Thursday, March 17, 2011

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!)

1 comment:

Vanessa Vaile said...

I looked for this post this morning because I'm writing Meriel, mentioned it and your blog -- showing is easier than telling. I'm saving the page but recommend adding search to your blog. Did you ever make more "Sweet Tee Originals"?

I am still wearing the prototype ~ more here in Yuma than I did in Mountainair. The alt.art banner is hanging in my bedroom directly across the room from the Egyptian wall hanging.

Anyway, my grad school BFF Meriel was an art major and artist/crafter before going back to grad school. She kept doing crafts and making jewelry (much more interesting than the bead stringer's) but stopped painting. She started again ~ working with something called New Action Painting (™ even) and is now teaching some workshops. I'm trying to encourage her to start her own blog and not count on New Action Painting and other workshop hosts to put her paintings on line.

So I'm going to send her your blog and Megan Cleveland's pages (who as you've noticed is doing much better away from Mountainair too). Surely a cautionary tale lies therein.

So what do you consider your primary art site?