Poetry and Clothing Project: June

Time for another installment in my year-long 'Poetry and Clothing' project where I make at least one garment a month for my ultra-inspirational friend Harriet. If you wish to have a catch up on the garments so far, take a squizz at April's and May's. I wanted June's package to contain garments which answered more specifically Harriet's requests, I could no longer ignore her plea for a 'narrow plain high waisted skirt (PLEAAAAASE!) any colour'.

The eagle-eyed among may notice a distinct resemblence between this pale blue high waisted skirt, and my own pale blue high waisted skirt. Indeed I used the exact same fabric and exact same pattern, if it ain't broke.... Except I embellished Harriet's with some white buttons instead of a massive anchor to hopefully create a more versatile garment. The back was finished in the same way: with a neat CB slit to make walking in it an option.

But what I did not want to create was a skirt that would become a wardrobe orphan if she had few or no tops to pair it with. So I made a T-shirt refashion that would begin to answer her cry for 'plain but cute things!' that could also be worn with this skirt.

It's a fairly simple semi-fitted slash neck T-shirt made from two old men's large white T-shirts. I cut the front, back and sleeves from one (making sure all those pattern pieces were lined up with the existing garment's hems so I didn't need to finish those myself on the final garment) and harvested the bottom edge to bind the neck hole and large strips for the ruffle detail from the second old T-shirt. The ruffle detail was very easy but a little time consuming to create. I folded the strips in half then created two rows of stitching to form the gathering. Having checked the gathers were even, I positioned the gathered sections evenly on the front and top-stitched them in place.

Here are the June garments together. When Harriet received them, she decided she would wear them at the graduation ceremony of the school she works at. I hope it went well and she felt nice.

Myself, I am the lucky recipient of another poem written by Harriet. This one was inspired by a trip she took to the beach (I'm assuming in Barcelona or nearby) whilst wearing the navy spotty sateen skirt.


A Skirt on the beach (May 2011)


We were polkadots on the sand

clustered up at one end of knowing.

We started out small and,

as the day wore on, we gave weight

to the air, tip-toed across

wet patches like darting atoms. We

found ourselves scattered as

little thougths germinated in

the sandy soil, quiet behind voices.

We gave in to the drip of ice cream

and the whizz of frisby with knickers

hitched up, under the shade of blue trees.


That's right peops, the 'So, Zo...' blog: where art and design meet and mutually inspire!!!