Posts Tagged ‘from our readers’

From Our Readers: Brenda!

Happy Earth Day, friends! Today’s “from our readers” feature introduces Brenda, a Canadian expat living it up in Mexico and slashing up old T-shirts whenever she can. She asked me a question over Twitter awhile ago, and I was just too slow in answering (I do so understand when the scissors start getting a little twitchy, and one needs to forge on!), so Brenda, resourceful lady that she is, found a design on the Internets to help fulfill her vision (if anyone knows the source, let me know so I can properly link it! UPDATE: Properly linked to the source shirt!). See the result of Brenda’s T-shirt snipping (white T-shirt, left).

And this one (green T-shirt, right), inspired by the butterfly variation on the slashed “Brokenhearted Tee” (project #2 in Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt):

Happy Earth Day to all! What sweet T-shirt hacks are on your creative calendar? What are you making next?

[ Comments Off on From Our Readers: Brenda! | Posted on April 22nd, 2013 ]

From Our Readers: Lincoln High School!

In December, I heard from a teacher at the Lincoln High School Green Academy, a 3 year program for kids interested in potential careers or majors in the green economy.  Her students took old PE uniforms (brilliant!) and made hats and bags (projects #72 Mohawk Mo’ Rock! and #42 Plastic Surgery from Generation T: Beyond Fashion) to give as gifts to the Principal, Assistant Principals, and other members of the school staff who helped them.

Be still my heart: Rescuing shirts that would otherwise have been trash-bound and upcycling them into giftable items!

[ Comments Off on From Our Readers: Lincoln High School! | Posted on March 1st, 2013 ]

From Our Readers: Maria & Franz!

Earlier this summer, I got an email from my brother and sister-in-law with the subject line “T-shirt Guru, Help!” Maria and Franz are two musicians on an adventure along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Like any good musicians, they travel with merch, and like any good merch-peddlers, they run out of stuff fast. So they were down to two XXL T-shirts and quickly discovered that their fans were tending to come in smaller sizes. Maria writes…

“Franz and I have two XXL T-shirts left of one design and people much smaller than XXL keep expressing interest, but then balk at the size. We have a long train ride coming up, so I started thinking about trying to convert the shirts into cute, cut-up T-shirts. My sewing abilities and supplies are limited, but we’ve got decent scissors, safety pins, and a travel sewing kit. Can you recommend an easy-ish pattern that we could sell to a punky Russian girl?”

How could I ignore such a request? A few cross-continent consultation emails later, Maria and Franz had set up shop: They’d been crashing with some cute punk gals in the outer boroughs of St. Petersburg, and set up a workspace on their kitchen table. Armed with a pair of scissors, and that travel sewing kit, they set to work transforming their merch. Measuring and marking…

Cutting…

And knotting. Ta-da! It’s the “Knot So Fast” (project #104) tank top from Generation T: Beyond Fashion.

Sveta, one of the aforementioned cute punk girls who was looking on, was suspicious of all the scissor activity, but once she tried on the completed result, she asked if she could keep it, so, it seemed to be working. Nothing like converting a skeptic!

Then it was time to tackle “Outer Lace” (project #16) from Generation T.

And then they set off in search of one of the Russian editions of the two books, should any additional emerchencies arise.

UPDATE from the road: “We just sold the last of our Generation T-styled Franz Nicolay shirts to the fashionable women of Orenburg Russia. Thanks for the designs!”

[ Comments Off on From Our Readers: Maria & Franz! | Posted on September 14th, 2012 ]

From Our Readers: CC!

One of my favorite familial designations (big sister, mother, daughter, niece, cousin) is that of “Aunt.” So you can imagine my elation last week when I got an email from CC, another proud auntie who recently sent a copy of Generation T as part of a care package to her niece when an emergency appendectomy (!) threatened to derail the family vacation. Her niece (and nephew) were bummed about the change in course (who wants to go to the emergency room when you’re expecting a relaxing week on Cape Cod?) and Auntie CC had just the remedy. Needless to say, her gift was well-received: “I was on auntie cloud 9 when I got this photo. Thanks for making me look good!”

The young lady (standing here with her brother, who’s wearing a pretty cool T-shirt himself) was so proud of the butterfly slashed tee she made (variation on project #2 Brokenhearted in Generation T that we all hearted so much last month) that she selected it to wear on her first day of school. Now that, my friends, is quite the compliment!

She used the same technique as you would for the slashed heart, but simply used the outline of a butterfly as a guide instead. The great thing about this look is she can change the color of her tank top underneath and change the color of her butterfly — orange for a monarch or yellow for a tiger swallowtail.

Happy back-to-school!

[ Comments Off on From Our Readers: CC! | Posted on September 7th, 2012 ]

From Our Readers: A Crafty Vegan Librarian!

Back in April 2009, craftyveganlibrarian hosted a Tee Party for a magnificent seven DIY teens at the library where she works. The group used scissors and safety pins to customize their wardrobes using a handful of no-sew techniques. Below is the “Brokenhearted” tee design (project #3) by the crafty librarian herself, found on page 30 in Generation T.


[ 1 Comment | Posted on July 20th, 2012 ]

From Our Readers: Califia!

Califia, resident of California, blogger over at Spooning, and co-editor of the book Be Thrifty, reports that she has made three of the “Wild Thing” hooded blankets so far (#47 in Generation T: Beyond Fashion) — the most recent being gifted to her friend’s darling new baby, little Sabrina.

I think she looks mighty fierce in her pink and green ears, don’t you?

[ 2 Comments | Posted on June 13th, 2012 ]

From Our Readers: Willow!

This past July, I visited a local coffee shop in my hometown in New Hampshire and bumped into a young fan named Willow, who was there with her mom, and who happened to be sporting a “Sidewinder” skirt that she made herself from Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt (project #52).

She did amazing work on that skirt, and she’s pretty darn cute, to  boot!

[ 1 Comment | Posted on December 29th, 2011 ]

From Our Readers: Lindsey

Last month, I was alerted to a DIYer named Lindsey over at Hello Hydrangea blog, who seeks out inspiration in books and across the web to make her own designs! Here, inspired by Generation T, she discovered a new T-shirt recon that she has dubbed “Dinosaur” because it reminds her of the spikes on a triceratops.

I love it because it reminds me of a dissection or x-ray vision, with a strong, colorful spine running down the back! Either way you slash it, it’s amazingly quick and easy to make — check out Lindsey’s tutorial on Hello Hydrangea here if you’d like to try your hand at it, too.

[ Comments Off on From Our Readers: Lindsey | Posted on December 19th, 2011 ]

From Our Readers: Carol Schneider Designs!

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Carol Schneider, lecture series publicist by day and fashion designer by nights and weekends (y’all know how much I love a crafty superhero alter ego!). She started making scarves from vintage kimono fabrics, but eventually (as we all do, right?) found her way to discarded T-shirts. Here are some scrap-fabulous highlights from her website.

For those of you in the NYC area, I found out that Carol and some of her designer colleagues (Annie Walwyn-Jones, Teresa Montalvo, and Danielle Mailerare) are hosting an open house this Tuesday and Wednesday, December 6 and 7, 3:00 to 9:00 pm to share and sell their designs!

I got a preview of some of Carol’s more recent T-shirt scarves that will be on sale this holiday season for kids and adults, and gosh they’re pretty cute and clever. I love the New York-themed one (that Coney Island tee is a great thrifty find!) and there’s a pink one that incorporates a pocketed T-shirt into the quilted mix.

I just love all the colors she uses–isn’t it inspiring? (I’m always looking to keep the color quotient high when winter grays settle in!). If you’re feeling crafty, I encourage you to turn to project #77 “Scarf It Up” in Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt (page 194) to make your own scarves from your T-shirt stash. Or check out this video from the Generation T/Threadbanger archives for some more basic scarf designs.

And if you’d rather buy than DIY, support a small business and check out that open house I mentioned above (Tuesday and Wednesday, December 6 and 7, 2011, from 3:00 to 9:00 pm) at the home of Carol Schneider Designs in NYC!

27 East 22 Street, 7th floor, NYC
(between Broadway & Park)
212-505-6615


[ Comments Off on From Our Readers: Carol Schneider Designs! | Posted on December 3rd, 2011 ]

From Our Readers: Aimée!

This photo was enthusiastically submitted by Pearl and the Beard band member Jocelyn while on tour — she spotted Aimée’s sassy red tank top (and Aimée herself!) at a Washington D.C. show and simply had to snap a photo to send to us. (Editor’s Note: Good thinking, Jocelyn! We like your style.) The shirt looks to be a bit of a hybrid of #20 (“It’s My Party and I’ll Tie if I Want To”) from Generation T and #104 (“Knot So Fast”) from Generation T: Beyond Fashion with some gathered sleeve-straps thrown in for good measure.

Cheers to Aimée for her DIY savvy and impressive musical tastes (after the show, Aimée and her brother Paul interviewed the band for his blog, The Reverb Signal) and cheers to Jocelyn for her keen eye for T-shirt refashioning! Oh, and if you haven’t checked out Pearl and the Beard’s Will Smith Medley, please do so immediately. I really can’t stress how important this is.

[ 1 Comment | Posted on August 18th, 2011 ]

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