Is It Altered, Embellished, Or Upcycled?

I was flipping through the latest issue of Altered Couture magazine the other day, and after viewing the clothing inside, decided that, for me, there is a a big difference between something that has been altered, and something that has been merely embellished. And before I spill out my two-pence worth, let me state that this is just my personal opinion. I'm sure there are lots of people out there who will disagree, but hey, my blog, my thoughts.

Using the term "couture" implies that whatever altering done to the garment should be high quality, show that a lot of thought, effort, and planning went into it, and the end result looks "right." I can't define "right" but I know it when I see it (accepting that "right" for me might not be "right" for someone else). All the changes and additions come together in a cohesive way and it all just works. Even funky, which is not my thing, needs to have some rhyme or reason to the design. When done correctly, funky can be awesome (the work of Rice at the Voodoo Cafe comes instantly to mind). When done badly, funky looks messy and chaotic or just plain silly. The same could be said of bohemian, gypsy, modern, or any other style.

And this is where my inside voice goes "Seriously?" Taking a T-shirt and roughly hand-sewing a four-inch rectangle of tea-dyed muslin to the chest, and tacking on a six-inch length of flimsy old lace, off-center, to the bottom of said shirt, does not make it altered, and calling it couture is a real stretch. Taking a thrift store camisole and sewing on a couple of crochet doilies that dangle off the side is not altered, it is embellished, and in my not-worth-much opinion, it is embellishment done for the sake of a trend, rather than with much thought. The design makes no sense, and looks as if the doilies sort of stuck to the shirt by accident. The flip side of that is, I saw examples of outstanding garments done with lace and doilies. The designs work, the colors work, and the finished garments are beautiful.

If you are going to call a piece "altered couture" then the piece really should be altered in some significant way. There were many good examples of this in the magazine, some quite simple, so being altered doesn't imply that it has to be fancy, home-dyed, or covered with embellishments. It does mean, to me, that you have changed the shape and style of the original garment into something unique.

The word "upcycled" is used a lot lately, and I would agree that almost all of the items shown in the magazine were upcycled from thrift store finds or antique shop discoveries.  This fact was stated over and over again by the people whose items were pictured. With the diversity of clothing, shoes, and accessories shown, and the fact that so many of them were decorated but not really altered, I think upcycled rather than altered, would be a better definition for many of the items pictured. Is a shoe you have painted really altered, or is it decorated? Yes, you have changed its appearance, but you haven't changed its shape. It's still the same shoe, just painted a different color, or with fabric and beads glued on. They have definitely been upcycled, and many of them are fantastic, but altered? 

alter: v to make or become different; change. (Oxford Pocket American Dictionary)

According to the above definition, I guess all the items in the magazine were changed to a certain extent, so in the broadest sense of the term, they were altered. But add the word "couture" and it ups the anti to something beyond just upcycled, refurbished, or embellished. And yes, even the OPAD defines "couture" as merely "the design and manufacture of fashionable clothes = Haut couture." However, I still think it implies a higher quality of thought and design over and above a snip of muslin, a bit of old lace, or a doily hand sewn onto a thrift store T-shirt. But that's just my opinion...and you all know what that is worth, right?

In The Meantime...The Linen/Lace Tank Top

I bought this linen tank top for $3.99 at the Goodwill (big surprise), knowing that I would do something with it, as it was a nice blank canvass. It's been in my closet, quietly waiting for me to make up my mind just what I would do to jazz it up a bit.

Enter Pinterest, with a major eye-candy bohemian/gypsy site, and the creative juices really started to percolate. I decided, after drooling over the clothing, rooms, and those amazing gypsy wagons, that there must be some residual hippie in me yet ( I graduated from High School in 1967). There were many clothing items decorated with lots of antique lace and beads. Shazzam! I've had a stash of old lace for a long time, so pulled out the linen tank, what lace I had, and started playing around.

Here is what I have decided on so far. I suspect more lace will be added to this tank as time goes on, especially around the bottom. But for now, I will sew this old lace yoke piece (given to me years ago by a friend) to the tank, then add beads and crystals. So much fun to be had by recycling stuff from the Goodwill. Warning...it is addictive once you start. You see possibilities EVERYWHERE!


Linen tank top and old lace blouse yoke.

This is how I will sew the lace to the tank. The narrow band at the top of the lace will be sewn down, but the lace below the band will be left loose. I think I will add crystals to the bottom of each lace point, to weight them down a bit, so they hang nicely.

Here are some closeups of the lace. I'm thinking of calling this the Gypsy Lace Tank. Sounds much more exotic and romantic than just Linen/Lace Tank Top.

And just for fun, here is a photo of my work table, which is in the garage, with both the Belle Epoch Short Dress, and the Linen/Lace Tank laid out, ready to start work on. Actually, I have already started on the Belle Epoch Short Dress, as the bottom of the shirt in the lower right has already been cut off. Please ignore the pile of couch throws waiting to be tossed in the washing machine. LOL

Next Project...Belle Epoque Inspired AC Short Dress

Okay, I have stated here many times (dozens, hundreds...) that I love vintage clothing, especially the Belle Epoch. There is a certain style of dress from that period that I especially love, and thought might be adaptable to modern wear, by incorporating it into the Alabama Chanin style, plus a technique I saw in Altered Couture where you add cotton shirt bottoms to knit tops. Put them all together, and I hope to get something unique and fun to wear.

Here is the inspiration.

The dress on the upper left is by Wendy Firmin, and pictured in the Feb/Mar/Apr issue of Altered Couture. She calls them Baby Doll dresses, as does AC of the dress pictured at the bottom (the one in gray is the one I am referring to in this project). I've already stated that anyone my age is not going to wear anything called "baby doll." I'd feel silly. The dress on the upper right is a costume from the Russian Ballet of that period, but is the same style as many of the dresses of that era. This is just the best example I could find this morning, but the style was used on everything from evening dresses to walking suits.

My idea is to make the top of the dress out of a T-shirt I bought at the Goodwill, as was the cotton man's shirt I will use for the bottom—actually, all the pieces for this came from the Goodwill (love that place!). My dress will have short sleeves and a higher neck than the AC dress. Also, I will not use lace over the seam, as Wendy did, but strips of another T-shirt, maybe done in the AC "random ruffle" design.

I am also experimenting in different color combinations. Dresses of the Belle Epoque period used colors we wouldn't think would go well together, but somehow work. There is a particular one that I love, in colors of acid purple, soft teal, with gold and black trim and beading. Kinda gives you an idea of how bold they were back then. So, here are the recycled T-shirts and man's shirt, laid out so you can see how it will work. All the banding will be out of the purple T-shirt. I will even put banding on the bottom of the cotton shirt, as I am going to cut the front to get the tapered look in the vintage dress, and I want the weight of the beaded banding to help keep the shirt hanging nicely. 

The top T-shirt is a dark blueish gray. The banding T-shirt is a dark rich purple, and the cotton shirt is striped in narrow bands of blueish gray, but seem to have a purple cast to them when the shirt is seen as a whole. I tried putting various colors of T-shirts in the middle to see what would work, and this purple seemed the best.

I bought this shirt because I loved the detail on the front.

 

The lines of grey are stitched to make the ripple pattern, which I thought would lend itself very nicely to some kind of beading. This photo shows the front pattern, compared to the strait lines of the rest of the shirt. Also, I will either take a piece of the front—if I have enough after I cut the taper—or take one of the shirt sleeves, and make an applique to sew on the gray bodice, which will help tie everything together.

As with all these AC projects, it will be totally hand sewn. Now I just need to find the right color of embroidery floss and beads. 

This is going to be a total experiment, which might end up a big flop, but one I thought would be fun to try.  As with everything...time will tell.

Persian Riding Coat Finished.....Maybe.

Okay, here are photos of the construction and end results of the Persian riding coat. It ended up looking pretty nice (I got many compliments), and was super comfortable to ride in, which was a real plus, as the temperatures at the SCA equestrian event I wore it to were close to 90 degrees all weekend. The fact that it was made of cotton, and had a loose fit, helped keep me cool...er, but it was still bloody hot, and both me and my horse sweated up a storm over the two days.

Here is the old viking coat muslin laid down over the new pattern sheeting. I used my tape measure, pinned in place, like a compass so that I could add the wider skirt width needed for the new coat.

Here is one side of the coat body cut out. There are no shoulder seams with this pattern. There is just a right and left side. I ended up trimming about two inches off the shoulder width where the sleeve attaches, as the original Viking coat was made for a guy, with broader shoulders than mine.

Here is the muslin mock up, minus one sleeve. I had to use two different pieces if yardage to get this, which is why one side is a slightly heavier weight of fabric than the other.  The hardest part of this fairly simple garment was figuring out the underarm gussets. I futzed and futzed with those, but finally got them to work correctly.

One half of the coat body cut out of the cotton twill fabric, and with the first of the decorative bands sewn on. The fabric I cut the bands from was a synthetic, but the design was just so perfect for the coat, I used it anyway. The real downside to it was the fact that it unraveled like crazy. I was constantly cutting away stray threads, and had to handle the stuff vary carefully.

A close up of the banding material. It was one of many pieces of yardage a friend sent me, and I still have quite a bit left over, both in strips I didn't use, and in a wider piece still intact.

The finished coat...maybe. I say maybe, because there is a part of me that wants to bead the trim bands —which would be totally crazy, but would look awesome. The pattern of the design just screams out for beads, but I'm not sure how practical they would be on something I will wear to ride my horse in. Also, I really want to add some narrow black trim to highlight the antique gold of the bands. My saddle is black, my boots are black, and the breast collar with tassel I made as part of this whole costume, is black. The original plan was to have black trim, but I just ran out of time to get that on before the event.

 The back. And I must add, apologies for the wrinkled condition of the coat. I pulled the coat from the back of the car (I still haven't unloaded everything from the weekend) and took these this morning, since I had no full length photos of the coat before the event. It kinda looks like it had a rough weekend, but you get the idea. Also, I had taken Inara out on the deck so the lighting would be better, and of course, it started to sprinkle, so I had to rush to get these. Then the batteries in my camera went dead. Grrr....

This photo shows the curve of the sleeve ends.

And this is how I wore it, with a beautiful sequined sash.

And this is how Delight and I looked, with me in my new Persian coat, riding in the Pageantry musical freestyle part of the event. My music was Marco Polo by Loreena McKennitt. In this photo I am signaling her to slow down (hence the tight rein) to prepare for our next move. She has a power walk, so needed reminding once and a while that this was not a race.

So, that's it. One Persian coat, and one happy rider. I liked it so much, I may make another one, in a lighter fabric (I had originally intended this to be made of linen, but the color I wanted was all gone, and what was left wouldn't have been right). In any case, I call this coat a success.

Equestrian Costume Project

My husband and I play within an organization called the SCA, which stands for Society for Creative Anachronism. It is a world-wide society, which holds events based on the medieval world between 600 AD and 1601AD. It also promotes research into all aspects of that time period, and members work to create a "persona" that might have lived in the time frame they choose...say 1400 Italian or 1500 Elizabethan. But it also includes Greek, Russian, Viking, Turkish, and even Japanese personas. It just depends on what you are interested in.

I joined the SCA back in the early 80s, played for ten years, then bailed out, moved to Oregon (I lived in Southern California), then rejoined about three years ago. Before I left California, I had done mostly the equestrian games, which attempt to recreate the tactics used to practice for war. I'm not going to go into detail about that, but it can include everything from whacking fake heads on poles (behead the enemy) to mounted archery, which is my favorite.

All the costumes my husband and I currently have are ones I made back in the 80s. They still fit, and still look nice, but....I'm tired of them. I want to make us both some new things, starting with equestrian garb. We do mounted archery outside the SCA, but sometimes those folks, depending on the event, also wear some kind of costume, usually of a Mongolian or Turkish origin since that is the birthplace of mounted archery. So, for about the last year I have been trolling the Internet, especially Pinterest, looking for a Turkish costume that would be rider-friendly. I ride an Arabian/saddlebred cross mare, so putting her, or me, in a heavy "warhorse" type costume wouldn't look right.

I figured I would be trolling along, looking at costumes, the right one would pop up, and I'd have a "That's it!" moment. I came close a few times, but when I saw this tunic, the "ding, ding, ding, That's it!" moment struck.

So, here it is, fresh off of Pinterest. I will make modifications to it, like change the color (green, black and gold), shorten it to mid-calf length, and split the back up to about my tail bone to make it more horse-friendly. And it won't be quite as ornate as this tunic, as it needs to be washable. I even have a pattern I made, again back in the 80s, for a very early period Viking coat (I made it for a male friend), which is surprisingly similar in shape and construction—it's not as pinched in at the waist and there are no sleeve gussets. But it won't take much to convert it to this tunic. Then I will make a matching saddle cloth and breast collar for my horse.

It's going to be weird getting back into SCA-type costuming, since the only costuming I have done in the last five years has been pirate garb for when we do pirate reenacting (yes, we do, and have a ton of fun doing it, with a great gang of friends).

So, let the hunt for fabric and trim begin!

ETT — A Few Process Photos & Comments

Okay, these are probably the last photos of the ETT I will post. I think it has arrived at that "enough is enough" point. LOL Here are a few process photos, and some explanations of why I did what I did, and what I would do differently.

So, this is what I started with. One teal-blue White Stag T-shirt, and a $2.99 Goodwill find baby doll dress that was too small for me.

This is the finished tunic (the sun came out long enough for me to get this photo!)

Right off, the first thing I would change is the bodice. It ended up too wide. I had left it on the wide side so I could wear the tunic over other T-shirts, but it ended up looking a bit too baggy, and needs tightening up for a better fit. Also, I am still debating whether to add some kind of design to the front. Now that I look at it, that is a pretty big expanse of blue. The reason I left it undecorated, is that I wear a lot of my own jewelry, and don't like it when the clothes and the jewelry fight each other for attention.

Here is the skirt, cut off of the baby doll dress yoke. I cut it above the seam that attached it to the yoke, mainly because I was afraid if I cut below the seam, the thing would stretch out and I would have to re-gather it up with straight stitches, which I didn't want to mess with if I didn't have to. As it turned out, the skirt ended up a bit smaller than the top of the tunic, so as I pinned it on, I had to stretch the seam, and in some places actually break the threads. Bottom line, it took a lot of futzing around to get the skirt on the tunic top. I sewed the skirt on to the tunic with a double row of chain stitch about an inch or so below the seam, then when finished, I VERY CAREFULLY cut the seam off.

The skirt pinned to the yoke of the tunic. As stated...lots of futzing to get it to fit. There are about two inches of blue tunic behind and below that pinned seam, which gave me lots of space to add the double row of chain stitch. Also I figured it would help keep the skirt hanging correctly, and help prevent the skirt from rolling under if there was only an inch or so of tunic behind the chain stitches.

And here is the finished skirt...attached with the double row of chain stitch, the old seam trimmed away, and then the chain stitch beaded. I also trimmed about three inches from the length of the skirt, as it hit right at my knees. I didn't want a dress, I wanted a tunic to wear with jeans.

And the final photo, showing the fit and length (the front and back are exactly the same, so even though you don't see the front of the piece, you're not missing anything...except me going without a bra. NOT pretty and NOT for posting on the internet!). It also shows how the tunic would fit better if the top part was adjusted to be not so wide. I think it would eliminate those loose fabric folds you can see, right above where the skirt attaches to the bodice.

Oh, only one last thing to add to the tunic. From now on I am putting my own clothing labels inside each piece. Just a small section of fabric with the same cartouche design using my initials that I use on my drawings and paintings, and then the year. For now I use a brown calligraphy-point Sharpi, but eventually I would like to make either a rubber stamp or a stencil for the label. 

Now that this tunic is done, would I make another one? Yes, with a few adjustments. However, I will wear this one, as it is comfy and looks okay over T-shirts...and because I spent flipping FOREVER sewing on all those little beads! LOL

ETT — Finished

Here is the finished Empire Tank-Tunic. Mega apologies for the quality of the photos. It has been raining for days and days, and trying to take pictures inside my house is a big pain in the butt.Just not enough light.

So, here is the best I could do.

I only posted a back view to give an idea of the length and fit because....well, to be honest, before taking these photos I was already in sweats and done for the day, and was too lazy to put my bra back on. When I saw the front view shots, I went, "No fricken way am I posting those!" LOL This was taken out on our deck, and you can see it is still raining. I will post better front views later, but this is for Zom, who was wanting to see how this piece came out.

The skirt was sewn to the bodice with a double row of chain stitch. The bead colors are gun-metal gray and copper brown. I wanted to get away from always having the beads match the colors of the garment, and I took hints from some vintage clothing photos I saw on Pinterest. Only thing I would change on this piece, is I would make the bodice a bit smaller under the breasts. I left it a bit baggy, since I wanted to be able to wear shirts under it, like in the picture, but it's just a tad too wide and would look better tightened up.

So, that's it. The Empire Tank-Tunic. I will get better full length photos of the front of the piece when I can, and I have a few more "in process" photos that I would like to share as well.

And again, sincere apologies for the lousy light in the photos.