Recycled Style

In an effort to promote recycling, periodically I am going to post photos of how I put together clothes picked up mainly at the Goodwill, but also at secondhand clothing shops, and antique/junk shops. I hope this will inspire others to try doing the same, since the garment industry is one of the top ten polluters in the world. There are literally millions of garments and accessories out there waiting to be reused. Most take nothing more than a good wash, or minimal mending. Following the photos are some tips on what to look for and what to avoid, and some of the mistakes I have made.

If you are creative, like me, the possibilities are endless. Here is an example. 

The shirt was made from two mens XXXL T-shirts, using Simplicity pattern #1463 that I slightly modified. The neck and armhole bindings are strips of T-shirt sewn on with embroidery thread using a fly stitch. The front of the shirt was stenciled and beaded (beaded backstitch) before the shirt was sewn up. I added the beads to the neckline months later. 

The necklace is one I made from a broken vintage bracelet found for about $5 at an antique mall. 

Months later I was trolling through the pajama and nightgown section of our local Goodwill and found this kimono. It was a perfect match and all I had to do was wash it.

This is just one example of how I put things together. Recycling is fun, even if all you do is wash the garment and wear it. I have found lovely linen jackets, silk shirts, denim jackets, and I even found a beautiful, butter-soft black leather jacket for only $24.00. 

Here are some tips, and some of the mistakes I've made. Keep in mind, some trips to the Goodwill or secondhand shops I have come out with nothing. Other times I score big time...like the leather jacket.  

Read the labels, if they are still attached. It will tell you the fabric content, size, and the washing instructions. Some garments have had the labels cut out, which I find frustrating.  I stick with natural fabrics, mostly cotton and linen. 

On size. I wear shirts medium to large, depending on the style (I have wide shoulders). Be careful! Some places, including our local Goodwill store, do not separate junior sizes from adult sizes. I tend to eyeball a shirt by holding it up to me and seeing if the shoulder seams are in the right place. This has tricked me a few times. When I get the shirt home and try it on, the underarms are way too tight, and the shirt fits too snug. Junior medium. Lesson learned.  

Look for holes in the fabric. Some can be really tiny. Look for stains and pass these garments by, unless you can cut them up and use the fabric on something else (I do this every now and then), as most of the time the stains will not come out. 

Try to get a feel for natural fabrics, which will help when the labels are missing from the garment. Just this week I came home with what I thought was a thin cotton, but no label. Washed it and the top shrunk up to doll clothes size. With this particular top, I won't even use it for appliqués, as I have no idea how much further it will shrink. The top already had a couple of tiny holes along the bottom front, and the sales lady just gave me the shirt since she couldn't sell it once she realized it had holes in it, so at least I wasn't out any money on that one. Too bad, 'cause the shirt was really pretty. 

This may sound gross, but sniff the shirt, especially the underarms. Some odors never wash out. If you smell anything, pass it by. 

If you know how to sew, you can use mens XXXL T-shirts as flat fabric (which is what I did with the shirt in the photos). Cut the sleeves off, but save them if you do appliqués. Cut along ONE side seam and both shoulder seams. After you do that, you can lay the fabric out flat and lay on your patterns. Here is a photo taken out in my garage where my big work table is. As you can see, you end up with a pretty good hunk of fabric. I try to buy shirts with no front pockets, no logos or designs, and all pure cotton. 

So there you have it, for this time. Recycling is fun, a good way to save a lot of money on clothes, and a wonderful way to stem the tide of pollution. For creative types, there is even more fun with stitching, beading, stenciling, appliqués, reverse appliqués, embroidery, and customizing patterns. For more examples of stenciled, beaded, and appliquéd shirts, see my previous post. 

Enjoy! You can save a ton of money and still be styling it!

Mandala Stenciled, Beaded, Stitched T-shirt II

This is the second mandala shirt I have done, and I really like the way they have both turned out. Here is a pictorial essay on the process, and at the end some tips to keep in mind if you would like to try this process on your own. 

All these projects are done on Goodwill T-shirts, and the stenciled appliqués are other Goodwill shirts cut up for fabric.

Picking the colors. You can see I have already stenciled the first layer.  Paint color here is Dioxazine Purple acrylic by Americana. Try to chose harmonious color combinations, as the beading adds a lot of eye-candy to the fabric and you want that to be the focus. 

Next, set up the layers on the garment T-shirt. I use large safety pins for this. Be sure to center the design, which can be a bit tricky on shirts that have been worn as many times as these. The knit has usually warped or twisted to a certain degree. Get it as close as you can. I tend to eyeball it, step back, and eyeball it again until I think it is good to go. 

Then the fun begins. The beading. I used regular sewing thread, and whatever needle will fit the beads I am using. Test the beads after the needle is threaded, as some will go over the needle, but not over the extra bulk of the thread. Keep in mind the intricacy of the design, and don't get beads that are too large or too small. I use a standard, easy-peasy back stitch for beading. Once the beading is done, I do a running stitch just to the outside of the stencil. In this case, at each point of the mandala I added a blue bead. Stitching this way keeps the material from rolling back over the beads.

In this photo you can see how the knit is rolling toward the front. I got this one on backwards so had to deal with it. Also, as in this case, it looked like the knit was going to roll the other way, and then the more I worked with it, the more it changed. Bottom line, don't sweat over it. 

Next is to unpin and trim away the top (in this case rose colored) fabric, leaving about a 1/4" margin. Be careful not to cut into your running stitches, or the fabric underneath. 

 Re-pin the bottom layer and do another running stitch around the edge, again 1/4" margin. When finished, unpin the fabric and trim away the excess, 1/4" away from the running stitches. Again, being VERY careful not to cut into the running stitches or the shirt. 

Lastly, in this design, I add a charm in the center. This can be anything from a larger bead, a button, or charm. 

At this point, you are done! And just remember, this is meant to look handmade, not like some mass-produced piece from China. Small imperfections are not the end of the world. 

Here are a few tips and suggestions for stenciling and beading on fabric.

I use shirts from the Goodwill in an effort to recycle rather than buy new. The garment industry is one of the most heavily polluting in the world. Not only do I buy the base T-shirt, but also I buy XXXL mans shirts to cut up for flat fabric. The purple on this shirt was just the sleeve from one of those large shirts. I double wash everything before using. 

Stencils can be found everywhere. There are literally hundreds to choose from. To start, pick something simple. Also, I like to leave sections of the stencil un-beaded as part of the whole design. 

Beads are sold everywhere or can be ordered online. JoAnn's and Craft Warehouse are good sources. Online, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads will overwhelm you with choices. The size of the bead should be in relation to how complicated the stencil design is. Also, if your beads are really small, you will need to use a beading needle. I use a size 13. Anything smaller makes me crazy trying to thread it. 

When setting out the layers, check to see which way the knit tends to roll, then face that toward the main shirt. With this kind of work, it isn't super important whether you use the right or wrong side of the fabric, so if the knit curls toward the right side, put that side face down. This keeps the knit, after you have washed it a few times, from rolling over the stitching. 

As for paint, I have used fabric paint, craft paint, and my regular acrylic paints...all acrylic based, so easy to clean up and fast drying. I dab them on with small makeup sponges available at any cosmetic counter. I leave the piece to dry overnight and that has worked out just fine. 
Note: I tried a thick glitter paint once. Once. It was a nightmare to get in the stencil and didn't cover very well. When the project was finished, I threw the paint away! I have used metallic paint with great success, though. Next I want to experiment with fabric spray paint!

Here are a few photos of previous projects I have done. I love beading and stitching over stencils. I was my way of solving the problem of how to get an intricate pattern design on fabric that wouldn't rub off before the beading was done. I get things laid out,  cue up Pandora, and zone out. 

 The above piece is also reverse appliqué.

Enjoy...it is as fun as it is addicting. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment. 

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!

Finished Tank Top—Review

Okay, here is the finished tank top, with the new reverse applique covering the pink blob/stencil mistake.

My conclusions after this first attempt are:

My embroidery skills suck! I hadn't done any in, oh, about 20+ years, so this first attempt back into it looks pretty rough. Also, I've decided that, in the future, for most of the sewing of the shirts, and the decorative stitching, I don't want to use embroidery floss. For the designs I like, it looks too primitive. Actually, the whole design on this shirt is more primitive than I would normally like or wear, but since it was an experiment, I kept things simple...for now.

Don't use the blanket stitch to sew on the facings. Because of the way it is sewn, it tends to make the facings fall outward. Next time I'll use either a chain stitch or a Cretan stitch.

I liked doing the reverse applique, and I really liked the stenciling, even if in this case it got covered up. I also enjoyed the beading. So, I figure the pieces I do in the future will have more stenciling and beading, with less embroidery.

Next, I really want to experiment with refining the color combinations betweeen the fabric, thread, stencil color, and beads. It's one of the things I like about the Alabama Chanin clothing...it looks sophisticated and classy, rather than primitive. Nothing at all wrong with more primitive-type designs. Lots of people love them and look good in them, they just aren't my thing.

 A few weeks back I picked up some really nice XXL T-shirts at the Goodwill (I wanted something that did NOT have a pet food logo on it). One was a lovely pale grey/green, and two others were rich purple. Those will be the next ones I play around with. One of the purple shirts had a great machine embroidered picture of a Tibetan temple on it, which I'll use on something. When I was enthusing over it at the checkout counter, the lady ringing it up kinda just nodded her head and mumbled something like, "Oh yes, very nice." Obviously, Tibetan temples don't float her boat.

The picture makes the green shirt look more mint-greenish, but it's actually a soft pale green.

Final word is, I love the idea of recycling T-shirts. I like that I can use beads and embroidery floss I already have, although the fact that the floss is 20+ years old might have had something to do with the fact it tended to tangle...A LOT.  I want to try working with quilting thread, and also metallic threads, or adding beaded stitching.  I NEED NEW GLASSES OR I WILL GO BLIND DOING THIS STUFF.

For fun, I'd like to incorporate rubber stamping, or drawing directly on the fabric to add to the stencil design. They do a bit of the drawing on fabric with some of the Alabama Chanin clothing, and I loved the look. I'm also wondering if some of the techniques used on T-shirt material could be used with recycled sweatshirts, since it's cold so many months of the year where I live. Lots and lots of things to think about and play around with, to keep me busy during the hot summer—As if making jewelry, writing, gardening, and working horses wasn't enough. LOL