BBC The Repair Shop expert offers ‘realistic’ warning before taking on sentimental repair: ‘It’s damaging’
The Repair Shop expert Rebecca Bissonnette issued a warning to one of the guests who walked into the barn and asked for her help in restoring his late sister’s skirt.
Placing the item of clothing down on the table, guest Ben Rowe began to explain how he acquired the skirt and explained: “This is a print of a painting by my sister Lizzie.
“It’s a lovely painting but that’s in perfect condition. What I’ve got for you here is the subject of the painting, and this is Lizzie’s dress.
“We don’t know actually when she acquired it, but it was about 40 years ago. She was a fantastic artist, and sadly, this dress is now in rather as you can see, a sorry state.
“It’s a skirt, but Lizzie always called it the dress. It was painted through the late 80s, 90s and then it finished off, this one was done in 2007, I think – as a whole series.”
Rowe went on to explain that his sister “started life for male” and it wasn’t until she was 35 and after having her daughter Ellie that she began to question her “gender and fluidity”.
He continued: “When Lizzie said she was going to transition I was surprised, I was shocked but it doesn’t matter. She still laughed at the same stupid jokes, she was still my sibling and still my inspiration and she never looked back and never regretted it.
“Lizzie sadly died ten weeks ago, she was only 68. She smoked 40 a day for 40 years and then she got Covid and then she had pneumonia as well. You put those three together and it’s check mate.”
He explained the skirt was sitting in her living room, “pride of place” but meant that the 40 cigarettes she smoked ruined the skirt.
Asking what he would like Bissonnette to do, he said: “If we could, I would like to get it back to its original lacy cream white and then you can see some of the seams have started to go.”
Becoming concerned with his expectations, she warned: “Realistically, I’m not sure whether it would ever, you know, be back to sparkly cream white.”
She took the dress away and after taking a closer look, she explained: “So, the first thing that strikes me is, I would suspect this has been converted from a dress.
“I think there’s a lot of little secrets, almost, and details that I feel need to be retained because it does represent Lizzie and it represents her art and her life.”
Putting the dress into the water, Bissonnette was left stunned and quipped: “The nicotine is quite damaging, it’s great to the touch. You can just see the colour…
“Oh look at that! Oh, this is going to…. oh, my goodness look at the colour. I have never seen anything react like this. I am amazed.”
The colour of the water and the dress, alongside Bissonnette’s reaction also urged Kirsten Ramsay to walk over to her bench and take a look at what was going on.
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After working her magic, Bissonnette managed to get the skirt looking like it would have when Rowes’s sister would have worked with it.
Eager to see the work which had been done, Rowe returned to the barn and burst into tears when seeing the skirt for the first time.
He added: “Oh wowzers, wow! You can see all the seamstress work you’ve done! It’s been… Oh, it’s lovely. It is lovely to see it back to its original state.
“It’s now ready for the next stage of its journey. The memories of Lizzie are going to keep rocking and rolling. Thank you so much.”