FIBR300: The Upcycling Project - Part 2

There are a lot of considerations when upcycling old textiles. I sketched out a few ideas but I didn't know how feasible it would be. I really liked the look of a t-shirt dress on Pinterest, but I'm not a dress wearing gal. I settled on a shawl.

The next step was to draft a pattern with newsprint. Since my idea was symmetrical, it was super easy to do. I measured out a piece of newsprint the size of half my blanket, drew some feathers, refined the pattern, traced a copy and cut out the pieces after labelling them.



Did you know that t-shirts and polos are not symmetrical, though? The front of the shirt will have slightly less fabric than the back, so you need to consider all the options before you start cutting away. Originally the blue feathers were going to be on the top, but the floral trim on the purple shirt meant that I couldn't get enough fabric for the middle layer. Generally men's clothing will give you more fabric than women's clothing, but I had to find a fourth t-shirt to fill out the design. Before cutting up the shirts, I also had to run the pill shaver over them and clean them up.



To be honest, I wasn't quite sure where I was going. I only had a ~~ vision ~~ of the end product.

FIBR300: The Upcycling Project - Part 1

I have a lot of catching up to do! My class is moving faster than I can document it :-D

Our first homework project was to gather a few pieces of old clothing from our closets or a favourite thrift store. "Upcycling" has been a trend for some time. Old clothing is a fabulous source of fabric or yarn that can be had for free or cheap. It doesn't require new material to be used or purchased. It can be very eco-conscious!

However, there are some caveats. Fast fashion clothing can be so cheaply made that it's not a good candidate for upcycling. High quality clothing usually has a generous seam. Fast fashion items barely have one. Then, thrift shopping has it's own problems with some stores being for-profit and actually expensive. Some chains may actually be a little dodgy--for example, Goodwill was caught underpaying disabled workers in 2013. Lastly, while dropping off old clothes may make someone feel good, there is a chance that they will end up in the rag trade or landfilled (nearshore or offshore). Stores won't take what they can't sell and a lot of clothing just ends up overseas where it can harm local textile economies.

What's a consumer to do? There isn't a perfect answer, but caring for clothing, mending and buying high quality, classic styles when possible might be one solution.

Anyway, from my old closet I found a pink wool blanket that belonged to my mother, an old long-sleeved shirt from hubs and three purple t-shirts of my own. I knew this class was going to involve cast offs, so I hoarded old t-shirts and bubble wrap just in case. I'm glad I did!

What am I making? Stay tuned to find out!

Back to School!

I'm back at ACAD (now that Alberta University of the Arts) for another textiles class. It's called Salvage/Selvedge and we're looking at the practical aspects of textile production and design. To start things off, we watched a couple of documentaries. Learn along with me and stay tuned to the blog :-)

The True Cost is an hour and a half long scathing looking at the often invisible human and environmental impact of fast fashion. The textile industry has always had a huge environmental footprint, but, it is only within the past ten years that the footprint has increased dramatically. From fibre production to processing to purchasing, the fast fashion industry is incredibly unsustainable and one of the largest polluters on the planet. It is amazing the producers were able to fit in such a wide survey of the textile industry into one documentary. They talk to workers, growers, factory owners, environmentalists, fashion designers and more to demonstrate the clothing continuum--and conundrum.



However, it's not all doom and gloom with the textile industry. There are lots of creative people out there working to reduce the impact or invent new processes. The Next Black is a forty five minute documentary with a very optimistic view of the future. Biocoture! 3D printing! Waterless dying! The film was made about five years ago, so it will be interesting to see where the next five years takes us.

Isla the Cat Pet Portrait

Here's another Calgary Expo Holiday Market commission that was a Christmas gift :-)

Gizmo the Cat Pet Portrait

I have a few pet sketches from the Calgary Expo Holiday Market that I can share as they were Christmas gifts. This is Gizmo and I hope the picture was well received!

Instagram Top Nine 2019

Top Nine is a nifty app/website that figures out your top nine Instas (follow me here btw. I'm a little surprised but you never know what people are gonna like!

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A post shared by Christine 🦄 (@calzephyr77) on Jan 1, 2020 at 9:03am PST

New dog illustration on Creative Market

After all of these years there's subject that is missing from my portfolio - dogs! One of my long time Christmas craft sale customers even pointed it out to me. "Still no dogs, eh?" she said. I'm happy to report that I have one dog available for personal or commercial use on Creative Market. Creative Market makes purchasing and licensing easy. The original drawing is still for sale if you are interested!

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