Adventures

I was lucky enough to have a full day off yesterday in Austin. Good for resting, shopping, exploring, and eating lots of ice cream! (Seriously, until my dinner, all of my meals involved frozen desserts–it’s a delicious way to stay cool in 104-degree heat.) But tonight was action packed, too. Workshop-style, we refashioned a ton of T-shirts that people brought (and BookPeople provided some thrifty finds, too!). 1) I’m glad I made it in to BookPeople before the Potter Explosion! 2) Rachel gets right to work on a Mane-iac Scarf (project #91).

3) Grant and his crafty mama get to work on a Mighty My Tee superhero cape (project #55); 4) Rachel gets the Pinup Girl (project #1) treatment; 5) Farrah gets Back in Action (project #101).

6) Back in Action (project #101) repeating the looping action twice and three times; 7) Applying the looping action on the sleeves!

8 ) Looping technique to show off a new torso tattoo! 9) Front desk at BookPeople;  10) Making some T-shirts.

11) No stitching (just cutting!) tonight for Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching who was nice enough to come out for the event 12) More T-shirt projects!

13) Me and my new pal Phia; 14) a couple of Generation T refashionistas; 15) goodnight, Bookpeople!

Thanks, all, for a great Tee Party!

Last night’s book event at the Old Orchard B&N in Skokie, Illinois was a great event.  1) Tucked back in the cookbook section, we were mixing up style concoctions left and right!

2) Emma helps turn a plain old Batman tee into a tee-riffic halter (project #1); 3) Maddie, the other girl in the room with the cool pigtails, helps out by modeling a fantastic Back in Action tee transformation (project #101).

4) Signing another T-shirt–how fancy! 5) The whole crowd comes up to check out the project samples!

Thanks again to all the old friends (Andrea, Emma, Ellie, Chris, Paula…) and all the many new friends who turned out for the party! Next stop Austin, TX.

Thanks so much to everyone who came to hack those T-shirts tonight at the big, new Books & Co. bookstore at The Greene. I had such a blast, and I hope everyone else did, too.

So many pictures, I don’t even know where to start!

1) Here’s me with Event Coordinator Extraordinaire, Sharon Kelly Roth, as well as Julie, my new favorite bookseller, sporting the awesome new halter top she made!; 2) me talking about how cool I think T-shirts are (I tend to do this a lot); 3) a nice display of books.

4) Then there was me and Spencer (I’m signing her T-shirt!); 5) some of her pals from the Girl Scout troop working on Back in Action (project #101); 6) Sharon and Julie, studying the book and working on their masterpieces.

And then there were more! 7) Spencer being very brave while I take some scissors to her T-shirt; 8 ) a brief T-shirt tutorial with Sharon (she’s working on no-sew project #6, Makes Me Wanna Collar); 9) Sharon and Melisa, who came to my first Books & Co. event three years ago (thanks Melisa!), wearing their new outfits.

And still more! 10) A completed Back in Action T-shirt (project #101); 11) Picking out the perfect button to finish a Pinup Girl halter top (project #1) for the troop leader. 12) Adding that finishing touch! What fun.

13) Signing a book for Julie. She said she was going to be selling the book all day with that halter top she made.  14) Signing more T-shirt sleeves. 15) Thanks, Sharon, for a wonderful event at the gigantic new store!

I wished I had had time on Saturday to snap a picture of the entrance to the Doylestown Bookshop. It’s the perfect image of a cozy, quiet spot that you can tell has hints of magic just behind the door. We had a small but eager crowd in attendance at this Tee Party. Workshop-style, we made halter tops (beach cover-ups for some) together, made matching Back In Action tees, and I signed books. Thanks, Adele, for coming out; to Syndey and her dad for doing the research and showing up; to Connie for her crafty enthusiasm; to Rachel and the rest of the staff at the Bookshop for keeping up such a lovely store; and to all the other bookstore wanderers who stopped in for a bit!

Signing books, refashioning T-shirts, and greeting customers at AC Moore at the Columbus Shopping Center in Philadelphia:

As promised, here are some photos from the recent book tour kick-off event at the B&N on 7th Avenue in Park Slope! Thanks again to all who came out to the festivities. There were T-shirt-shaped cookies, scissor-stenciled brownies, a Generation T product raffle, a dog in a T-shirt, and of course, several a refashioned T-shirt. There’s 1) me with the Exquisite Corpse T-shirt (project #82) from the Mr. T chapter; 2) Eileen and Tiffany, my two super models in Pinup Girl halter (project #1) and Back in Action T-shirt (project #101); 3) Tiffany even trusted me enough to cut the neckband off her T-shirt without giving her an inadvertent haircut!

4) The stars were out, including Eloise, our cover pooch (wearing a T-shirt decorated with an iron-on decal “Runs with Scissors” from the Generation T product line); 5) there’s me next to the window display; 6) and who could resist those T-shirt cookies?

7) Nate couldn’t. He took the prize for “Best T-shirt Cookie Transformation” with this T-shirt Cookie into T-shirt Cookie Tank Top. Next up: 120 New Ways to Transform a T-shirt Cookie; 8 ) Contestants up for the prize of top T-shirt transformation (i.e. sample projects from the book); 9) a nice poster and display by Peaches and the other kind folks at Barnes & Noble.

10, 11, 12) Twins Willa and Lucy won big in the raffle (iron-on letters to personalize their tees!); to celebrate one of them illustrated perfectly the appropriate use for the Shake It Up Baby dancing skirt (project #59), a no-sew project from the Kid Rock chapter.

More to come! We had two pro photogs, and an amateur videog in the audience. Stay tuned…

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Park Slope Barnes & Noble last night. We had a great turn-out, lots of T-shirts were refashioned, cookies were eaten, and books were signed! Many pictures were also taken and I’ll post some very soon!

Here’s a great video that the photographer for my new book, Rafael Fuchs, just posted. A little sneak peak of the forthcoming new book!

Over the past four days, we’ve been tackling a challenging task over at Generation T! A four-day photo shoot in November (seriously, there were flurries one morning) while pretending it’s T-shirt (and tank top) weather. All the guys and gals who came out and braved the cold would have placed well in ANTTM (that would be America’s Next Top T-shirt Model, of course). Here are some behind-the-scenes pics from the shoot.

Tisola rocking the Fender Bender tank top (project #92) and Bonnie getting her hair done:

Bonnie and Brent with the sweet orange Vespa; Megan turning the tables on photographer Rafael Fuchs at he bowling alley:

Zach and Tisola with coats on, right before it’s time to shoot, at the Manhattan Bridge; Bonnie pushing that Mini Cooper.

And let’s not forget the cover shoot! Last shot of the four days. Exhausting!

Update: For some more great pics, check out the Workman Publishing blog for some more behind-the-scenes action posted by Danielle from the Workman photo department.