“We Part to Meet Again”

Stitched by: Madeleine Seys

Pattern designed by: Madeleine Seys (@MadeleineSeys)

“We Part to Meet Again” is a sentiment borrowed from a nineteenth-century sweetheart token. It is a pun on the mechanism of the scissors; the blades part and meet again as true friends and sweethearts part and are reunited. I chose this motif as an #IsolationCreation as it encapsulates how we are parting and practicing social isolation in order to meet our loved ones and sweethearts again soon.

I am a textile artist, and my practice is to recreate the nineteenth-century hand sewing techniques and the embodied experiences of making. Working in threads, cloths and words, I weave, embroider, unpick and tailor in order to understand who we fashion ourselves and tell our stories.

I based the design for “We Part to Meet Again” on a pair of dressmaking scissors I inherited (along with my love of threads) from my grandmother; I embroidered the patina on their handles, acquired over years of being held in her hands. In my art, I am always drawn to scissors and hands as tools and symbols for my work.