"SWEET T " HOODIES ....

A gorgeous model did not come to the door so you are seeing the hoodies on hangers, outside in the wind, on a beautiful First Day of Spring. I might mention that right outside the kitchen door is a very large patch of white crocuses in full bloom! This hoodie was made from several recycled tee shirts. You can see my label inside. The hood lining was a white tee that was not very white, so it was dyed a pale mint color. The back of the hoodie has a giant flower attached with free motion embroidery. In the center is an old dress label I found in my sewing supply drawer.

This is the second hoodie make from lighter colored tee shirts. The front/top was a white shirt which had an applique on it. So, I just cut it up the center and I think it looks good!

The buttons on both hoodies are covered in matching shirt material and the button loops are made from the sewn edges of the sleeves from the shirts.

UPCYCLED TEE SHIRTS......OR HOW I LOVE THE SERGER!

I had an idea. I wanted to make a spring/fall lightweight coat as a new addition to my Wearable Art line of clothing. What you see below is a prototype, using old and stained tees. It was not supposed to ever be worn. I needed to design this coat, making sure the sizes of the pieces and the overall design worked.

And then, I fell in love with it! I had given no thought to colors, just wanting to make the garment and road test it for shape and style. It is so light, and comfy! It has no closures, but just roomy and something to wrap around you if it gets chilly.

I made a basic hood pattern by drawing around a hood on another shirt. The lining of the hood actually has a pocket on it, as I used the front of a shirt for that piece. Again, I was just going for shape and design here. Now I really like that silly pocket in there!

So, the plan now is to create a number of these for sale. They will probably be labeled as "one size fits most" due to their roomy design. Of course, I will give more attention to colors! I should tell you, the white Tee I used on the bottom was quite stained, so I just stamped the red design to cover those marks. Because.......I wanted to wear it!

The front does have my label on it, along with the "Clara Bow" stamp I have used on all my other wearable art pieces. The best part of this entire project was the serger I borrowed from my Mother. All of the seams are on the outside of the coat and the serging thing makes construction unbelievably fast. Now that I have the design down, and the pattern pieces drawn out, I think I can make one in under 3 hours. Stay tuned for the next post with more photos of the next creation. Right now I am calling the line "Sweet T Original". (and maybe next time I can find a more photo friendly body!)

MORE CEDAR KEY ...

Outside dining deck at our favorite restaurant.

Dock Street.

View of Dock Street, where all the shops and restaurants are.

Waiting for lunch at our favorite restaurant, "The Pickled Pelican". This is one very happy man!

Key Lime Pie for dessert. naturally .....

Shrimp Po'boy we shared while watching the pelicans.

A beggar at our lunch table.

The clam shells I saved from our clam chowder evening dinner with all of our children and assorted significant others. It was delicious! Not sure what I will do with them but it will be a piece of artwork of some kind!

OUR LAST DAY IN CEDAR KEY ...RANDOM SHOTS FROM OUR GOLF CART TOUR OF THE ISLAND ...

BREAKFAST WITH THE GULLS ...

RANDOM SHOTS OF CEDAR KEY FLORIDA...THE TINY TOWN THAT TIME FORGOT....

YEAH, I TURNED INTO A TOURIST ....

Feeding the gulls off our third floor balcony this morning. We are almost out of vacation. And it has been wonderful.....

MARKETING MY ARTWORK ...

Finding a way to make my work visible and available for purchase has been a long and frustrating process. Now there is a way and I wanted to let you, my readers, know! I have joined an online web site called www.fineartamerica.com. To make it easy to find my work (since there are over a million pieces of art on the site!) I have added links to my blog. You can see them over there <---------- on the left sidebar. If you click on any of those topics you will go directly to the pages of art that fall under those specific subjects. The cool thing is, one or more of my works will generally show up on the third line of the very first page! This is a wonderful advantage to have! If you click on any of those images, it will take you to that artwork's page where all the buying of stuff happens. So, I thought I better let you know what all that stuff over there <------------ is about! I invite you to go look around. There is some really wonderful artwork to see!

MORE FROM THE SKETCH JOURNAL ...

"Seeing Red" - acrylic and oil pastel on paper