(Holding up a piece of pale lavender silk) Do you ever feel the fabric before you cut it, Esther? I mean truly feel it? As if it might speak?
Stitches & Secrets
My husband says I think too much about what goes against my skin. He says, “It’s only cloth.” intimate apparel play script pdf
(Beat.)
Esther’s cramped boarding house room in New York City, 1905. A sewing machine, bolts of fabric (silk, cotton, lace), scissors, measuring tape, and a half-finished corset on a dress form. Warm lamplight. (Holding up a piece of pale lavender silk)
No. No, it isn’t. You sew intimacy for other women. You know the shape of every secret in this city. But your own bed—
(Handing her a small scrap of the lavender silk) Keep this under your pillow tonight. Let the fabric learn you first. Stitches & Secrets My husband says I think
(Threading a needle) Fabric don’t talk, Mrs. Van Buren. It listens. Silk listens to the body. Cotton listens to the sweat. Lace… lace just hopes you don’t tear it.