I made this tote bag from nine men’s shirt collars and two button plackets. The design came from KoKo Yamase’s Cut-Up Couture book. In her book it does not have the button plackets I added. The reason I added them was one collar has a sweat stain on it, so I cut the placket with the buttons and added it to cover up the stain. I used one other button placket to create a shoulder strap. I did add one more layer of fabric underneath the button placket just to make the strap stronger.
It took a lot of patience to make this bag. I am not used to sewing denim and therefore even though I had denim needles for my old Singer sewing machine from the seventies, I managed to break three needles. Sewing over the layered collars was tricky and some of the collar corners I sewed down by hand to finish out the small details of the bag. I also did not notice until I had sewed my layers together that in the book Koko designed it so that the layers of collars get reversed when they are joined, so instead of collars being aligned when the sets join to create a tube, one side goes with the collars facing the other direction. Mine had the collar edges sticking up on both sides, which meant the little collar midpoints, where they usually button also stuck out a bit, so I hand sewed most of those down. So many of the directions in her book are visual; I have found it easy to miss something! Anyway I am a rather patient woman and this project really tried my patience. I have found it is one of the good things about crafts though, it does help one develop more patience. If you really want to finish something you just have to get through it!
It took me quite a while I get enough collars. I was slowly gathering them together the past year from various projects, but I added four more shirts to my collection by visiting a Goodwill Outlet in Long Island City that sells thrifted clothing by the pound. Its location is at 47-47 Van Dam Street. Buying from there was a real learning experience in terms of boundaries and space. It was a slightly crazy scene out there once they refill the bins, which appears as if it happens every two hours. I had only selected a few items to place in my grocery cart. When they refill the bins one has to leave ones cart against the wall and wait while they refill the bins. Then the manager comes out and talks to the shoppers as if we were a bunch of children, explaining the meaning of “walking to the bins”, versus running. It felt ridiculous but it was obvious why they go through this once they let us loose to go back to the bins. People were running, slowly but running and it became a mad scene. It was not possible to get my cart back into the narrow aisles with all those people so I left it against the wall and checked on it twice. When I went back for it a few minutes later someone had taken my handful of items and either thrown it elsewhere and taken my cart, or taken my stuff. Anyway after that I was emotionally tired of the experience and decided to just find some shirts for upcycling. I wouldn’t say they were as good quality shirts as I find when I shop slowly at garage sales or piece by piece at thrift store sales, but they came out to one dollar each and I was able to leave there with five shirts for five dollar. I will return there another time but next time I will know that I must guard my basket better, or if I only have a handful of items remove them from the cart. I would say that this place is really great if one has a handful of growing children to provide clothing for and is on a serious budget. They sell the clothing for about $1.69 a pound so if you really need some low priced thrifted clothing and are willing to dig it is a good place. Plus if you need clothing for upcycling it is good. I had found a black water fall skirt that was really nice quality. I was eager to keep it and take it home to see if it fit but easy come, easy go, it disappeared with those items that were taken. Plus I had found a lovely handmade Italian tie and a little vintage purse. Anyway next time I will see what I find! Plus guard more carefully!
I am close to finishing a skirt made from a vintage pillowcase and another upcycling project for a dress, from a vintage Liberty of London linen top and a silk skirt from a Thai dress. I will post those later once I finish them.
I hope you are enjoying the rest of summer. I have been getting out for some biking and kayaking whenever I get a chance. I will continue slowly working on various projects from this Cut-Up Couture book, since I like Koko Yamase’s designs very much. Whenever I do another I will share it with you.
I made these two cropped shirts out of men’s shirts from a video by Madebyaya. I inserted the video below at the end of the post. I am sorry I couldn’t get better pictures of myself in the one cropped top. The heat wave and humidity were doing a number on me, and I wasn’t ready and willing to run outside and try to take photos outside. I had to change the sleeve design on both of the shirts. I gave the blue one to my cousin awhile back. I really like the fabric of her shirt. I made her shirt second, actually creating them at the same time. Some of these designs I find are like pancakes, it is easier the second time around. On the blue one I had an easier time with the little pleats. Plus I was trying to be super careful because my cousin’s sewing is so perfect. I tried to do my best. I really like the design but those little straps that Aya designed for around the arms holes are for women much smaller than me, and I am small by American standards.
Anyway if you are into upcycling I hope this inspires you to watch some more Madebyaya videos. Plus recently I have been looking for some others to add to my videos page. So far Aya’s videos are my favorite though.
Well I have been super busy trying to get ready for foot surgery!! That is why it took me awhile to get to this one and I will keep this one brief. I have several more posts in the works that will be longer. I am currently focusing a lot of energy into making soups ahead of time, shopping for food, rearranging some furniture and things I had stored in my hall, where I had created a thin long book case. There is a lot to think about and prepare when one will be hobbling around on crutches for a while. I hope you are staying as cool as possible in this heat!! I am trying to get some more outdoor fun into my schedule before my foot surgery next week.
There is the constant vein of fashion in this blog. I love recycling and my main goal here is still to inspire others to upcycle, wear vintage or thrifted items whenever possible. I have always enjoyed fashion; I find it inspiring. As a child, after my parents took me to the opera numerous times, I drew little drawings of women in those hoops skirts that wear so popular from the 1590’s through the mid-19th century. I especially liked the older ones, from the 1700’s, with the low plunging neck lines and super full skirts. I drew hundreds of them, designing them as I went along. I felt as if maybe I’d been born into the wrong era, things old and antique inspired me. I never thought about the fact that I was designing, I just did it. When I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology to show my portfolio I waited for four hours for the head of illustration. The head of design saw me out in the hallway all that time. He eventually asked me into his office and urged me to study design. It is a long story but I always regretted that I just didn’t wait longer for the head of illustration. Design is great, but I remained so devoted to art and illustration. I just never was able to go back to school for art after I became a single parent. Parenthood became my whole life for so long. My daughter has always been the best thing that ever happened to me, so for her life I am forever grateful. For the brief time that I did study fashion design, I remember how we always had to create a design and find twenty five ways to do it. The best way to get to the point that one can see something twenty five different ways is to be inspired. That leads us to art.
I have been doing more posts about art. I think art is very important for the reason that it feeds us, throughout our joys and struggles in life we need to return to what inspires us, what makes us feel alive. It makes me happy to share the art of others who have inspired me, touched my life in some way through their work. When I feel lost or weary, or worn down by life I can always return to their work, it inspires me and helps me to grow as a person on my own journey. I would also like to do some post about people who are doing art with recycled items. I am still working on that part.
I have never liked boredom. I enjoy keeping busy. If I am totally frazzled I will veg out and watch a movie. If I am relaxed, and want to relax further reading is a great vehicle to more relaxation. Years ago I realized that every time I sat down to read for twenty minutes I felt a difference in my nervous system. Everything seemed to calm down. Meditation helps also, to clear my mind, relax my body, and center my life from the chaos of things I can’t control. When I was a child I saw that my grandparents were raised with that notion that “idle hands are the work of the devil.” My parents tried to shield me from those extremes of thought- but the desire to create with my hands, do crafts and embrace creativity come partially from that old vein of thought. So I appreciate it from a certain standpoint and let go of the rest. Both my grandmothers loved sewing, both my grandfathers loved woodwork, one did carvings; and one went on to become a master carpenter and engineer in the Navy. One of my grandmothers attended a craft high school in the mountains of Georgia. Their love for creativity was passed down through the years and I am forever grateful.
I have been learning things about upcycling clothing. Seeing that I can have an idea, and then when I cut the fabric I can suddenly decide to change my mind, go a different route. It mirrors my life at times. Those times when we are at pivotal points in life and not sure what is going on, which way to go. The upcycling inspires me even further when I see how flexible I can suddenly become with it. The same is true with life, how things can seem so stagnant for a while, then suddenly a new flood gate opens, a new opportunity arises, things change. Just like some wind that has blown in from a different direction and everything suddenly shifts, quivers, and lands differently.
I thought I’d do a separate post called “The Morning Muse” but somehow I think they can go together , this blog birthday, and my what I refer to as my “Morning Muse.” I have been talking about this the last few months with a few people, here or there, and several people told me they appreciated me telling them how I became inspired to honor these moments the last year and a half. It just sort of slowly evolved into a habit. I felt as if I was getting up in the morning, only focusing on my stretches and leg exercises (I have arthritis and foot pain so this is a daily challenge I have to work with) then getting ready to go to work. So often I found that I was too tired or frazzled after a long work day, commuting to do anything creative at the end of the day. This had been happening so many times through the last few years I felt sad about it. I needed a change- so I started my “Morning Muse” routine. What that means is that even if it is only five to fifteen minutes I start something creative. Or if I have something in the process that isn’t completed I will devote five to fifteen minutes to it. I have noticed that this daily effort to focus on that muse has assisted me, in that I know, I have something unfinished waiting for me. I want to go back to it; I want to finish it. The mere act of starting it propels me further little by little. I definitely feel that going to Portland, Oregon in the fall of 2013 caught my creativity on fire. I still haven’t been able to do everything I was inspired to do; the city just threw fuel on my fire and changed my life. It was an amazing experience, to go to a place that I felt looks the most like my personality of any place I have ever been. I also think this “Morning Muse” routine could be helpful to people who aren’t necessarily creative as well. It is about doing something that focuses on who you are, what makes you tick. It doesn’t have to be something creative. It could just be doing something you find special that lightens your heart and makes your day better.
Music helps me to center myself and get into the place I want to be for the creativity to flow. For years I embraced silence- hour upon hour of silence. I still enjoy silence, I have found it to be incredibly healing, but I am so happy that I let the music flow back into my life more often. It not only helps me to get to that place where there is more inspiration, it helps to keep it flowing, growing and feeding the creative fire. There are a bunch of musicians I like who have helped my creative process. The past several months I like listening to a lot of Jack Hardy, who was a folk singer in the folk scene I used to hang out on in the West Village. I always liked his songs, but now they help my creativity return to that time when I felt that I was at my most creative, when I was young and it was as if my mind was on fire. I am older now, much more calm and centered. I enjoy that there is a bridge to carry me to that old inspiration and time though. I find it ignites my soul, keep me in touch with the soft spots, where there is plenty of room for more growth, more freedom of expression.
I am sharing this song of Jack Hardy’s “The Tailor” since I always loved how he expresses an opinion about clothing, fashion, disguising one’s self, the emptiness in something like competitiveness; the real nakedness that is always underneath and so evident despite everything people do to cover up their insecurities. At the end of the post I have also written out the lyrics to his song since I always have loved his lyrics, they are like poetry. Jack passed away on March 11, 2011. A bunch of his songs are available to hear on YouTube.
I also want to express how having this blog has been helping me not be quite so shy; I am one of those people who are initially shy. The only time this wasn’t a challenge was when I was in retail or wholesale sales, since the whole approach was different under those circumstances. Once I get comfortable I am fine, but there has always been this element of shyness underneath. The mere act of creating posts, taking pictures of myself for posts, and then finding readers has been helping me get over hurdles emotionally. I still am shy, but it is not the same now. The whole confidence factor is more solid. It really helps to express myself this way and to find that others are enjoying my process as well. In one of my earliest post I wrote about not being allowed to express my thoughts much as a child. My biological father was rather controlling. I also wrote in that post about how I found clothing to be my first easy way to express rebellion. It is important for me to have a voice, as it is for all of us. I have attached a picture I found in magazine years ago. I have been wild about that phrase “I send a voice, let me be free” ever since I saw this picture.
And so my blog is having its first birthday. It has been rewarding, challenging and a lot of work. I finally feel like I am finding ways to create more frequent posts, and for them to not all be so time consuming. I came up with a different plan of cycles of posts. Some of them involve lots of research and hours of figuring out how to write what I want to write. Others are not so complicated. I plan to alternate these in such a way that only once or twice a month am I doing hours of research, so that the other times I can focus on creating the photos, loading them and all the technical things one deals with while having a blog. I also have a facebook page, you are welcome to like it if you wish. The URL is :https://www.facebook.com/rewindreduceandrecycle. There are times I share different things on there since it is not the blog.
I really admire people who manage to have a zero waste lifestyle. Lauren Singer, from Trash is For Tossers is an example. (http://www.trashisfortossers.com/) I would like to work towards that goal myself eventually, but for right now I realize “Easy does it.” I am a person who really enjoys recycling things, finding ways to cut down on packaged items and I am doing a lot already. As time goes by I am able to do more and more, so I also aim to share these with you. All of us have choices and our choices do have an effect on our planet, the more conscious we become of them the more we can do.
I appreciate those of you who have been logging on regularly and reading the posts. Also, thanks to several of you who have shared the various blog posts with others. My mother and daughter have been very supportive, and that has been wonderful. I hope you enjoyed this post and are having a great time outdoors this summer!
Lyrics to The Tailor
By Jack Hardy:
“The king’s guards man’s greedy, he’s underpaid he knows
Tailor sew me a cloak of indigo, that will disguise me well for the highway’s game
No one will suspect evil and the king’s cross are the same
I will pay you dearly with half of what I claim
No said the tailor, the tailor said no
A cloak will not hide what your own eyes see
A cloak will not change what is hidden underneath
Just as mind does not confine the idea of what I am
I am not a tailor, I am a man
The king’s queen is hungry for the pleasures adultery knows
Tailor sew me a cloak of scarlet, that will disguise me well for courting on the sly, that will make the fever transparent to the night’s eye
I will pay you dearly with favors and with sighs
No said the tailor, the tailor said no,
A cloak will not hide what your own eyes sees, a cloak will not change what is hidden underneath,
Just as mind does not confine what I am, I am not a tailor, I am a man
The king he is frightened with shadows behind his back
Tailor sew me a cloak of sable, that will disguise me well from the daggers of my foes, that will keep me far above those that are below
I will pay you dearly if you fail on the gallows
No said the tailor, the tailor said no
A cloak will not hide what your own eyes see
A cloak will not change what is hidden underneath
Just as mind does not confide the idea of what I am, I am not a tailor, I am a man.”
When I began to upcycle this men’s shirt, I had a totally different design I was planning on doing from the Cut-Up Couture book. After cutting off the sleeves I completely changed my mind. I was faced with either totally taking in the sides of the shirt (the arm holes were just too large) or doing something completely different. I chose to do this tank top I found in the book. I felt proud of myself for having done enough upcycling now that even if I didn’t do this design I could have figured out another way to alter the shirt.
I liked the idea of this tank with this cotton vintage slip. It is one of the reasons I decided to make the tank. It is a Koko Yamase design from her book Cut-Up Couture. The mix of vintage and the more avant- garde look of the button plackets, that were changed into neckline straps seemed appealing to me. I mean, why not? That is what makes fashion fun, finding new twists to looks and being unique. I usually don’t wear all white, so the little blue flowers also appealed to me, to help soften the look of the total white. Eventually I will most likely tea dye this vintage slip a soft brown with black tea. I wanted to wear it for a while in white, to try it out. I was concerned that I needed to find a way to wear the slip as a skirt, and for it not to look dowdy or matronly. I also have a vintage black long sleeve cotton blouse. I think I may try it with that, as an alternative way to wear it. The black blouse would make a nice jacket with a white tank underneath, and perhaps a black thin belt.
The cotton vintage slip was a gift. It has a soft brown ribbon running through the white lace. It had a slit in the top side and a string holding the waist. I repaired it by sewing up the side opening, then lifting the hem a bit by folding over the top, than I ran elastic through the top. This gives me the option to wear it as a skirt as well as a slip. I prefer for things to be more multi- functional if possible.
Those brown shoes are a pair of Dansko shoes. They were a birthday present from my family. Unfortunately they never broke in since my bunion is too messed up. My big toe is misaligned and well, it isn’t good. I finally scheduled surgery in August, so I will be on the road to hopefully a better right foot soon! I am so relieved that this is finally being taken care of! I plan to do another outfit post or two before the surgery, or at least prepare one!!
I have a few other upcycling projects I have done recently or am in the process of working on. I will try to get to posting these soon too. It is a joy to get a chance to work on these things. It is rewarding to alter upcycle, mend and reuse either vintage or thrifted items!
