Editor and committed citizen, the author has taught literature at college and is president of the governing board of a primary school. She co-directed and co-wrote the essay Shock treatments and tartlets.
The magic begins on the sidewalk, as soon as I see the yellow staircase: Patsy Van Roost’s favorite color. I climb it, dodge a Saskatoon berry branch that has broken under the heavy April snow, then knock on the door. Booties and shoes of all kinds — in black, yellow and white, striped and polka dot — line every step, all the way to the top of the interior staircase. No doubt: I’m in the right place. The fairy, who particularly enchants with her streamers, comes to open the door.
We kiss each other, smiles from ear to ear, and we go upstairs. The pretext: to follow his workshop “Le temps d’un petit top”, just to reacquaint myself with the sewing machine, which I have been avoiding since making a sad pair of boxers, in a distant home economics class. “Oh, I’m surprised, so far, people have told me they want to follow him to spend some time with me,” says Patsy, a bit joking. I am unmasked: this is of course my case too. After all, we’ve been together virtually for over a decade.
In its lair, the beast is there, turquoise and gleaming, in the middle of the double room, where joyful creative chaos reigns: wooden chest of drawers with small drawers that I imagine filled with treasures, sewing mannequins, bookcase housing fabrics and accessories , long table for tracing, cutting, sewing and pinning (with yellow-headed pins, of course), then, along the wall, the ironing board. “Sewing is above all ironing,” the multidisciplinary artist told me, warning me: “My iron speaks and it breathes!” » It is therefore to the sound of this sophisticated tool, which sputters its steam sporadically like a Darth Vader of fabrics, that I launch into sewing – and discussion…
Template threaded to confirm size, then fabric marked with yellow chalk ready to be cut, I learn that it is The duty who revealed her as the Fairy of Mile End. “It was Marie-Andrée Chouinard who came to see me first, with Jacques Nadeau! » The duo highlighted one of their first operations: extracts from The little girl with matches left in mailboxes… As the holidays approached, Patsy, mother of a son she was raising alone, wanted to break the loneliness; his own and that of his neighbors. It was in 2012.
The fairy has since set up home in La Petite-Patrie, in this apartment with the yellow staircase and gold owners, after being renovated in 2020. Fairy of La Petite-Patrie, then? “I see myself as an urban fairy,” she says. All neighborhoods are good for pursuing his quest: bringing people to be together, to create connections. And she “fairies” him in a thousand ways, making balconies, windows, hearts and dreams speak through cut-out banners, scattered tales, phenomenal parades and stencils whose voids are transformed into messages that fill the soul.
And sewing, Patsy, remind me how you got into it “I’ve been sewing forever. But I was sewing 2D, paper, until a two-month creative residency in Senegal, just before the pandemic. » I line up the two sides of a sleeve while she continues. “You don’t buy your clothes there. You buy fabric and go to the tailor. I was freaking out! I told people that, in our country, having clothes made is expensive, it’s only for the stars! Then I came back, and I digested Senegal for a year. One morning I got up and it was clear that I had to make clothes. But I didn’t know how! »
Through video tutorials, Patsy Van Roost learned to sew by sewing – and not just anything: pieces that she really wanted to wear. It was during the strike last fall, when all her activities in schools were canceled, that she decided to transmit this “magic power”. “It’s the first time I’ve lived alone, I’ve always had roommates. I had to find a creative way to make some money. Everyone wanted to buy my clothes, but I sew for myself! On the other hand, I love showing off. »
And, for a little top, she does it wonderfully! While tongues are loosened and my khaki linen (lovingly chosen from my friends at Atelier B) slides straight under the silver foot of the machine, my own foot activates the pedal with more and more confidence.
“Sewing is the meeting of two threads,” the fairy told me, adding that “when the hands work, the heart opens.” And this is all that happens, during this workshop-discussion-river during which “what is said here stays here” (exception made for this text, agreed). The formula is now only offered as a duo: mother-daughter, friends, colleagues, for even more secrets – and a greater income for a fairy who is ultra-generous with her knowledge and her time.
From each participant in her workshop, Patsy keeps a piece of fabric: she will bring them together into a piece to wear full of stories and pride. A modest project similar to another, grandiose one, which she will implement all summer on the Plaza Saint-Hubert and which she will soon unveil… Patience! Will the woman who once created wedding invitations invite, one thing leading to another, an entire new neighborhood to put the ring on their finger?
That’s it. The turquoise beast is tamed, I patiently followed the straight line of the fiber – but also that of the fairy, laughing and soothing, who even finds me “an unsuspected talent for pinking shears”. I leave the place with my top on the back. We opted for a boat neck, with invisible bias. It’s a good fit, I’ll wear it proudly. I thank her, we hug each other.
When I open the door, Patsy says, “Don’t hesitate if there’s anything.” I’m always on the line! » Then we laugh, one last time.