Gothic Spots and Stripes (Sewn Magazine Feature)

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Waaay back at the beginning of this year, I did a feature for Sewn Magazine, which involved recreating an outfit consisting of a black and white polka dot skirt and stripy blouse. I'm not really a stripes OR a spots kinda girl, in fact, I'm not sure if I'd ever sewn with, or even worn, either of them before, and if I have, certainly not both at the same time. Which is nothing against either spots or stripes, it's just, they've never really done anything for me.

So needless to say, I was a little phased starting out with this, trying to work out how I was going to stick to the brief but still keep true to my own aesthetic (whatever that is). As I'm sure I've rabbited on about before, I've been really keen to be more responsible in my sewing this year, so whatever I ended up making couldn't be something I wore once for the photos, then relegated to the back of my wardrobe, never to be seen again. Both the skirt and the blouse had to be things I'd want to wear again, preferably frequently. This one was a real head scratcher.

The blouse was more easily sorted once I'd decided to go for one of my favourite silhouettes for a top, a light and airy chiffon blouse with a pussy bow and baggy sleeves. This striped georgette was pretty much perfect for my needs, and I liked the double-stripe design. In terms of pattern, McCall's 7868* also seemed to fit the bill nicely.

I wanted the stripes to be diagonal, which did make for some finnicky fabric cutting. Cutting out slippery fabric on the bias, while also trying to pattern match stripes and make sure they met in the right place at the side seams, was not an experience I can recommend to anyone in good conscience. The pattern itself is a nice and simple sew though, although I did find the pussy bow a little bit too short to make an appealing bow at the front. Instead, I just wrapped the whole thing round my neck and tucked it into itself to create a faux-turtleneck.

The skirt took me a quite a lot longer to figure out. This was partly because I was less confident about being able to make a skirt I'd love, but ended up mainly due to the fact that I just could not find black fabric with white polka dots anywhere. I eventually found some polycotton with the right print on ebay, but when it arrived, the black was far too washed out to work, and it just looked pretty anaemic against the black of the blouse. So that had to be scrapped (worry not though, this got repurposed into lining for another skirt - stay tuned for that!).

Eventually, I found some lovely chiffon with the right print, so I snapped that up in a heartbeat and quickly whipped up a simple rectangle skirt (see my tutorial on this, but only 2x waist measurement). At this stage, I was feeling grumpy about everything that had gone wrong and the deadline was fast approaching, so I didn't bother with lining it, despite the fact that it is quite clearly very, very see-through, and instead just wore some RTW black shorts underneath to cover up my modesty. I do intend to go back and line it at some point, but honestly, the shorts do their job pretty well, and this way I never need fear doing a Marilyn Monroe when there's a sudden gust of wind.

I was still kind of apprehensive about putting the two garments together, but when I actually did, I was completely sold on the idea. I guess this is the joy of being given a brief by someone else - it forces you out of your comfort zone and to consider things you would otherwise be close-minded about. I would never in a million years have made either of these items if not for this magazine feature, but I love them both individually, and together. If you follow me on Instagram, or indeed if you saw my rectangle skirt tutorial, you may have noticed that the striped blouse is already getting a lot of use. The skirt, admittedly, less so - I think this would be amazing on holiday or a warm summer's day, but we barely had a summer up in the north of England, and all holidays abroad were cancelled this year for (I hope) obvious reasons. So maybe next year.

In what I had hoped at the time would be a regular occurrence, I decided to shoot the photos at a nearby church rather than my living room/back garden for a more dramatic feel to the photos. I'd love to do another photoshoot there, it's such a beautiful building and it's definitely more exciting than my garage wall - again, maybe next year.