The Best Halloweenieness Ever!

So, I love seeing dachshunds dressed as bananas (little dogs dressed as food) and skeleton gingerbread men (food dressed like little people) and babies in roast turkey costumes (little people dressed as big dead birds) as much as the next blogger . . . but this, ladies and gentlemen, this takes the Halloween Cupcake - From Bitter Betty, my new favorite blogger, may I present Costumes for Houseplants:

the Ferocious Ficus

and - my personal favorite - the Rest in Peace Lily.

She's got a tutorial for this folks, so get on over there and give her a visit!

DEMO! Sweater Reconstruction

It's time for another crafty demo, this one inspired by my love of (slightly) wacky clothes and my (slightly) compulsive shopping habit . . . How many of you out there (be honest now!) have clothing currently in your closet that you purchased with the best of intentions . . . and have never actually worn? It can be new or scavenged from the Goodwill; it can be something that seemed great at the time or that was purchased because "it's cheap and it'll work if I just tweak it a little bit." The issue of the gifted or inherited garment can be handled with much less guilt . . . and Sweet Sassafras does it with such style here . . .

I, however, have many of these high-guilt purchased items. One that has been nagging at my conscience is a baggy striped sweater purchased at Old Navy. It filled me with visions of 80's-inspired funk and hipness and legging-clad comfort when I bought it. In truth, every time I tried it on as part of an actual outfit, it was comfortable but it made me feel . . . frumpy. Here's the sweater:


So, after the last time I tried it on several weeks ago, I got crafty. Well, actually, I just pulled the scissors out and attacked the sweater. This has, luckily for us all, resulted in an actual demo - yes, something you CAN safely try at home . . .

DEMO: Sweater Reconstruction


Normally, cutting into a sweater is a quick path to running, unraveling madness. Two big exceptions: wool sweaters that have been "felted" or "fulled" by washing them with detergent in hot water and then dried or sweaters that have a very fine knit like a t-shirt. This particular sweater has a very fine knit - while cutting should be done with caution in these cases, it can be done. Here, I cut the sweater off about 8" under the armpit - removing a 10" length of sweater tube from the bottom of the sweater.


Next, I turned the tube inside out, and did a rough measurement of its circumference as compared to the circumference of the sweater's neck opening . . . Yes! The sweater tube could become a cowl neck! (If you have a tendency towards sanity, you will do the measuring bit before you cut into the sweater.)


Finding that they were pretty close, I pinned the sweater tube to the sweater's neck. I started by lining up one side seam (the one with the tag) with the back of the neck, and lining up the other side seam with the point of the "v" in the front of the sweater. Then, I pinned them in place, with the "right" side of the tube meeting the "right" side of the sweater's neck. (In other words, as I pinned in the photo below, I was looking at the outside of the sweater and the inside of the tube)


Then, I pinned the rest of the tube to the neck. The tube was a little bit bigger than the neck of the sweater, and so I made and pinned a few "tucks" in the tube on each side, close to the shoulders.


Finally, I stitched the tube to the sweater's neck. I used a zig-zag stitch, and a ball point needle for knits on my sewing machine. I did two parallel rows of stitching around the neck to attach the cowl securely and to prevent unraveling. I also did a row of zig-zag stitching around the "hem." This should keep it from running. (Stretching it a bit as you stitch will result in a ruffled hem - not what I was going for!)


And here's the final product - a cropped cowl sweater worn over a long black knit tunic and jeans . . . I kind of like the way it plays with proportion, and I love the stripes. I even going to wear this out in public today to meet with Sister Diane for coffee. And I may feel a bit, er, "fluffy" in this outfit (not so slimming, really) but I sure as heck don't feel frumpy!

Mission accomplished.

Added Later for the Very Ambitious and Inspired: It would also be possible to do something similar with old t-shirts. There are some wonderful books on t-shirt reconstruction, like Generation T (a lot of designs for the young, slim, and fit - but easily adaptable and so many ideas!!) Another thing to keep in mind is that if you've got several garments - sweaters or t-shirts - with similar weights, stretchiness, and fiber content, you can mix and match. Try taking a tube and sleeves from one sweater and attaching them to another one . . . There are also some great books out there on sweater reconstruction. One of my favorites is Second-Time Cool, which has a very alterna-grrl aesthetic while providing basic info on how to do different embroidery stitches, knit and crochet! Subversive Seamster also has some great deconstruction/reconstruction ideas for thrift store finds . . . lots of eye candy and plenty of basic construction advice.

Junk to Funk

Wow.

Last night was Junk to Funk here in Portland. I put on my didn't-quite-make-the-cut ensemble, took a few cheesy overexposed pictures (who doesn't love to play Supermodel in their garage?), and headed out to check out the competition (and say hello to the folks from Orlo who use the arts to promote environmental action and SCRAP who encourage creative reuse).

Wow.

Not all of the outfits were well-executed, but all of them were over the top in terms of what they re-used. One gal (who came in for an honorable mention - or was it third place?) had constructed her outfit entirely out of trash that had washed up on Oregon beaches. Another had gathered used latex gloves from tattoo artists and constructed a skirt. Yet another designer gathered used gelato spoons, cups, bowls, and taster spoons - all in pastel candy colors - to create a bustier, mini-skirt, headdress, and parasol.

Wow.

All of which beat my used t-shirts, sweaters, and bicycle inner tubing hands-down (though I did get many compliments on my hat). Corset made of record albums teamed up with wig made of 80's mix tapes? First place. Amazing vintage-look swimsuit and bathing cap made entirely of recycled bicycle inner tubes, down to the thread holding it together? So charming! Delicate leaf-net-vine dress made of the urban tumbleweed, beige plastic bags? Looked couture. Enormous jacket made of air-pocket plastic packing material, teamed with dreadlock wig made of melted and shaped plastic bags? Hope it won the People's Choice award. And don't get me started on what a woman can create from used dryer sheets or excess recycling bin labels . . .

Oooo, I have got my work cut out for me for next year! So, feel free to start sending me all of your unwanted VHS tapes and DVD's NOW - I have a vision!

(And, as a side note, the Sweetie is currently reading a comic - downloaded on his computer, no less - that contains a character called Squirrel Girl. I am not making this up.

Of course, I'm sitting next to him laughing at the parts he reads out loud and thinking how I can re-use the plastic VHS cases - in an outfit, of course - once I get the tape out. It's a very sweet and geeky Sunday.)

Chocolate Cake and its Repercussions

I went to the fancy party to celebrate the union of DIY Lounge and Collage last night, and I dressed in my bumblebee costume.

Really, I just wanted to stay home and watch Season 2 of Project Runway (Which I've been downloading from iTunes, thanks to an innocent comment from Euphrosyne, and am now sadly hooked on. Pathetic. I dislike the egos and the cattiness, but oh, the niftiness they come up with! And the challenges, so fun! And besides, I can't find Craft Corner Deathmatch on iTunes. I guess it was cancelled).

But, I had told Maria (the owner of Collage) that I would come as Crafty Bee to help her celebrate, and I just couldn't let her down . . . and once I got the costume on, I started getting into it. That's me and her in the newly redecorated craft-makin' DIY Lounge in the back room at Collage. Doesn't she look happy? (added: And doesn't the Lounge look AWESOME?! Ok, the parts of it that you can see behind my enormously luscious bee bottom! Wow! And, no, they are not paying me to say this - though I did win a cool prize in the raffle!)


Of course, then I got into the chocolate cake. Which was dense and sugary and made with wheat and sent me off into a weird bumble-bee disco frenzy. Did I mention there was a DJ? Anyway, I didn't touch a drop of alcohol and I still managed to make a complete fool of myself.


Which, frankly, is not that difficult. But, I also ran into Gretchin of Scarlet Star Studios, pictured below with a beam of inspiration pouring into her head and holding the number 2. What does it mean? We may never know . . . Gretchin remains delightfully inscrutable.


And me? I woke up this morning with a chocolate cake hangover. Go figure.

Dealing with Disappointment

I found out a few days ago that I did not get into Junk to Funk. And, my Toolbox Jewels class on Saturday didn't get enough registrants to run. (added: though I must say thank you to Sister Diane for mentioning it - along with a lot of other great classes at DIY Lounge at Collage on her most excellent blog at DIY Alert!)

That said, I got to go on a lovely walk yesterday, and do a bit of shopping at Trillium Artisans instead of teaching. And as much as I love teaching, it was nice to spend a laid-back day with The Sweetie. . . . And I'm thinking about switching up Toolbox Jewels, maybe calling it Junk Drawer Gems, and incorporating more found object elements . . . making it two days. I've been inspired by the book Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects by Marthe Le Van, and I've always loved the work of Susan Lenart Kazmer. Maybe the class needs to be more challenging . . .

And, I'm planning on attending Junk to Funk wearing the outfit I made, and it'll be fun to be there just as an observer . . . of course, my brain is whirring about a bigger, better, more intensely recycled ensemble for next year . . . perhaps inspired by the lushly draped designs of Poiret?

This is from the Catalog of the Poiret Exhibit at the Met earlier this year . . . Ah, Joy. One of my all-time favorite designers . . . Here's a video from the exhibit . . . and here's a bunch of goodies from the Met website.

So - how does a girl deal with disappointment? Shopping, reading, hanging with The Sweetie - and dreaming about jewelry and clothes, of course! Shoes - now that's pulling out the big guns . . .

(added: Of course, another way to deal with disappointment is to remember all the things that are going really well! Sometimes, this is tough for the artist/control freak . . . but Gretchin and I have sold out the upcoming Creating Wordwear workshop . . . we may need to run another one before Valentine's Day! Let us know if you might be interested . . . )

"My God, how I love Hats."

"People make clothes, and sometimes clothes can make people, and sometimes people re-make themselves to suit the clothes and the life they long for. Fashion is masking and social standing and personal fable and art and craft and industry and avocation and technology and instinct. And millinery? A stretch of the human imagination toward the divine laughter of angels… okay, I just love hats. My God, how I love hats."

Euphrosyne said this on her blog the other day, and I found myself stirred. Slightly dumbfounded. Delighted.

And totally embarrassed that this woman ever saw me wearing those jeans with the lace-up rollerskate on the butt. Ok, it was the early 80's, and I was barely out of elementary school, and I really did love those jeans. Enough to wear them twice a week. Which in the early 80's at a firmly middle-class suburban Texas middle school was enough to earn me fashion pariah status. Now, I can look back and say that perhaps that was where my interest in interactive, experimental "outsider" textile arts began . . .

Which brings me back to the hats. I made this hat from a lampshade. I spray painted it, I glued things to it (including a fake bird, fake fruit, and old paintbrushes), and yes, I wore it. For one glorious Solstice Party evening in the late 90's. It was heavy and it made my head hurt, and I felt AMAZING. The photo (touched up with acrylics to bring out the profile of the hat and neutralize the background) doesn't do it justice.


My God, how I love Hats. And you can see more of them here.

It's Halloween . . .

And usually that sends me into fits of joy because it means I get to wear a COSTUME! Here are a couple of my favorites from the early 90's - Me as Kali Ma and me as Medusa. I love getting to dress up . . . and I love taking clothes to bizarre extremes. Almost as much as I love hanging out in a pair of baggy jeans and an old sweatshirt.



















But, times change and everything moves in cycles. I've been on a bit of a break from full out costumery the past few years - I've been channeling all that creative juice into other endeavors. Like making moldable foam stamps (more on that tomorrow).

But in the spirit of the season, and recent bloggin' posts, here's a late 90's shot of me and L dressed as the Supreme Geeks for an All Goddess House Party. (L is currently deep undercover as a Suburban Housewife, so I am taking pains here to protect her identity . . . )

Blog Action Day & Junk to Funk

It's a double whammy: Art and Environmentalism, with a splash of Fashion. Blog Action Day meets Junk to Funk. Write to raise awareness of environmental action. Make clothes to raise awareness of environmental action. I'm a big fan of micro-action, action on a personal level. And I'm a big fan of art. And, let's face it, I love clothes. So, this is perfect. This is my Junk to Funk entry, using reclaimed materials (the thread and the snaps are new - everything else is recycled). I've got used bicycle inner tubes, an old bicycle reflector, and funny rubber bands from SCRAP; shrunken sweaters and faded t-shirts from Goodwill, vintage buttons and jewelry findings from an estate sale. Traditionally, art materials are chemical intensive, and the cotton industry puts more pesticides and pollutants into the ecosystem than any other crop. Art garments from reclaimed materials? What could be cooler? Oh, of course. A Carmen Miranda hat made from an old sweater, minus the composted fruit.

Junk to Funk Fashion Show

I'm working on my entry for Junk to Funk today - here's some footage from last year's show! (added later: and no, I didn't get it together in time to enter last year - but I was very inspired!)