Chapter Text
Olive smiled as the needle pierced thread, a shirt slowly coming together from the pastel pink fabric that lay over her lap. The radio was on, a gardening show playing subtlety in the background. Tongue slightly poking from her lips, she added an extra piece of fabric, a pocket cautiously taking shape.
“Excited for a new top, Vic?” Olive didn’t look up as she continued the rhythmic movement, question hanging in the air. Vic was grey, a strange colour for a mannequin, but Olive found it suited her. Somedays, Olive considered stitching on eyes, maybe a face, but Vic seemed happy enough. Not that a mannequin could be upset. The most recent outfit was a long black dress, one that reminded Olive of Vic’s namesake, Queen Victoria, with a matching hat and parasol. She’d borrowed some jewellery from Ally and Pen, which decked Vic in a mixture of silver and red, that shone in the sunlight.
She’d found Vic in a charity shop, back when she realised that sewing was no longer just a side hobby, and took her home. Fixing up the mannequin hadn’t been two hard, just some well placed stitches, and a shocking amount of laundry liquid. After that, her studio had always felt just a bit more alive. A feeling that stayed, even when the business outgrew her bedroom.
She’d even named the shop “Vic’s Stitches”, in honour of her longest lasting companion. The name came from a prom dress she’d been asked to make, long before the shop was anything more than a pipe dream. Just a simple blue prom gown, with a crown that had to match. An heirloom, apparently. She’d put it on Vic, and laughed. “You look like the bloody queen of England!”
And, well, it stuck. Not that Olive minded. It was only right that Vic had her own name.