a tale of two garments
My good friend, Philippa, recently asked me to repair two garments for her. Two very different garments, two very different stories, two very different approaches to the repairs.
The blouse that met the Queen…
Vintage Laura Ashley blouse. One careful, lady owner since new. Needs an MOT and TLC. Had the pleasure of meeting the Queen.
The dream vintage Laura Ashley blouse, bought by Phil’s mum in 1986, specially to meet the (late) Queen in Stratford-upon-Avon.
“The Queen was officially opening The Swan Theatre. Because I was one of the RSC’s ‘children’ (age 13) we got to meet her on the visit in the late rehearsal room at the top.”
Phil paired the blouse with a Laura Ashley dress - “purple with sprigs of roses and big pockets!!”.
When Phil and I met to discuss the repairs, we decided that the aim should be to subtly bring back some structure and stability to the piece, to help preserve it for the future and to add another layer to its story. It is not Phil’s intention to wear the blouse again but she would like to keep it for sentimental reasons.
Careful consideration was put in to thinking about which areas to repair and how. The blouse was very gently hand-laundered in a specialist soap before being hung in a sunny window, to help remove some staining. A combination of invisible, subtle and patched repairs was then used on the damaged areas. Phil loves hexagons, so using this design for some of the larger repairs felt appropriate. I used a vintage white pillowslip for the patchwork, as it was a good match for the original fabric in terms of weight, colour and feel.
This blouse was an absolute joy to work on and I am very happy to have played a part in its story.
The cat ate my ponchetta…
Cuckoo is a cat with a penchant for wool. Not just a penchant for taking cosy cat-naps in wool but a penchant for eating wool. Cuckoo had a penchant for this ponchetta.
He really did do a rather good job of munching his way through this beautiful piece by Jules Hogan and it was absolutely filled with holes.
Phil had previously darned a larger hole, to prevent it getting worse but always covered it with a brooch. She found the repair wasn’t in a great position for brooch-wearing though. The aim was to make Phil feel comfortable wearing this piece again and to make it very personal to her.
The repairs were darned first to give the fabric back its structure, then completed using the English Paper Piecing method of patchwork, incorporating my photograph of a telephone box in Wales, printed as a pattern on to organic cotton.
It had to be a telephone box for Phil and it was repaired just in time for Phil to wear during her excellent ‘Lost Property’ exhibition in Brighton.
Thank you Phil for the opportunity to work on two such stunning pieces, with such fantastic stories.
