T-Shirt Tunic and Ratty Work Shirt Update...and Pumpkins!

In my last post I showed photos of the humongous man's T-shirt I bought at the Goodwill, laid out ready for cutting. And then one of the tunic sewn together, but with no bindings. That project is done...for now. After I wear it a few times, and decide if I really like it, I will decorate the front with something and maybe bead the binding. Right now it is pretty Plain Jane. And since I bought two of these HUGE T-shirts, if the first tunic turned out okay, I had planned on making another. The only change that needs to be made, is that the armhole is a little large, with just enough play to sometimes show my bra. Not a lot, but enough to show a peak of it  I might buy a fancy sports bra to wear under it, so if something does show, it will be pretty. Anyway, in its next incarnation, I will adjust the armhole opening.

This shows the little tuck I did in the binding for the V-neck.

This tunic is very loose-fitting, and the bottom edge hangs about four inches below crotch level, which is perfect for me. I decided not to bind the bottom because I didn't want to add any stiffness to it. The way it is, it drapes nicely, which is what I wanted.

Okay, moving on to the ratty work shirt. I salvaged this poor thing from my husband's box of work clothes.  By the time things get to that box, it means they are in such a beat up condition he can't wear them off the property. I started covering this shirt as a project I could work on between other projects. Something easy, that could go for months without being worked on, and that I wouldn't feel guilty about neglecting. The denim is torn and threadbare, but oh so soft. I wear this shirt when going back and forth to the garden to change the water. It keeps the sun off my arms and deflects the heat (it has been up to 113 here this summer). I also wear it in the morning if it is still a bit chilly out on the deck, which is where my husband and I have tea on the weekends. The spiral denim piece and the biding on the collar were the first things I added. The new section is a piece of an old flannel shirt which had gone from the work box clothes, to the "use as garage rags" box.

All of the stitching is no-muss, no-fuss. I even left the knots and ties showing on the outside, which I never do on anything else. More and more patches, appliqués, beads and charms will be added as time goes on. I hope to eventually cover the whole shirt.

Lastly are photos of the pumpkins in my garden. This is my first attempt at growing them, and I think I did pretty well! The variety is called Cinderella. Well of course, what else would it be called?

When they get heavy, I put little pads under their bottoms so they don't get bruised. I see lots of pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin, baked pumpkin, and pumpkin pie in my future.

Hope you are all having a grand summer. Here it would be a lot better if we weren't surrounded by wildfires. Kinda hard to breath when it's 105, and visibility is down to half a mile because of the smoke. A nice summer rain storm would be a treat right now. One can only hope.

Sleeveless T-Shirt Tunic

For some #$^%$ reason, Blogger won't let me move this margin to the left, so has decided that I must 

keep it centered. This after having a $%^&#$ing nightmare getting photos to upload. I am not happy

will Blogger, or my computer right now. But, I battle on.

A while back I bought two enormous man's T-shirts. These babies were XXXXXL. I stashed them, not sure at the time what I would do with them. Recently I decided I wanted to make a sleeveless tunic, and that one of these giant shirts would work. I dug through my stash of old, old patterns and found one I thought would also work. It has sleeves, but I just left them off. Also, the shoulders are dropped, and I thought that might give the tunic a cap-sleeved look. Worth a try, anyway. 

I decided to use this dark gray one, so if I screwed things up, I wouldn't have used up the dark blue one, which I like better. This little project is a total experiment.

Oh, so down here, it's going back to a left-hand margin. **sigh** 

As you can see, the shirt really is huge. Here is how it looked after I cut off the sleeves, cut up the side, and across the shoulder seams, so it would lay flat. 

This is the pattern I am using.

I like V-necked shirts, so I am doing that version, which may mean I have to futz with the binding at the V part, but, I'll figure it out. 

This is the pattern laid out, and then cut out. 

Lastly, are photos of the tunic sewn up with matching grey embroidery thread, and next to it the shirt that I will cut up for the edge binding. When the tunic is done, and if I like it, and it feels good on, I will add some kind of decoration/applique to the front, and bead the binding. 

And to entertain myself while I sew the binding on, I bought a new book-on-CD to listen to. Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Basically, the animals of the world start to fight back.

I have another major project that I have taken on, but I am writing about that in my horse blog. I have adopted a two year old Andalusian filly from a kill yard in Washington. It's going to be a long, fun process of getting to know her, and getting her healthy...she was 100 lbs underweight, and has a bacterial infection known as strangles. Very nasty. So if you are interested, head over to www.equine_madness.blogspot.com.

The "Save That Ratty Workshirt" Project

I was looking for an on-going project I could work on in between other things. You know, like when I only have maybe half an hour or so of dead time, but not ready to start another major project. Something I can stuff in a bag and drag along with me, or ignore for months and not feel guilty about neglecting it.

Years and years ago (back in the 70s) I did a lot of embroidery on a man's cotton work shirt. I wore it to death, and still have it. It was even featured in an "Clothing as Art" show at the Riverside Art Center and Museum, in Riverside, Ca. So I thought, why not start another shirt, only this time use up all my bits and pieces of leftover fabric, trim, beads, embroidery floss, etc to mend one of my husband's. He had a few, all given to him by pet food companies (he drives a big rig truck delivering pet food), and one of them, which had been relegated to the "wear it around the house/yard only" box, was pretty, well...ratty. I decided to rescue it and give it a new life.

This resurrection may not work. The shirt material is very worn and thin, and there are lots of frayed edges, and rips in the fabric. But the cotton is so very soft, and even if the shirt ends up totally covered, that nice cotton will still be the lining inside.

Here is what the shirt looks like. Yeah, pretty ratty.

It's obvious that the whole thing is going to have to be reinforced in some way. But, I can work on small sections of fabric adding beads or embroidery, or stenciling, then take that finished bit and sew it onto the shirt. Or I can work directly on the shirt.

This is what I have added so far. The denim patch was a piece cut from a pair of jeans, that  I was experimenting on with a bleach pen. The skull is a stamp. On the edge of the collar I sewed a leftover strip of binding from the Spring Bolero project. The little key is a cheap charm I dug out of my stash of "stuff."

I'm going to add beads to the denim patch, and I think the stitching is kinda-sorta like Japanese boro stitching, but much sloppier. This whole shirt project is meant to be a no-brainer, so I am not going to get anal over the stitching. I even left the end knots and tails on the outside, which I NEVER do on other things.

It may be years before this shirt is totally covered, or it may take only a few months before I decide the whole bloody project is a waste of time.  However, if I do manage to get the whole shirt covered, I bet it will look really awesome!

Spring Bolero finished & Next Projects

The Spring Bolero turned out quite nice. It is bolero number five in my growing collection. I did a ballpark calculation as to how many hours it took for me to bead the binding, and figured around five, give or take. It is very relaxing for me, as I listen to books on tape as I sew/bead. But the hours it takes to bead one just reinforces the notion that trying to  make them to sell would be a waste of my time and energy. Besides, as stated before, I do these for fun, and because I like wearing them.

Spring Bolero = Made from two Goodwill find women's knit shirts, and beads and embroidery thread from my own stash.

My next project is to turn this large, faux-silk (Rayon) beaded top into a kimono jacket. There are already gold bugle beads sew on it, very badly, and many are coming off. I will secure the loose ones, and probably add more. The idea is to cut it up the front, then add some kind of fringe/lace/trim to the bottom edge and to the ends of the sleeves, to make them hang nicely. This thing is kinda warped from, I suspect, lots of washing and is very baggy, but I liked the boho design and the slouchy feel of it, and thought, once the remodel is done, it would look great with a black tank top and jeans. For a mere $2.99 from the Goodwill, if it fails, I'm not out much.

Lastly are the gigantic man's t-shirts I got, again, from the Goodwill. I got two, one this dark blue, and the other is charcoal gray, for $2.99 each. They are Fruit of the Loom brand, and the cotton is a good weight, so I couldn't resist, even though the colors aren't very snazzy. I can fix that with embellishments. But wow, can't imagine the size some poor guy would have had to be for these babies to fit. However, it makes lots of material for me to play with. I just hope these shirts ended up in the Goodwill because whoever owned them lost all that weight and didn't need them anymore.

That's my lineup so far. Not sure what I will do with the two HUGE shirts, but a tunic might be one choice. I have a pattern for a simple one, if that's what I decide. Also, I recently bought a new stash of stencils, and these shirts are big blank canvasses begging for decoration. With that much fabric to play with, the possibilities are endless.

So that's me, making a happy wardrobe, one upcycled piece at a time.

Goodwill Finds and the Spring Bolero

A few days ago I did a troll through the Goodwill, after dropping off three boxes of "stuff." I came home with quite a few nice finds = two ENORMOUS XXXXL man's T-shirts that I think I could get whole outfits out of, a faux silk kimono-type top made in India that already has some beading on it, and two woman's extra large T-shirts in a happy Spring green, with tiny sprigs of leaves in white. Now, normally, I would avoid anything with white like the plague, but this was a small pattern, and looked so cheerful, that I caved and bought it anyway.

The faux silk top, which has big, square sleeves...well, like a kimono...I am going to cut up the center and make into a kimono jacket. The beading on the fabric is sewn on pretty sloppy, but looks nice, so I will leave it and probably add more, and then replace the sloppy beads that will no doubt fall off as I wear it.

Not sure what I will do with the two huge man's T-shirts, but the possibilities are endless. They are nice, Fruit of the Loom brand, so the cotton has a good weight. The colors are dark navy blue, and charcoal grey. Yeah, the colors are kinda blah, but I can add stenciling, embroidery, beading, and appliques to whatever I make out of them, to jazz things up.

I will have photos of these pieces up later. Mainly because I got all ready to post this stuff, thought I had photoed all of it, only to discover I only had photos of the Spring bolero shirts. My bad.

Anyway, here is my progress on the Spring Bolero. Even though the two women's shirts were size XXL, and wide, I wasn't sure I would have enough fabric to do the binding, so the rich, chocolate brown was going to be my backup binding color. It looked really nice against the bright green. However, as it turned out, I had enough shirt fabric left over to do the binding if I did solid color on pattern, and the reverse on the sleeves.

The first two photos were taken on my dinning room table, and the lighting there makes the green look olive, and the brown look maroon. They are not. The rest of the photos were taken on my work table out in the garage, where the lighting is brighter, and the colors show up better. 

 The beads and embroidery thread were some I pulled from my stash.

And here is where I am so far. Still have to add the rest of the binding, then bead it. I may add beads to the body of the bolero, but haven't decided yet.

This makes bolero number five. I love these guys, and wear them a lot. I also love that they are easy to make, and lend themselves to all kinds of decorations. And they are the item I get most asked, "Do you make them to sell?" My answer is always, "No." They might be easy, but depending on how crazy I get with them, they are time-consuming. Besides, making them to sell would take all the fun out of it, and that's the biggy for me. I do them for fun.

Wm Morris Bolero Finished...For Now? Plus a Goodwill Find

Since the weather has been close to, or up into, the 100s, working outside is not fun, and to be avoided if possible. The most I do is move a sprinkler from one part of the yard/garden to another and then head back indoors. So, with a decent excuse to stay inside, and while listening to a book on tape (The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters), I managed to finish the Wm Morris Bolero.

It started like this, with me trying to determine what binding color to use. As it turned out, and with a hint from Zom, I didn't use either one of these, deciding they detracted too much from the pattern on the material.

I took one of the sleeves cut off from the patterned T-shirt back to the Goodwill, looking for a better color match and was lucky enough to find one. It was a dark grey man's T-shirt that had been washed so many times the grey had taken on a greenish cast. Just a hint, but it hooked into the teal perfectly. And since JoAnn's is right next door to the Goodwill, I strolled over there to look for embroidery thread, and also found some beads I thought were stunning, and which were on sale for 40% off. Sweet!

However, once I got the bolero sewn together I decided the beads wouldn't work. They were a little too big and too bright, again, something that detracted from the pattern of the material. As it turned out, I had some beads in my stash that matched much better and were smaller. They worked great.

Here is the finished bolero. I really like the way the colors in this one are subtle. My other three boleros are flashier, either in color or beading/applique. I may add beads to the leaf pattern, but have decided to think about that for a while before I commit, start beading, and then decide it detracts from rather than enhances the design.

And this is my latest Goodwill find. A couple of weeks ago a small group of women (and one man who tagged along) from the Rogue Mounted Archers went on a Goodwill/consignment shop crawl looking for clothes for which we could make Zombie Apocalypse costumes. We have an international competition coming up in our area in September, and one of the contests is a zombie shoot. Anyway, after a day of hitting the Goodwill and two other consignment shops—with a stop for Mexican food and margaritas — all I could find that I really wanted was this beautiful jacket, found at the Goodwill, and it had nothing to do with Apocalypse costumes.

It is supposed to feel and look like hammered silk, but is not made of silk. The label inside doesn't say what it is made of, but I suspect some kind of acetate, which I normally would avoid like the plague. But the colors, the lightness of the material, and the oriental look of it grabbed me. I carried it around the whole time I was looking at other stuff, thinking that if I hadn't put it back by the time everyone else was ready to leave, then it was meant to be mine. And for only $4.99 how could it not, right?

I like it "as is." So this piece is not a project waiting to get done.

This little jacket is so different from anything else I have, and will look awesome with jeans.

Well, that's my remedy for beating the heat. How are the rest of you doing?