace into a circle and embellish it with beads, I've started on that but it's taking a crazy length of time to make. The next idea was to gather pieces of lace into little 'flowers' and stitch them onto ribbon to create a garland. This has worked much better The first one is made from lengths of fine lace from a tray cloth, tightly gathered, stitched onto a ribbon and then stitched to a circle of wire.

The centre of each flower has an old glass pearl from a broken necklace. The lace is quite heavily stiffened as it was originally very soft. I'm very pleased with this.

The next idea involved an old length of fabric, it might be silk, but it might not. It was labelled as hand embroidered and it's sufficiently uneven that it probably is, this has become more of a bouquet than a garland but I love it. The 'flowers are very lightly stiffened, and the centre of each one has little vintage metal beads stitched into them, unfortunately they can't be seen in the photo.

 the ribbon in this one comes from the 70s, I know this as it was around the hat I got married in. The metallic braid comes from an old skirt that I bought second hand and then took to bits, I've owned it since about the end of the 80s.
I have a couple of other bits on the go but I shall have to stop at the weekend so I can get ready for the fair itself.