I'm a firm believer that every woman entering their 30s needs a statement shirt. I shirt that says SELL YOUR HOUSE TO ME, a shirt that says I STAND OUT FROM THE OTHER CANDIDATES IN THIS JOB INTERVIEW, a shirt that will distract you from the very faint lines appearing on my face, a shirt that says I'm mature enough to be uneffected by your opinioin on the print, and confident enough to pull it off in public (pull off the print I mean, not the actual shirt... ah ha). A shirt that is as unique and memorable as I am. The dog shirt is my statement shirt. The I feel like I'm turning heads in the street shirt, the my mom doesn't like it but I think she secretly does shirt. And I LOVE it.
. I'm going to get a bit soppy here, but since joining their ambassador team I have had the chance to get my paws (groan) on some absolutely fabulous material, and beyond that have really felt like my makes and my blogs and my photos have really been valued by a company that I am totally smitten with.
This fabric is a cotton poplin that I must admit, if you're not so comfortable wearing the print, would also suit a duvet and pillowcase combo. There are a number of different pooches featured on this print, Dalmation? Chihuahua? Alsatian? Husky? Bull dog? Spaniel? We got it! Oh and yeah, they are all wearing jewellery as well okay? Cause why not?? I feel like the gold of their accessories and the green and purple of their gems really takes this to the next level. Monochrome, I'd have liked it. Monochrome with pops of glammy colour? Love it!
With a bold print, abstract in areas and strikingly graphic in others, it was so so important to get the pattern placement right. I played around for ages to make sure I'd got my favourite hounds where I wanted them, and that there wasn't too much dog-repeat across the body and sleeves etc. I wanted to capture some of the random abstraction but not lose the dogs in seams or under the collar. I opted for the most official looking dog - a pointy eared pincher I think??? to feature most prominently on the centre back, with a doofy greyhound similar to mine peering in from the side seams. The bulldog/alsatian combo on the front was thoughouly planned - hoping they would compliment each other but not come across as some kind of weird dog bra.
I also wanted to subtley use the gold of the dog jewellery in the cuffs. To do this I had to cut them on the crossgrain to get as much gold across them as possible, but they are well stabalised with interfacing so I'm pretty certian this posed no detriment. For the collar, again I wanted to capture a bit of colour on the points to help the structure POP and add a bit more of an obvious, deliberate shape amongst the dog abstraction.
I was careful not to get any random, obvious bits of dog facial features in the button band, I wanted the placket to act as kind of border to the chaos of the print!
I chose to use the McCalls 7472 pattern again, as I thought the length and the raglan sleeves provided more opportunity for dog-coverage. The wackiness of the print also teamed nicely with the art-school kinda vibes that the pattern boasts.
I knew I wanted to find some buttons that were big and gold and OTT to compliment the dog-jewellery. I was over the moon when I dicovered these buttons on the habberdashery market stall in Sheffield. Not only are they gold and blingy as planned, the two colours they had on sale matched the purple and green of the fabric perfectly! It was a sign!! Not wanting to miss out on the colour co opporutnity, I chose to use 2 purple buttons for the sleeves and green down the front.
I'm so pleased with how this turned out! A shirt like no other! I thought the fabric would be a bit of a nightmare in terms of creasing but so far I havent caught sight of myself in shop windows and though DAMN this needed ironing agian. In and ideal world, I would have liked the fabric to have a little bit more weight to save the sleeves getting a bit billowy but what it lacks in weight it definitely makes up for in bucket loads of character.
Here's to my 'I'm old enough to dress myself' shirt, hopefully these prosperous pooches will bring me all the luck I need to finally buy my house, and then who knows... take on the world?
x
Location: Sheffield Council Stray Kennels
Currently listening to: You Owe Me Some Kinda Love, Chris Isaak
