A True Collaboration--Part 2

secretlifeofmannequins

In our last post we had many photos of our little motifs that we had made for the Simone Handbag Museum project, along with Sallyl's account of how the project all started.  Today, I have a couple more photos of close-ups of some of the motifs that Pat made, and also, her first-hand account of the joining of the motifs for the mannequin!  Thank you, Pat, for sharing your amazing experience with us.  ~Kim

Pat's lizard

From Pat:  My trips up to Putney to Rosie’s workstudio started on March 20th 2012 when I went to discuss with her the joining up of the motifs which had nearly all arrived by then. We did, at that first meeting, do a preliminary assembly on the mannequin but it was a week later that I went up and collected the sleeve with the motifs already tacked onto calico which had been shaped to the arm. I took this piece home and worked on it there using a mesh stitch in #100 thread. Motifs on the sleeve included a dragonfly, a butterfly and my favourite flower, the fuschia. I worked around and under these so that the dragonfly’s tail and upper wings were free as I did with the butterfly’s head and antennae. The cup part of the fuschia flower and the upper leaves were also left free.

Each morning I took photographs of the work so far and sent them on to Rosie to see if it was coming out as she wanted it – Like a Walk in a Meadow, as she put it. When finished I took the sleeve to her and was very pleased to see how well it looked on the mannequin’s arm. Once fitted, I crocheted the little roses by the fingers.

I went home with the bodice, again with the motifs already tacked onto the calico for me by one of Rosie’s helpers, so I could start the filling in immediately. For motifs such as the lily of the valley I worked around each bell and stem leaving them free (when Rosie packed them up for the journey to Seoul she put stuffing into each little bell).

I am pleased to say that, apart from a couple of times, I did not have to undo much of the work. If I was not happy with a part I would leave it, go onto another section of the piece and then, going back, it seemed to work straight away. Once again I sent photographs each morning to show Rosie how things were progressing.

When finished I took the bodice back to London and, when pinned onto the mannequin, it did look lovely, each motif standing out to make, in my mind, a fairy garden in a magical web. The only part I was not happy with was my dear little lizard, but Rosie wove her magic (even this took time) and she got his legs into the correct position. I was pleased to meet Judith one day at Rosie’s and to hear how pleased she was with all the Ravelry team’s work.

Rosie also asked if I could make a narrow braid to go onto the beautiful hand embroidered organza and the lapels of the 1920s jacket – see illustration on page 214 of Judith’s book. I did so and the braid was done in #100 thread and I did one complete row of double crochet (US single) and then another with picots every fifth stitch. The organza was so fine that to hem it would have looked wrong but the braid just finished it off.

I felt quite lost when all the work was finished, as you can all imagine, but my thanks go to Rosie and everyone for the support given to me. It was a unique experience and I shall probably never get to Seoul to see the finished work!!

Pat's ferns