Fits Like a Glove
Paddy Killer’s professional embroiderer grandmother taught her to embroider when she was just five years old. She made her first garment on her mother’s treadle Singer at the age of eight. After graduating in Embroidery at Birmingham Polytechnic, Paddy worked in haute couture at Bellville Sassoon in London and Marie-Paule in Montreal.
After over 70 years, hand and machine stitching have taken their toll on her body. Paddy has arthritis everywhere; her hands are particularly bad. She has continued to make patterns and garments – for herself, to commission, and for exhibitions – but now arthritis means she has limited mobility and can no longer do fine sewing or embroider by hand. Gloves do not fit her stiff and deformed hands, so she has drafted this pattern for imagined gloves, enabling someone to make some pairs for her.
Paddy says, “When I look at the 2 traditional farmers’ smock coats I made in the 1970s and 80s, I wonder how I did it – but at least I can still draw!”.
