Remade and Recovered: A Garment as Personal Narrative

Bobbie Sumberg

A narrative textile can operate at many levels of meaning, from the recounting of the experience of a social, cultural or national group within the global context to a profoundly personal account of an incident or period within a single lifespan. JE was in a serious motorcycle accident in 1973. During her recovery from the injuries she sustained she re-made the jeans she was wearing at the time of the accident--jeans which had to be cut to remove them during her rescue-into a skirt. JE used the sewing and embroidery skills she acquired as a child to embroider and appliqué the newly fashioned garment. Working her injured hands was essential to her recovery. Although this garment represents something unique to its maker and her personal history as an individual, she (and it) is also rooted in time and place. The 1970s was a fertile period for creativity in the needle arts among young people. Embellished garments were common and popular. Needle work and craft magazines were shifting their focus from projects for the home to projects that appealed to younger women and teens. Using information from a focused life history of JE in reference to sewing, embroidery, dress, the motorcycle accident and her recovery, this paper will explore the iconography and techniques she used in this particular garment and its intersection with the popular practice of needle work in the mid 1970s. Personal meaning and aesthetic choice are analyzed in reference to signs of the times.

 

 

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