{"id":6609,"date":"2018-10-09T21:39:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T04:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/?p=6609"},"modified":"2018-10-09T21:39:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T04:39:00","slug":"aloha-bowling-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/2018\/10\/aloha-bowling-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Two into One Bowling Themed Aloha Shirt Renovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I recently attended the recent Gaslight Expo<\/a> steampunk convention as a speaker and workshop leader.\u00a0 I’ve been so busy over the past two months, that I really didn’t have a lot of time to invest in a new costume to fit the theme of Tiki. I knew that I had a couple of old bowling themed aloha shirts hanging in the back of the closet.\u00a0 So I excavated those old shirts, gave them a wash and contemplated all of the potential things I could do with them.<\/p>\n

Right: Sample from my 3-D Bead Embroidery Demo\/Workshop<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, I was so freaking busy the three weeks before the convention I was focussed on getting a bedlah set completed for a customer and my workshop completed for the Belly Dance Bundle 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Basic Aloha Bowling Shirt<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I headed south to stay with my family the week before the event, and I took along the pair of shirts, thinking I would wear them as is.\u00a0 I had purchased these shirts many years ago when I was a competitive bowler. Back in the day, I was so excited to have bowling themed shirts, that I bought one in each color.<\/p>\n

Left: Blue Bowling Aloha Shirt, before the redesign<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For a red-hot second, I almost abandoned the project, figuring I could just wear the shirt as-is.\u00a0 But after talking to my family, they encouraged me to take an hour and do something wonderful with it. I wasn’t feeling particularly creative, but I thought I\u00a0should at least try.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Taking Two Shirts and Creating One Garment<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My design mind came up with a lot of complicated things to do with this shirt. First I considered using both shirts to make a dress, disregarding the shirt-shape and treating the cloth like yardage.\u00a0 I didn’t think that was a reasonable\u00a01-hour project, so I contemplated other approaches.<\/p>\n

The next thought was to do a parti-colored shirt or dress that was half blue and half tan. This seemed like a fast way to transform the two garments into something new and different.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Redesign\u00a0Process<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Once I had decided to simply combine the two shirts into one, I made a simple\u00a0four-step order of construction.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cut the shirts in half up the back<\/li>\n
  2. Pin the left side of one color to the right side of the other color.<\/li>\n
  3. Machine sew the back seam.<\/li>\n
  4. Swap pockets.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Cut Shirts in Half:<\/strong>\u00a0 I carefully folded each shirt up the center back. For this project, I used my mum’s fabric shears and standard pins.\u00a0 I folded the shirt in half, pinned the fold in place, and cut along the fold.\u00a0 You can see what the tan shirt looked after cutting the back.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Pin the back seam:<\/strong>\u00a0 Using standard pins, I pin the left side to the right side. For straight line sewing, I like to place my pins perpendicular to the seam.\u00a0 As I sew, I pull the pins, rather than sew over them.<\/p>\n

    Machine sew the back seam:<\/strong> My mum let me use her machine.\u00a0 This Brother is what I recommend in my sewing classes for new students.\u00a0 It’s a very affordable kit that includes a lot of great tools and accessories for an amazing price. It’s nice to sew on it and remind me how nice this machine<\/a> is and that I’m still glad to recommend it.<\/p>\n

    \"\"Swap Pockets:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, since I was chatting and socializing with my mum and brother, didn’t quite make it that far!\u00a0 But this detail can happen later.\u00a0 I decided to stop at this place because the shirt was wearable.<\/p>\n

    If I had started to take the pockets off, I would have been committed to finishing that step, which was much bigger than the other three.\u00a0 It would require spending a lot of time with a seam ripper to remove the two pockets.\u00a0 Then I would have to pin the pocket into place and then carefully top-stitching it into place. I just didn’t have the time or focus to tackle this last step.<\/p>\n

    Done is Good!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    As a designer, you get to decide when a project is done.\u00a0 Since I committed to working for just an hour, I stopped at a good stopping point!\u00a0 Although this may not have seemed like a huge change, I had so many people ask me where I got this unusual shirt.\u00a0 I’m glad my mum challenged me to do something with my old shirts!<\/p>\n

    In the fullness of time, I can swap the pockets out, or just choose to leave this restyled shirt just as it is.\u00a0 Either way, I had a wonderful time wearing my old\/new creation.\u00a0 Are there any garments in your closet that you can use as a basis for creating a new design?<\/p>\n

    I wish you luck in all of your sewing and costuming adventures!<\/strong><\/em>
    \nDavina ~ Dawn Devine<\/strong><\/em>
    \nOct. 9, 2018<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    PS: Here’s a photo of my mum’s sewing machine.\u00a0 She purchased it from Amazon.com<\/a> using prime for around $100.\u00a0 Prices vary from moment-to-moment, but here’s a link to check it out if you are in the market for a\u00a0 budget sewing machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

    I recently attended the recent Gaslight Expo steampunk convention as a speaker and workshop leader.\u00a0 I’ve been so busy over the past two months, that I really didn’t have a lot of time to invest in a new costume to fit the theme of Tiki. I knew that I had a couple of old bowling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Dawn-two-toned-aloha-bowlingshirt.jpg?fit=360%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YZtR-1IB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6623,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions\/6623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}