Saturday, November 22, 2014

Never Disappoint a Teenager

Some weeks ago I was asked if I would sew some scout badges on to a shirt for the daughter of a friend. I said yes, was given the shirt and then promptly got busy with life.

Yesterday at a party, I was asked about it. She needs it tomorrow. When I told her I had not done it, you know that look. the one that says "I will be an outcast at my meeting since I am not dressed correctly." Ouch! My bad!

So this morning I got up early (don't feel sorry for me, I am an early riser and do my best work before 8am) and I sewed the badges on to her shirt.

I grew up with Girl and Boy Scouts. I remember cookie drives and how important getting those badges sewn onto the uniform was. I so felt her pain. In France scout organizations are a little bit different. Both boys and girls scout together.


I was given a copy of "Les Essentiels de la Boutique". On the back of the front cover is this picture  of where all the badges should go. There must be more, you know, something like, "The badge will be placed 2cm below the shoulder seam", or something like that.
Look! It says I can go on line to get the correct placement of all of the badges. Cool! So off I go searching the website for placement information. What I found was this:
Love it! No military precision. As an experienced sewer, this means it needs to be centered and sewn neatly and roughly where it shows it is supposed to go. The  Insigne de Territoire (Lorraine) and Bande de Groupe (Rodger Clement) are on the  right sleeve. The shoulder seam and pocket on the sleeve do not match so they were centered on the pocket. The Lorraine badge was longer than what was sewn on. About 5 mm were folded under top and bottom so that the two badges would fit on the sleeve. Not at all like the space shown on either placement picture.
Right sleeve only requires the Bande d'epaule.  The distance from  the top was matched with the Bande de Groupe on the other sleeve. The Insigne du SF/OMMS/AMGE was centered over the left front pocket.

Finally here is the final result:

Placement on the  right shoulder leaves room for the pistes d'action badges should she ever get any. 

I really need to get back to sewing lace bits...

1 comment:

  1. As I was a Guide,Ranger Guide and Scout Leader for more than 30 years, both my kids were in Scouts & Guides and my husband is still a Scout Leader, I've sewn a fair few badges on uniforms over the years - I hate sewing them on!

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