The Black T-Shirt Project

To follow up on a comment Elle made yesterday - this makes me think that pondering "what is success" would be at least as interesting as pondering "what is creativity"? - my answer is yes. I've been around and around on that topic as well. It's interesting in an annoying way that money is involved in both equations. Because in the end, no matter how successful we are in different avenues of our life, we do need to pay the rent, clothe our bodies, and eat. Somehow. Someway.

Obviously Malcolm Gladwell didn't tell the entire story of Chris Langan in his book. He's making a specific point and supporting it with gathered evidence. He describes Chris as married in a loving relationship, working with animals and a garden on a ranch he owns, and writing daily on a labour intensive project that most likely no one else will ever see and will never be published. I had a lot of questions about how is he managing to do that because a man as intelligent as Malcolm's describing knows he's walking out of sync with the rest of the world. That's an incredibly difficult place to always be. That Chris found a way of moving through the world that gives him joy and peace, and that he can work on a project without going crazy wondering what the point is, is to me success.

Slubby V Neck T - $38.00 - Yesterday, I started a discussion on a chat group about how do we combine creativity with wearability with challenge. I've been buying every year's collection of black t-shirts for years. Typically, they come from Costco and are purchased for $9.99. Up until this year, they were of good quality, the color lasted, they held their shape, and were darn near perfect except that they weren't petite sized so there was extra fabric through the armhole and every single one had the same look.

Button Pouch T - $78.00 - It occurred to me that if I'm making a collection of black t-shirts, they don't need to look exactly the same and the differences can be significantly more than neckline shape and sleeve length. The pictures in this posting are from Anthropologie.com. I did some research. An off topic thought but isn't it interesting that their prices are getting more reasonable?

Draped Peplum V Neck - $58.00 - On Friday, in my posting Answering The Questions, I talked about the things that support and the things that don't support my creativity. I doubt I'll sew a dozen black t-shirts but I'll most likely make a half dozen and perhaps I'd be inspired to make more if there was a challenge involved in stitching and drafting them. I could evolve my T & T from basic shapes to more complex ones. I could Frankenpattern. I could drape. I could paint and stencil and stitch. I could embellish. I could.... 

Pin Tucked Button Down Top - 78.00 - There's an endless list of things I could do to create a t-shirt but the big question for me is where's the line between keeping a sewing project interesting and challenging and sewing a project that's over the top and unwearable? The answer depends on where you live and on your personality. I live in a town where women wear jeans to the Christmas party. I'm the type of woman who sews a new outfit for the Christmas party and buys new jewelry and new shoes and gets her hair done and... and... and...

Side Scrunched Top - $68.00 - One of the things that really inspired me at the Design Outside The Lines workshop this past June was how Marcy combined stripes and dots and other prints only that's not me. I can do it in textile art pieces. I can do it in my purses. I can even do it in my clothing but in the end those will be clothes I don't wear. I need clothes to wear. Combining texture as in this Side Scrunched top is one way to accomplish that goal as is....

Asymmetric Pleats Tank - 78.00 - ... creating texture with pleats and pintucks and other details. Knowing me, I could probably get so labour intensively involved in the black t-shirt project that I didn't finish the half dozen before winter was over - LOL.

Many of the ingredients needed to challenge me are here. I know what the point is. I know what the goal is. The t-shirt form is a blank canvas to work within. It's defined enough to give direction and open enough to add challenge. From here, I could make a list of techniques to incorporate and of shapes to explore and then I could specifically or even randomly mix those lists to put together t-shirts that are challenging to draft, creative to sew, and completely wearable. And then to actually wear them, I'll need to push myself because anything other than basic is over the top here but then again if that's all you have to wear, there's a good chance you're not going to run around n-k-d!

Thoughts?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a quiet day to myself

P.S. - I was disappointed that no one posted a link to their own answers to the questions. Hopefully some will still. I think it's encouraging and inspiring to all of us to learn about how others live out their creativity and maybe it's just me but I don't think so.