That yoke looks extremely fragile to me for a day-to-day wear item. I would construct the entire blouse and then find a way to topically attach that yoke and also remove it for washing purposes. You can get clear plastic snaps that are nearly invisible when applied if few stitches are used. Letting the yoke rest free on top of the blouse might be another option you hadn't considered. We used to do that type of things with big "collars" all the time in the 1990s, having them separate. This was also the practice with many forms of clothing in the 1800s and early 1900s to have separate collars and sleeve cuffs.

Thanks. It seems like it was never used. The seller deals in all vintage items, and that's what she said. I have not received it yet, so I can't tell yet how fine the crochet is.

I did not know about the clear snaps!

I had not thought about it resting free. When I have seen period films like Victoria and Downtown Abbey, I have often seen people removing their lace collars. Makes a lot of sense.

This has armholes, so probably not originally meant to just lay on top. I measured the dimensions she gave me carefully against a sleeveless blouse I made that goes over the head.

The armholes on this may be a little too small. I think technically they will fit but I don't like anything binding. I have big shoulders. I may have to cut the crochet links under them and carefully hand stitch to secure the loops. If I do that then it could lay over.

That looks pretty fragile. My recommendation would be to use a supporting fabric under it. There will be complicating logistics around washing this, though.

With the small armhole spaces, perhaps it was intended to be used in a child's garment?

I have a lot, a lot, of this thread crochet that I have inherited from both of our families.

I recently took some pillow edgings that had been attached to some pretty inferior pillow cases, removed them and sewed them to new and much better quality cases. These are bed pillow sized, not throw pillows.

Even though the edgings were intended to be attached on the edge, I chose to recess them from being free hanging to being more appliquéd to the ends of the cases. It gives them a fabric backing that they need.

I found that I could sew them on by machine, carefully guiding the stitching so that it is hidden in the design of the crochet.

If I had just left them as they were, they would never be of any remote interest or use to future family. This way they are able to be used.

But, thread crochet is not really very practical. Even these pillow cases are probably best used in a casual setting on a couch or day bed where they will get used but not all the time.

With the zombie apocalypse upon us, I advocate using what you have and not saving it for that special anything.

A suggestion for you....perhaps you can consider making your crocheted piece into not a full garment, rather an overlay type of garment that loosely overlays another underlayer garment and keep the two separate. That way you can launder the under garment more often and you could also change up the under garment with a bit of tweaking and hacking and have different looks with the same crochet yoke.

Just a thought.

I have many, many crocheted pieces. I have been dispersing them to different family members.