Butterick 3977 (1986): Aqua on White Polka Dot Blouse with Elasticized Waist

Whilst poking around in Mom’s closet, a certain lovely lightweight top caught my attention.  I instantly recognized the 80s-ness of this garment, and brought it out for further explanation (and the vague hope that I could perhaps wrangle it into my own closet).

Turns out the top was made from a 1986 Butterick pattern that Mom had thrifted from her favorite consignment shop.  

Mom is a seamstress of a very high caliber.   While I’m not sure exactly when she first picked up a needle, perhaps her sewing journey truly began when Dad gave her a Singer Touch & Sew machine in 1966 before they even got married.  This machine has seen pretty much constant use from that moment forward. It is the ONLY sewing machine Mom has ever had and it has given her zero problems over the years. She confided that only this year did it need servicing.   

They don’t make things like they used to, do they?

Dad not only bought this machine for Mom...

...he took these pictures!  Thanks, Dad.

As mentioned in my previous post, Mom can sew ANYTHING.  She would have sewn us our house were that possible. Lingerie, bathing suits, bridesmaids dresses, pants, shirts for women and men, curtains, sundresses, hats to go with those sundresses.  Of course she made our prom dresses, thinking nothing of sewing my black strapless gown in satin and chiffon, notoriously “difficult” fabrics. NO PROBLEM.

And don’t get me started on the crafting!  From braided rugs to Ukrainan painted eggs (she is not Ukrainian but learned this wax-resist method of decorating eggs), from floral arranging and Japanese needlepoint….she’s done it and done it well.  And I’m only scratching the surface, here!

Obviously, it is ever so helpful to have a Mom like mine, in so many ways.  Naturally she advises me in my sewing and in my previous post, she styled the photo shoot.  This time, I’m posting about a top she made because it is just so cute and SO 1980s!

Mom told me she was attracted to the neckline of View B.  She also modified the pattern by essentially cropping the top where the black lines are on the line drawing:

She also added a one inch elastic at the bottom.

The fabric is lightweight, breathable, semi-opaque and some kind of cotton or cotton blend. The fabric and elasticized waist moves this garment into the "blouse" category for me. Although it is still a casual piece, it could easily be dressed up with a pencil skirt and heels.

Mom didn’t want to model it, so I did.  But sadly, it went back into HER closet after the photo shoot.  Guess I’ll just have to make my own someday!

The Silent Twins by Marjorie Wallace (1986)

I read The Silent Twins by Marjorie Wallace when it was initially published in 1986. I then forgot about the strange, sad and compelling story of the Gibbons twins for many years. Perhaps even decades.

Recently, I was trying to recall things that were important or memorable to me in the 1980s.  The faces of June and Jennifer Gibbons swam up from my unconscious like pearl-divers desperate for air. I immediately ordered a copy of the book, which I had once owned, and re-read it.

The copy I had in the 80s looked like this

After finishing the book back in the 80s,  I spent a LOT of time looking at the photographs.  Studying their faces, I wondered how it would be to live their lives, to experience life the way that they did.  There are several pictures of June and Jennifer photographed together, as identical twins often are.

Photo originally published in The Silent Twins.

Not that I envied them.  The book is an account of their first 20 years: from their births in 1963 to 1983, at which time they were residents of Broadmoor, the oldest high-security psychiatric hospital in England.

One could argue that June and Jennifer Gibbons were ensnared in one of the most co-dependent relationships in recorded history.  Ironically, Co-Dependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie was also first published in 1986. The book became an instant self-help classic and the term "co-dependent" became part of our lexicon.  

Co-dependency, in a nutshell, is when your actions and decisions are based almost entirely on your partner’s anticipated response and your core sense of self gets lost.

Mutually co-dependent, one twin would attempt to control the other, then the roles would reverse.  They frequently synchronized their movements and sometimes one would eat for both of them. When forcibly separated, they were miserable and couldn’t function.  Yet both twins were tormented by this fact and desperately wished to be free of the other. They became so enmeshed that the outside world faded and they created a universe of their own.  They dropped out of school, becoming almost totally isolated. They seldom spoke to other people, not even to their own family. Other issues were undoubtedly at play, but their main problem seemed to be their relationship itself.

Jennifer (left) and June. Photos from The Silent Twins

As teens, the girls yearned for “normal” experiences and other relationships. Experimentation in the "outside world" combined with their ongoing emotional turmoil eventually led to criminally destructive behavior. A court found them to be psychopathic and ordered them institutionalized.  

Marjorie Wallace first reported on their case for a newspaper and made friends with them.  She gained access to their copious diaries, stories and drawings. After the publication of The Silent Twins Wallace maintained her friendship with June and Jennifer, visiting them regularly at Broadmoor.  She never accepted the court’s diagnosis.

Years passed. On the morning of March 9, 1993, the twins were transferred from Broadmoor Hospital to Caswell Clinic, a minimum security facility where they would have partial freedom.  Within hours Jennifer was dead due to sudden acute myocarditis, sudden inflammation of the heart. She was 29 with no known heart problems. There was no evidence that drugs, poison or a virus had killed her. Pathologists could not explain her death. June was released from Caswell a year later and now lives a quiet life near her family.

Seeing as how I hadn’t kept up with their story after 1986, I was a bit shocked to find out that Jennifer had died.  Upon reflection however, it is sadly unsurprising. Shortly before the transfer to Caswell, Jennifer told Wallace, “I’m going to die.  We’ve decided." After her sister's death, June confided, "We were war-weary. It had been a long battle. Someone had to break the vicious circle.”

(Information about June and Jennifer’s lives after 1986 was found in these articles by Hilton Als in The New Yorker and Marjorie Wallace in The Guardian.)