Dot prints are such a confusing conundrum to me. Time and again, they are great for being continuously popular and incredibly versatile. They are spotted on clothes touted as the most “on trend” or fashionable at the time, yet also tend to infer a definitive style by the way they continue to be re-interpreted. They can have a sweet aura or give off outlandish vibes. The spots can be disordered in their layout or mathematically precise for even more tailoring to their presentation. How can dotted prints seem to be everything at once, being both classically timeless, consistently dated, and infinitely varied at the same time? Since I continue to come back to using such a print in my sewing escapades, I must be further struggling to even know whether I like or loathe polka dots. This is a lot to figure out! Well, here is a post highlighting my latest example of my efforts to pick away at my still unresolved polka dot print ‘paradox’.
I doubled up on the polka dot print this time because my sewing projects are often successful when I “go big or go home”! It was double dotty time or nothing. Such a mindset worked well because I absolutely love this post’s dress. I have found it to be a new favorite garment, dotted or not…which is a mark of definite progress for me! It all started when I noticed a special combination of dotted prints which reverse the given colorway of both black and white. Such a feature was seen in 1930s fashion as well as in late 1980s to early 1990s styles, which I will discuss further in my post. Even with the vintage elements I incorporated into this dress, it still was relevant enough to have been ahead of its time apparently. When I sew with vintage patterns I normally focus on expressing my own sense of style, yet this time, using a pattern from 1989 actually put me “on trend”. Fashions of the 1980s are not as dated or hokey as they are often thought of today, when you look deeper beyond the stereotypes. I wore this dress to attend a memorable and exciting public interview of the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg when she came to visit my town in October 2022.
A similar black-and-white reverse color polka dotted dress was one of the viral trends early this 2024. I was ready for it with my vintage dress made two years before. A simple polka dot dress that was eerily reminiscent of my own turned into the hottest thing to buy when it came out in February this year, and it seems to not yet be waning in popularity. It started out with Target’s “A New Day” dress (a TikTok hit), followed by endless versions in brands at every price scale for the rest of 2024. Now, even Caroline Herrera has come out with yet more of these black and white reverse color dresses in her Spring-Summer ready-to-wear 2025 collection! The house of Caroline Herrera is just going back to its roots in order to be “on trend” because she originally had similar designs back in 1988, as well. Designers such as Emanuel Ungaro (from 1985 on), Jean Louis Scherrer (1986), Geoffrey Beene (1988), Patrick Kelly (1989), Yves Saint Laurent (spring ’86 and 1992), Balmain (1987), Christian Lacroix (1987), Givenchy (1986 & 1992), Nina Ricci (1992) and more all offered a plethora of black on white polka dotted clothing between 1985 and 1995. This ten year span supported such a specific tendency with everything from celebrities to home sewing patterns reflecting the trend. My favorite black and white polka dot inspiration since childhood has been Amy Grant’s “Every Heartbeat” music video from 1991.
The 1930s was my original yet secondary decade of inspiration for the way I made this dress, as was mentioned above. Yet, for as much as I love wearing a true vintage style, I do find myself drawn more and more as of late to the more recent re-incarnations of older fashions. The late 1980s (and the rest of the time before the turn of the 2000 epoch) was good at incorporating elements from previous fashions into its own stylistic interpretations. This is why I can sport both “vintage” decades of the 20th century with this one dress!
Years ago, the 1930s knew well that polka dots were a cheerful and fashionable way to make it through the decade. The “Depression era” produced some of the most inventive and attractive polka dotted garments to be seen, in my opinion. They are crazy but inventive, tasteful yet bold, feminine yet defiant, and all the while still classic enough to be a source of wonder and inspiration to fashion creators years later. These characteristics played well into the wild variety of styles that can be found in the late 1980s. Pop over to my Pinterest “Polka Dotty” board (here) for much more eye candy through the last 100 years of fashion!
THE FACTS:
FABRIC: a double brushed poly-spandex knit for the main body and a poly crepe for the bodice contrast
PATTERN: McCall’s NY NY pattern #4547, year 1989, an original from my personal pattern stash
NOTIONS: Nothing but thread was needed…so easy!
TIME TO COMPLETE: This dress was finished after about 20 hours in September 2022.
THE INSIDES: As this knit does not fray or roll along the cut edges, the insides are left raw.
TOTAL COST: Two yards of the main body’s knit cost me $27, while one yard of the poly crepe contrast cost me about $12. Both fabrics were bought at my local JoAnn fabric store and my total cost is right at $40.
As is the norm with a McCall’s specific NY NY pattern, there is more than meets the eye when looking at the pattern envelope as compared the actual line drawing. The covers on this line of patterns are appealing and edgy, like they come from the sketch book of a designer, yet overly artistic to be really informative. The illustrations do not give away real details of the garment you will be making. This does not ever discourage me from loving these patterns for the way they offer great style and surprising details which together give me unique designs to sew. The pattern I used for this post’s dress offers just one dress to sew, which is far less than most other NY NY patterns which frequently offer a whole mini capsule set. Even still, as I will discuss shortly, the front ties make up in versatility for the lack of options in the pattern envelope. This is about the eighth time to post a NY NY pattern here on my blog, with plenty more yet to post in the future.
The pattern I had was on the small end of being my size, yet I saw the envelope back summary paragraph noting the dress was “close fitting”. Therefore, I still sized up just a bit to be on the safe side. I have used so very many of this specific NY NY variety of McCall’s sewing patterns, and I know my sizing in their designs. Even still, I am glad I sized up for this design because it gave my dress the comfortable fit and loose hang that I desired. Even though I was using a stretch fabric here, the fabric is not the usual knit. It is very dense, thick, and stable with an elegant hang, so it called to be treated differently. A flowing dress would take advantage of the lovely qualities of the fabric.
Nothing overly form fitting was what this dress needed, even if such a goal is somewhat contrary to the point of working with knits. Overstretching a knit on the body is the polar opposite to making it fit for your measurements. When a garment is so tight that there are “drag lines”, wrinkles across the torso from an improper fit, the appearance of both the design and its fabric is marred. Just because a knit has stretch doesn’t mean that there isn’t an ideal fit to find, too! My dress still clings to my curves enough to flatter my silhouette and feel like a soft hug. Yet, after some tailoring of the seams, I found the ideal balance between a loose and a snug fit so that the polka dots hang undisturbed in their even spacing…just the way I like it. You see, with this dress, I want the print to shine now that I actually found a way to enjoy polka dots!
The construction of the dress was easy to understand and straightforward…until it came to the front bodice. The main body is many curvy, well-shaped princess seams. Then, the front bodice requires you to have blind trust in following the instructional steps, and hope that everything will work out. Sometimes a sewing pattern will only make full sense when it is done and wearable, and even then it can become a surprise to the maker itself. Keeping the entire chest open by design is contrary to conventional ideas of garment assembly. There is a gaping window where the front bodice should be, and two crazy long scarves are sewn to either side of that opening. It sort of reminds me of a 2013 Burda Style dress I made (posted here) with an open bodice that only closes with integral ties.
For this dress, overlapping the attached ties across my chest is the only thing keeping my lingerie from being on full view. It felt weird to sew a whole dress that is missing a critical component to keeping it decent. Such dress styles would be ideal for breastfeeding mothers, and I wish I had this garment when my son was born. Yet, for women not in such a position in life, this means of creating an easy close dress might just seem off. Even still, it creates a dress that is wonderfully adaptable, adjustable, enjoyable, and versatile. There are many different ways I have found to tie the ties around my dress. I think a front tie dress is better than a wrap dress because the whole style can be customized to the wearer’s desire with every twist or turn of the superfluous fabric. Extra material is not something to easily be found in today’s commercialized fast fashions, where every detail must be scrimped and trimmed down to save costs. This dress’ front ties are so generous that they can even wrap around me more than once and be tied off at the waist into a fancy rosette. The ties can even be completely tucked inside the front window of the dress for a simple look that lacks the wrapping. I love a dress with more than one look to it!
There is nothing I changed about the pattern, except to leave out the zipper, skip the shoulder pads, and (most noticeably) give my dress short sleeves. Only long sleeves were shown on this dress. Yet, for me, shortening their length has kept this dress an item for all seasons. I can layer over the dress with sweaters or a fancy blazer and the warm for winter. Yet, I can still wear this dress for cool days in spring or fall, and chilly air-conditioned rooms in summer. Every great dress deserves to be enjoyed to its fullest! Additionally, the short sleeves presented me with an opportunity to further play with the two-toned polka dot fabrics. Custom cut hem binding was made out of the white background poly chiffon to connect with the contrast that is featured in the neckline ties. I wanted to integrate the second fabric into a little bit more of the dress, after all, and the poly fabric ends up stabilizing the knit nicely for a sleeve hem that keeps its shape. I enjoy when I can find a way to show both beauty and brains with my sewing endeavors.
Of course, this dress being “double dotty” would not have been possible without serendipitously coming across the right fabrics upon one of my fabric store browsing. I actually noticed the two fabrics matched-contrasted perfectly together in the store, even though they were in two separate aisles. I like to be very calculated about my fabric purchases now that I have a substantial stash, and thus I walked away to mull over ideas at home for a few days. Then, I reluctantly came back to buy a conservative amount of yardage of the black background knit material. I am proud over how I was able to cut out the entire main body and sleeves on only two yards even though the pattern calls for 3 ½ yards!! See my layout at right. After even more consideration of the matching-contrasting possibilities, as well as checking images saved as inspiration, did I once more return to the store to buy the white background poly crepe for the neckline sash.
The risk versus reward potential to making this dress was very carefully weighed here, indeed! Finding such mirror image prints that go together so well seem hard to find. I have only come across such sets here and there in my lifetime of fabric hunting…and even then by accident, such as this time. I have passed up polka dot mirror image fabric prints in blue or yellow before, and had considered printing my own pattern through Spoonflower’s design services. It’s amusing that I actually chose to pick up two such prints that were in the basic colors as black and white. Oh well! Either gold or silver jewelry can be worn here, and I can accessorize with any color shoes or purse desired. This dress should stay timeless and appropriate for many occasions which come my way for many years to come.
After looking at way too many polka dotted garments and fashion images by the time I write this post, I am wondering if this print is really an unrecognized neutral ground. It is often said that animal prints are neutral, and of course a good solid color (black, red, or blue) always goes with most everything. Yet, polka dots are a very persistent element to the last hundred years of fashion, as I pointed out at the beginning of my post. I am now finally realizing that such an unrelenting style deserves to be appreciated for the great influence it obviously carries. Wikipedia’s page for polka dots says that they are commonly for children’s clothing and rarely used in formal occasions, but I think this dress, as well as 1930s and 1980s fashions, proves this statement wrong many times over. Many vintage reproduction garments have led us to think polka dots as overly “retro”, and some big box store’s marketing tries to spin polka dots as “new” or “trending”. Polka dots have always been trending, and long been a part of the history of fashion! I am thrilled to have found a way to make progress in finding an excited fascination with dot prints. I can swirl elegantly in the prettiest circle print around now that I have made sense of – and peace with – polka dots via this fun and feminine dress.
seamracer.wordpress.com 