The Things People Wear

I've been talking with some friends lately about life in a fifth grade class. Even at age 10, several of the girls have already become slaves to fashion and the popularity contest. Specifically, they strongly prefer to wear T-shirts where the name of the brand is splashed across the front of the shirt: Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, Hollister, American Eagle Outfitter, and the like. Some of them even put down other people because the others get clothes at places like - gasp - Target! Parental explanations of how the girls are advertising those trendy brands by wearing logo shirts - and paying dearly for the privilege - fall on deaf ears.

My discussions got me to thinking about some anti-trend statements. I poked around on the web for a bit and found a place where you can make custom t-shirts or buy designs others have done. I created a couple of satirical t-shirt designs here on a website called Zazzle.



Okay, it's not tie-dye, but it was fun. The "American Sheep" shirt says "Follow the Flock" on the back, and the "Abercowmbie" shirt says "Follow the Herd" on the back.

My general anti-logo leanings are nothing new. One of my favorite pieces is a "Polo by Ralph Lauren" polo shirt that I found at Goodwill and then dyed tied up in kite string. It's fun to get an expensive trendy brand name shirt and make it your own.


You'll never find this shirt at your local mall! I can just see ol' Ralph cringing...

More Inspiration: Maker Faire in San Mateo

For the third year, the Maker Faire in San Mateo was geek-and-crafter's Heaven! It is put on by Make Magazine and Craft Magazine. It's a hands-on free-for-all for participants to show off their work, convert new hands and minds to a favorite hobby, sell stuff to feed their hobby habits, and generally have a good time. Attendees like me can try new things, marvel at artwork and crafts we'd never have thought of, and learn from experts.

Textile Crafts

There were a lot of textile-related crafts around, such as knitting, crochet, sewing, needle felting (I learned that at the Maker Faire last year!), and batik. People were sitting around crocheting animals from wool yarn, needle-felting fruit, and refashioning all manner of clothing on the spot. Other people were making leather masks or showing purses made of aluminum can tabs.

A woman named Teresa Mak had an interesting display called Batik Chic where she showed tools and materials she uses for her batik artwork. One thing she showed is that if you use pure beeswax for the batik, you can't get the traditional cracking effect because the beeswax is too flexible. You need to use a combination of waxes such as paraffin to get the cracked effect.

Interestingly, with all that textile crafting around, I didn't see much tie-dye. I didn't see any actual exhibits of tie-dyed materials or techniques (though maybe I didn't look hard enough). I saw a lot of people wearing tie-dye, but they were mostly kids, and the patterns were almost all (purchased) swirls. Pretty pedestrian.

What Possessed Them to Do That?!

There were a lot of odd exhibits where my immediate thought was "but why?" My immediate mental response, of course, was "why not?" and "because it's fun!" Displays in this category included "power tool drag racing" where people race oddly-decorated power tools with sawblade wheels...


...and "muffin cars" where people drive around sitting in what look like giant cupcakes...

...or "art cars" covered with marking pens or other objects.


There were many art forms that would never occur to me, but that were really beautiful, such as the giant sculptures made of rusty steel cables.

One of my favorite displays was Sisyphus V by Bruce Shapiro.


Fabulous People-Watching

The people watching at the Maker Faire is fabulous! Many of the people there become their own artwork, with brightly-colored hair, elaborately trussed-up dreadlocks, and fabulous one-of-a-kind clothing concoctions. Other people dressed as they would for any other summer festival, in khaki or denim shorts, comfy t-shirts, sandals and hats.

I think the highlight for people and fashion watching was the Swap-O-Rama-Rama Fashion Show. In a great example of "reduce, reuse, recycle", many of these folks had spent the day creating new garments from old garments swapped by attendees (I swapped some of my old red stuff for somebody else's old blue jeans), and then got up and paraded them on the catwalk stage. Many of the results were both outlandish and beautiful.


This cool set of outfits is by Velvet Valentine (the 2 pictures above and the following picture).

These bicycle-based outfits below don't look very comfortable (note the metal gears in the center of his chest), but they sure are striking!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Again

Finally, my personal prize for "Best Use of Recycled Materials" goes to the Portable Guerrilla-Gallery for their giant tent made of old billboard covers and other salvaged materials. All the art inside was made of recycled materials as well!


Now I need to figure out what to do with all those recycled blue jeans I picked up at Swap-O-Rama-Rama!

Selling Out?

My friends have been after me, strangers have asked, and I've finally done it: I've put some of my tie-dyed stuff up on eBay.


I do a fair amount of experimentation with my dyeing. Often I want to do something like see how two different dye mixing methods compare, or different types of string, or rubber bands, or whatever. I might try out new dye colors, or look at the bleeding effects of the dyes with and without thickeners. And of course I'm always trying out various patterns.

My favorite canvases for such experimentation tend to be scarves, bandanas, and plain t-shirts. They are inexpensive and easy to get. The scarves and bandanas don't take much room to store, either.

Lately, though, some shirts have been piling up as I have dared to venture out of the blue-and-green palette strongly preferred by my older daughter. A blue-and-green item held up in front of her tends to disappear with a thunderclap as the air fills the space it once occupied, but other colors languish unloved.

The stuff I've been making lately has been way too big for my younger daughter, even though she'll try to make it fit ("I need another nightgown, Mom, really!"). And though I like the geometric pattern, the large shirt in bright orange, yellow, and brown just isn't "me" (and it definitely isn't my husband).


It's not your run-of-the-mill "spiral". Neither are the others. My experiments tend to be on the wilder side.


If you're interested, take a look at my auctions, and tell your friends. I'll probably be adding to them periodically.

We now return you to your irregularly-scheduled blog.

Mom, Where Are My Pants?

My younger daughter has had just about enough of my "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" obsession. I've mentioned before that I save every pair of jeans my family outgrows or wears out, but it's more than just jeans.

Junk Salvage

Recently I took apart an abandoned pink "Disney Princesses" backpack to salvage the straps, zippers, and what hardware I could.
"Mom, I liked that backpack!"
"You haven't used it in over a year. Trust me, honey, you didn't want to see what was growing in those pockets!"

My other daughter had one of those all-in-one binder cases. It zips around the edge, has pockets to hold folders and pencils, has a three-ring binder, and has a shoulder strap with clips at each end.


She abandoned it when the zipper broke and spilled all her stuff out. It's big, and I figured it had to be good for something, so I put it aside and hung onto it (and I wonder why it's hard to walk around in my house!). So the other day I took my seam ripper and a hammer and went to it. I was amazed at how much work had gone into making it--some parts of it had 5 or 6 seams layered on top of each other! It was constructed in modules: the folder pocket, the pencil pocket, the backing module, the strap module, and so on, ending with the edging tape. Each one was pretty much self-contained and then layered onto the whole. I ended up tossing most of it after my reverse-engineering session, but the strap and related hardware are useful.



[Once again I marvel at the differences in the economic and labor structure between the US and China, where this was made. I think this binder case cost about $12 USD at Costco. Assuming the retail store had doubled the wholesale price, that doesn't leave much money to pay for the labor to make the binder case! If it had been made here, it probably would have cost $40!]

An old kids' winter jacket provides zippers, pull cords and those little barrel-shaped cord locks, among other things.

The Goal

With all my collected junk at hand, it was time to put my plan into action. I have recently started taking yoga. I like it, but the mat is kind of unwieldy, so I need a bag to carry it in. I looked on the Web and found lots of them, but they ran $20-$85! More than I want to spent on a glorified tote bag. I also found a couple of sewing patterns. The free yoga bag pattern by Amy Butler seems to be popular. Nothing was quite what I wanted (nothing was tie-dyed!), but I got a few ideas.

I used a couple pairs of my kids' old jeans, one sized 4T (not tie-dyed) and one size 6X (faded and previously tie-dyed). I cut the legs off the 4T, then separated the top front from the top back--I want to use the elastic waistband in the back, and I love the look of those little jeans pockets. I ripped open the inseam of the 6X pants, then sewed the legs together down the front and back to make a big tube. I made the seam allowance bigger at the crotch to lessen the shaping at the crotch (that is, I cut off part of that extra bit that goes between the legs). I didn't make it completely flat, so it's a little roomier in the seat. In the following picture you can see the new seam holding the legs together. I top-stitched the new seam to lie flatter.


On the front of the tube, I top-stitched on the rear end of the 4T jeans as a big pocket. Since I didn't undo the side seams of the 6X pants, I had to wrestle with getting the fabric through my sewing machine without sewing through more layers than I wanted. But I managed. With the elastic waistband, this is a great pocket for a water bottle. I just love the cute little ribbon-and-bead pocket embellishment! My daughter loved these jeans, and she howled when she saw I'd used them--never mind that they had holes in the knees and were three sizes too small!


Next came the second pocket, made from the front of the 4T jeans. Here I used a zipper (with that cute pompom zipper pull) that I scavenged from the pink backpack previously. First I sewed one side of the zipper to the waistband, then I sewed the other side of the (zipped) zipper to the big 6X tube with the pocket wrong side out like a big flap. Finally I sewed the pocket down onto the tube and top-stitched it.

Last, I sewed the bottom of the tube shut, matching the existing hem seaming as best I could. I included the heavy-duty plastic D-rings on their straps that I had salvaged from the binder case.


I hooked the other end of the binder case strap to one of the sturdy back belt loops of the 6X pants. Here's the back veiw of the finished bag:


I left the snap and zipper of the 6X pants usable because it makes it easier to get the yoga mat in and out. I had sewed up the snap and zipper for the pants that became the second pocket.

Here's the front view of the nearly-finished bag:


I added an elastic drawstring and cord lock (from the winter jacket) through the top belt loops, and voila! I'm ready to go to yoga class anytime.

And even though they aren't offering any yoga classes, I may bring my bag along when I go to the Maker Faire this weekend, just to show it off. :-)

Happy Ending

Oh yes. My daughter's 4T pants have a happy ending after all. Besides that ribbon-and-bead embellishment on the back pocket, they had an applique on one leg front of a star and a heart with more ribbons. I cut that out, cut out another heart from the same jeans leg, and ironed them on as knee patches with fusible webbing. I finished the edges with fabric paint.

So the dark blue jeans get a little more life thanks to patches over the holey knees, and my daughter gets to enjoy her embellishments a little longer.

I just love a happy ending; don't you?

Recycling and Dog Toys

How do I combine recycling, tie-dyeing, and dogs? In this case, my daughter and I made something very similar to the draft stoppers in my earlier post: tie-dyed jeans and cut-up old socks and shirts for stuffing made into a tube with closed ends. But there are two differences here: size and a not-so-secret ingredient, squeakers!

I got the squeakers at my local PetSmart. The brand is "Dr. Noys' Pet Toys", and they are marketed as replacement squeakers for that brand of dog toys. The PetSmart had them in two sizes. I used both sizes in each toy, because the different sizes sound different, and I thought it would be more interesting to the dogs to have different sounds in the same toy. I could have gotten them more cheaply in bulk via the Internet, but this was just an experiment, and I was looking for instant gratification!

The toy for Moxie, the 95-pound Giant Schnauzer, is a 14-inch-long piece cut from the bottom of the jeans leg, sealed at both ends.


Moxie's toy has four squeakers in it, two at each end. We sewed two squeakers into each of two old socks before putting them into the toy, so they would stay in place better.


I sewed the I-beam shape in the center before stuffing so it would be easier for Moxie to hold the toy in his mouth.


For Lacey, I made the toy much smaller, about 6 inches by 3 inches.


It has just two squeakers, one of each size.

The canine reviewers judged the experiment a success. Lacey particularly liked her toy, since she loves anything squeaky. She even came running when we squeaked the squeaker before putting it in the toy! The smaller toy worked better for squeaking, too, since there was less other fabric/stuffing to muffle the squeakers.

Now if we can just teach Lacey to put away her toys when she is done playing with them... !

Cute Pooch in Tie-Dye

Okay, I admit it: I wanted another excuse to put gratuitous cute pictures of my dog on my blog.


But I've been thinking for a while that while she's already got a few cool tie-dyed shirts, what Lacey really needs is a tie-dyed collar for her wardrobe. So I got some buckles and instructions from Creative Designworks and got to it.

I started with a cotton bandana that I had tie-dyed during a previous set of experiments with purple dyes.

I cut of a strip from one side of the scarf, ironed on interfacing and assembled it according to the instructions, and voila! A one-of-a-kind tie-dyed collar for my one-of-a-kind dog! I was pretty pleased with the stuff I got and how well it came out.

When I wanted to take pictures of Lacey in her fancy new collar, along with the remains of the scarf, she started playing with this scarf as if she were a cat with catnip!


I had a little trouble getting a shot of the actual collar through all that white fluff, but I did get at least the back of it.

And she finally agreed to do her "Sphinx" pose.

Lacey has previously chewed off a brand new store-bought nylon webbing harness the first time we put it on her, and she has also managed to rid herself of a webbing collar, so I know she's sensitive and doesn't put up with such discomforts. In this case, she seems pretty comfortable in her new collar, probably because it's soft washed cotton.

And, of course, because she knows she looks fabulous!

Inspiration All Around

Inspiration is often an elusive beast. I can sometimes go for months without doing very much tie-dye, just because I don't feel inspired by anything new to try out. And then there are other times when I'll be tying and/or dyeing every day or two, because I just can't wait to see the next set of results.


I get a lot of inspiration from other people, as many artists do. My friend with the tie-dyed couch has been a great inspiration lately, partly because of what he has been trying out himself with his own tie-dye (he's big on marbles), and partly because of his sheer "no matter what, it's gonna turn out great!" joie-de-tie-dye. I wish he could bottle that stuff!

Another friend gets inspiration for her oil paintings, and moral support to just keep working at it, from groups of other artists online (see her blog for more inspiration). The Internet has really made it easier to find support and inspiration from far-flung places--you don't have to host a salon in Paris anymore.

When you need an inspirational boost, books and videos can really be useful. Both the video "The Art of Tie-Dye" with Michael Fowler, and the video "Learn How to Tie Dye: Complete 3 Volume Set" with Tom and Martine, show some really inspirational pieces, even if you don't want to just follow their "cookbook" steps. The "Tie Dye, Back By Popular Demand" book by Virginia Gleser is an inspirational starting point too. Dharma provides even more inspiration on their website with their "Featured Artists" section.

But for complete "this is why I do it" inspiration, kids are the best. My daughters enjoy wearing tie-dye, and are quite happy to suggest what they'd like to add to their wardrobes! One of them likes to dye her own, and both of them are always happy to "adopt" shirts, sheets and other tie-dyed treasures that emerge from my work area in the garage.

First graders, Girl Scout troops, and other groups of kids are also good. The abundant energy and the wild abandon with which kids dye their pieces just charges the entire atmosphere. It's hard not to absorb their enthusiasm and want to dive in to do a few more pieces of my own.


While it's a lot of work, some of the volunteers (including me) who do the annual first-grade tie-dye project with the local school almost fight over getting to take the shirts home to wash en masse. Getting to look at all those wild shirts at once really gets the creative juices going.


But that's enough for now. I've got to go get my next batch in the wash...