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December 3, 2024

How the Pelican Club’s Jennica Pocha Made an Unfinished Work Into Art

"It now hangs pride of place"

LEAD IMAGE: Jennifer Pocha in front of an unfinished skirt made by her late mother.

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My late mother was a very talented seamstress; she had probably 50 projects on the go that she would never finish—that was just her personality.

When she passed away in 2015, we were going through a sewing room at our house in London, U.K., and I found an unfinished skirt made from a cross weave of ribbons that are half an inch deep.

I remember her spending hours with it, meticulously making sure each ribbon was in line. She would get mad every time my dog went upstairs, because he would waddle all over it and mess up her grid system! I thought, I can’t let this go; it was too much work.

So I saved it and brought it with me to Toronto when we moved here in 2017. It was too wacky to wear as a skirt, so I found an artisanal framing company and turned it into an art piece instead. It now hangs pride of place as you come up the stairs in our house.

Every time I see it, it reminds me of her, and of London and our family home.