I Wish for Clothing with Meaning

I have never been very interested in wearing 'pretty' clothes. Even as a child, I felt a need to express something (not sure what) with the way I dressed. At a very young age I was wearing my father's hats. In high school I would wear his business shirts over my t-shirt. I didn't wear what everyone else was wearing. I would paint a flower on my face, and ridiculously hope that no one would say anything. I wasn't doing it for attention, not even positive attention, I felt a need to.

Some of you know that I have been doing some refashioning over the past year. I am a big fan of Ricë and her blog - she is a great inspiration to me. She has written in the past about 'soul clothing' (my apologies Ricë, if that isn't the correct expression).

I am not any kind of fashionista, I have always felt most comfortable dressed down. I am not motivated to 'always looking my best'. But there is this need to have clothes that have meaning, even though I am not sure what that means.

In quest of that I have been refashioning. I am not much of a seamstress, I don't like working from patterns, but I find that the chop and try it out method is pretty fun. I haven't come up with a lot of stuff that I am feel satisfied with. I have made quite a few things that I have not been comfortable with wearing.

Here is a good example. I dyed the t-shirt, re did the neckline, and tried out a technique called under-collage. It was all fairly successful. But maybe it is too cute for me? I never want to wear it.

Here is a refashion that is more successful, but not 'there' yet. It was looking way too crafty until I added the square patches. (If you want to see the steps I went through go here.) It helps that it is a jean jacket, I love jeans.

The painted flowers are only decorative. The cabbage roses are cut from the first bedsheets my DH and I shared so that has meaning. But to be honest, I am not very sentimental so it doesn't hold the 'charge' I am looking for.

The reason that I ended up loving this jacket is in the photo below. It is the writing. It was a message I had written into my art journal that has deep meaning for me.

I am finding that unraveling what clothing with meaning is for me is like making art. You try this, you try that. There are a lot of failures. 

Drawing in my Art Journal

I am enjoying drawing at the moment. Well I always enjoy drawing; it is 'my thing'. It comes more easily to me than painting.

I have an A4 journal that I use to draw in in the evenings, often I listen to music on the computer or watch a video. I am really into iView- our public television station that you can watch online.

I don't know what I am going to do with these drawings. They are in my art journal so I would have to rip them out to sell them. I copy them in black and white on my printer so that I can use them for collage in my other art journal. I like that, because I can make them bigger and smaller and paint the same image in different ways. The only trouble is that computer paper isn't that great to paint on. But if I glue it down first with matt medium it works okay.

I would like to have the option to sell them. But I don't know if people would want to buy a drawing ripped out of a journal.

I plan to paint this one with some watercolour.

Going New Places

Don't you find it stimulating to go new places? They don't have to be far away. It can be as simple as driving a block over from your usual route on the way somewhere.

I drove my DH to the airport Thursday to visit his mother in Adelaide. I drove a back way home so I could check out some thrift shops. The thrift shops near where I live aren't very fruitful. Our area is full of tourists and poor locals, neither who make for good thrift shopping.

Here was one of my finds along the way. A beach I hadn't visited before.

It is in a developed tourist area. I had always assumed, for no good reason, that the Gold Coast beaches weren't as nice as ours. But it was breathtakingly beautiful. 

You can see the 'real' Gold Coast in the distance. It was a windy day.

There were people swimming even though the water was rough. Australians are fish in the water. Little kids 5 or 6 years old swim out in rougher water than I would venture into. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest with oceans too cold to swim in. I am still not capable in the ocean, but I love to swim.

There was a beautiful walkway over the water. I went for a windy walk. I had wanted to draw but the weather convinced me otherwise.

Jeans Skirt 2, another Refashion

I turned my Levi 501's into a jean skirt. The jeans fit around the waist but were uncomfortably tight at my thighs. I am moderately pleased with the refashion. The added fabric is from a beautiful maxi dress that I wore once. Sadly yes, only once. It was too bare on top.

There is a little appliqué on the front pocket.

Sorry about the photo distortion. My DH took the photos and he is not comfortable with a camera. The skirt is the length in the first photo.

Here is the appliqué on the back pocket. I just cut out one of the paisley flowers from the fabric. I regret that I cut the left side straight. 

I think it turned out more interesting than the first jeans skirt reconstruction. Which one do you prefer?

Added Ruffles, a Quick Refashion

 Here is the before. It was black and white checked when I bought it from the thrift store over a year ago. I dyed it purple and liked it.

Button down shirts can be a little serious for me. I wanted to add a bit of fun or humour so it wouldn't take itself so seriously.

So I added a bit of ruffle that I had. It has owls on it.

Will I wear it? I don't usually wear ruffles, but I do like it. We will see.

I am in a Book

I am in a book. I haven't seen the book yet, but I am pretty chuffed. It is a book by Jenny Doh (of crescendo.com) and one day out of the blue I got an email from her asking me to be in a book she was doing on art journaling. I knew who she was, but was pretty surprised that she knew who I was.

It has been over a year later and now it is coming out. Pretty cool. You can preorder it on Amazon.



Thanks Jenny.

A Few More Art Journal Pages

A few more journal pages from my nearly finished art journal. 

Giveaway on my Facebook Page

I am giving away a free art journaling class on my Facebook page. If you would like to enter, go here, like my page and leave me a comment telling me that you would like to be in the draw. I will pick a winner next Monday morning for my first art journal class of this term on Wednesday the 10th of October. Please make sure that you are free that morning and that you will be able to get there (this is an in-person class in Byron Bay, Australia.)

Good luck. I would love to see you there.