Project: Bargello scissor case
(New Stitches, Issue 23)
Designer: Mary Hickmott
Type of needlework: Bargello
Photos: 3
Comments: On EGA National, there was a discussion about when the customer requests certain colors for finishing (they were actually chatting about framing, but finishing would certainly fit into that discussion) and the framer/finisher does not agree with the desires of his or her customer and do as he or she pleases.
I felt the question rather interesting as something a bit similar had happened to me before, a long time ago.
The incident happened with a little scissor case that I had stitched bargello style using a Caron watercolour thread. That thread had orange and blue shades. Having practically no experience, I had not realized that on a small project like that one, the change of colors do not spread as well as when using the watercolor thread on a bigger project, so I ended up with a bit more orange color than I wished for.
Since I had not been stitching for long at the time and the store had a finisher that did all the finishing for them and she was rather good at that too, I decided to have it finished as had no idea how to do the finishing back then.
Anyway, to cut my story short, I asked for the inside of the scissor case to be finished using a fabric in one of the blue shade that was in the watercolor thread and also to put a blue button. I thought that this would help temper down all that fiery orange that I ended up having on my scissor case.
You should have seen my face when I got my scissor case back. The inside was as orange as can be with an orange button on top too. I had the feeling of holding a little inferno in my hands.
Apparently someone at the shop decided to do the finishing themselves instead of sending it to the finisher and they had also taken upon themselves to just ignore my wishes concerning the blue fabric and button. Perhaps this happened during the Halloween season or something and orange was the color of the day/week/month and easy to get from the fabric store, I don't know and I probably never will. I think I was just too much in shock to think about asking.
Since it was only a small needlecase and the investment had been minimal, I decided to just keep it as finished and not start a big discussion, so I paid for it and left the store talking to myself.
This was followed by other "not so good" customer service that I got from them (relatively sure that I was not the only recipient of such outstanding service) and after a while I decided that enough was enough and never set foot in that shop ever again.
(Photo showing the nice Halloween orange color fabric
and Halloween button to boot)
It would have been so nice to have seen some blue fabric and a blue button there instead.
