Garment Ghosts are created from badly damaged and irreparable antique clothing, to which I give new life  by remaking. I am continually drawn back to old cloth and how it is loved and preserved or discarded.

The fragmentary cloth is brought back to life through trapping the disintegrating garment between transparent layers, keeping the outline of the piece but also opening up seam allowances and pleats to take the fabric back to its original form. Garment Ghosts aim to make you think about how we preserve and present textiles, and what the garment might tell us about its past.

18th or 19th Century waistcoat unpicking

Victorian black beaded bodice. Bodice lining and sleeves were badly damaged, these pieces have been used in the ghost piece while the sturdier main bodice and other lace pieces are displayed alongside.