I saw that A Dress a Day was updated, so I surfed over to see what she was talking about.  Oh Wow.  Today’s entry was a glass dress sculpture by Karen LaMonte.  I’m partly linking the website here so I can remember where it was, because I want to go back and spend more time looking.   She makes lifesize cast glass sculptures of dresses (among other things).  They aren’t just dresses that are hanging on a hanger — they look like someone was just in them — all the shape and movement that you would expect it to have if there was a body inside.   One of the funniest things I saw in my quick visit was a clothesline of the Emperor’s New Clothes — all made of glass.

I did something sort of scary this afternoon.  I opened the seam in a pair of my old jeans.  Why is this scary you ask?  Well, even if you don’t want to know, I’m going to tell you.

First off — it’s scary because who in their right mind takes apart perfectly good clothing? OK, OK, "perfectly good" isn’t quite accurate considering the fact that this particular pair of jeans has a gaping hole in the right knee.  But honestly, why on Earth would someone choose to rip a seam?  I wondered this as I did it, seeing as how I avoid unsewing as much as possible in my line of work.  I didn’t actually realize until I tackled it how well the seam was sewn, either.  In addition to the seam itself, the raw edges were serged.  Do you know how much thread was involved?  Yards and yards and yards — and it’s allover my sewing room now….in leetle teeny bits…

Secondly, it’s scary because it means I need to get going on the next part of the project.  Which is trying to embellish the jeans in some fashion.  The first goal is to patch the great big honkin’ hole in the knee.  The hole didn’t used to be quite so big.  Back when it was just a thin spot, I kept thinking that I ought to use my fancy schancy embroidery machine and do some embroidery over the whole leg, and somehow this embroidery would help patch the knee.  Eventually the thin patch became an actual hole, and I kept thinking the same thing about embroidery.

Well, the hole kept growing until one day I managed to stick my foot through and rip it even bigger.  I’ve worn the jeans a few times since then, but finally quit because the hole is almost seam to seam now.

Over the last few days I’ve started dreaming about an outfit (wearable art…) that I might like to try to make.  A vest, a shirt, and an embellished pair of jeans.  Now that the jeans are all pulled apart, it’s time to get serious and get it done.  Although, a trip to the fabric store might be in order first….I’m thinking about some fun fashion fabrics that I don’t ordinarily use, so, of course, it is necessary to go stock up….what a trial!

The before picture!  Hopefully the after picture won’t be years behind — maybe only months! LOL!

This project started out as a red project, but I quickly realized that the red fun fur was too much.  It occurred to me that the pastel rainbow fun fur I was using for a different project (which I will probably never finish…) would look much better.  I was able to do this in front of the TV a few nights, plus a couple of hours at the quilt show on Sunday while we were just sitting around (it was pretty slow on Sunday at the show…)

I just did a row of double crochet with the fun fur, and I also changed out the buttons.  And Look!  The buttons don’t even match (well, they are all pink…but…you know what I mean!)

The sweater used to belong to my Dad.  I stole, er, borrowed it from him when I was in high school.  I’ll bet that he doesn’t even remember it.  Do you suppose he would like it back?

The title of this post could also be "Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery" as this project is inspired by my friend, Carla.

She posted pictures of 2 sweaters that she had altered with some crochet and I thought "Hey!  I can do that!"  And then I thought "Hey!  I have the perfect sweater to alter, too!"  So, thanks, Carla.  I’m getting some of my best ideas from you….