Last week I began my “Unemployment Project of the Week” post series with a showcase of my great ability to make portraits of portraits. And, though no one emailed me their beautiful renditions of, say, Shakespeare (since we now have a real portrait of him, by the way), I am sure you all got right down to the “job” (let’s call it a “job” to make ourselves feel better) and are ready for a new challenge.
So, next up: Make Something Useful and Fashionable from Scraps (if it wasn’t clear, scraps = whatever you don’t need and will never use). This will force you to use your: (1) creative facilities, (2) time, (3) shit lying around. Perfect.
The sub-title to this project could be: Make a Dashing Loop Necklace from Old T-shirts. But if you don’t have old T-shirts lying around, don’t go out and buy them! Invent your own project! This is essential. We’re saving money here. We’re unemployed.
The most exciting part of my example is that despite my non-access to a sewing machine (and my limited patience) I was able to convert a size medium white Hanes men’s undershirt into a headband, necklace, and scarf (not all at once, though, you have to choose one at a time). Lucky for me, I also had some boxes of dye lying around, so I made my white into a nice brilliant yellow and navy, but you probably have some colorful thirft store shirts you can cut up, if you so choose.
What I did, was cut the shirt into “strips” (which are actually loops) by just snipping from one side of the T-shirt to the other until I got to the armpits themselves. Each one was about two inches thick and rather jagged and imperfect. I died half the loops blue and half yellow, because that’s the colors I had lying around. After they were sort-of dried (as I said, impatient), I played with the loops, until I found some fashionable looks, such as:
Headbands:
But that seemed too boring, despite all the various ways I could combine my loops. So, I tried simple necklaces:
Unarguably handsome, for a crappy white T-shirt, but I knew they could be more. I finally landed on double-looping my scraps together in chain to create a scarf or a very high-fashion necklace (we all know high-fashion is actually glamorized low-fashion, everything starts on the streetz, as they say):
Finally, I apologize that I’ve forced you to see my face and my silly PJs and my messy room and everything else that comes with crappy photos from the little lens in your mac notebook. Nonetheless, I think you have the idea and cheapness is part of the charm of Unemployment Project of the Week, isn’t it?
If you really can’t think of anything to do with the useless things you have lying around, try Craftster.org. You are bound to find something to do over there. And, if you are employed, check out these spring fashions that you can actually purchase in a real store.
Ahhhh! I love American Apparel for making so many fabulously cool, semi-ugly clothes that can become a billion different outfits! I just discovered this Circle Scarf ($28), which comes in ten colors and can be worn at least thirteen different ways. This makes me want to get my Bandeu Dress out of the archives, and I still want the Le Sac Dress. Le Sigh.
1. 50s Silk Blue Swing Dress, indigolace on ebay
2. Adrienne Vittadini Silk Scarf, sarmar04 on ebay
3. Lacina Top, Anthropologie, $39.95
4. Sunglasses, Forever 21, $2.99
5. Chirp and Tweet Dessert Plate, Anthropologie, $14
6. Red Wool Princess Coat, shop blue bird on ebay
7. Cupcake Apron, Boojiboo on etsy, $28.75
8. Painted Rose Hairclips, Forever 21, $2.80
I have to dedicate this post to my co-worker, Patrick, who recently lent me season one of Pushing Daisies. The exchange went somewhat like this.
Patrick: Would you like to borrow my season one Pushing Daisies DVDs? [Read: I would like to have someone to discuss Pushing Daisies with on Thursday mornings. Please watch quickly, and get caught up.]
Tricia: Umm…okay.
He gave me the DVDs, and I watched. In one day, I watched six episodes. Consecutively. Yes, I understand that this fact is a little embarrassing. Which is why, after the sixth episode, I left the apartment to get a cupcake. Then I returned, and resumed watching.
Produced by ABC, Pushing Daisies is the most whimsical, wildly imaginative TV series that I have ever watched. Visually, Pushing Daisies resembles a love child between Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Tim Burton (Ignore the biological impossibility! Imagination!). Since Amelie is my favorite movie, by far, it makes sense that I am utterly smitten with Pushing Daisies. There are even a few parallels between Pushing Daisies and Amelie!: the Pie Hole (Montmartre café), Chuck (English-speaking Amelie!), costume design, and the first episode of Pushing Daisies even features a song from the Amelie soundtrack!
The plot revolves around Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life with the touch of his finger. After reawakening the dead, Ned has a minute to retouch the person. If he doesn’t, the dead thing stays alive and someone else dies in exchange. Finally, if he touches anything that he had once revived, the thing stays dead forever. Make sense? I hope so. Ned and Emerson, a Private Investigator, use Ned’s extraordinary gift to solve murder crimes (and cash in on the reward money). Originally, this plan worked well, until Ned had to reawaken his childhood sweetheart, Chuck (!@#!@$%!$!@#!$%!!!!)
Ned can’t bring himself to un-reviving Chuck from the dead. Which is great, because I ADORE CHUCK! She is brilliant! Witty! Quirky! Charming! Adventurous! Oh, Chuck! How I wish I could be you! Chuck is a hybrid of Zooey Deschanel, Rory Gilmore, and AMELIE. Some of my favorite fictional/real people! So many exclamation points! Furthermore, Chuck always wears the most sparkling clothes! She pairs wonderful dresses with perfect little cardigans! Chuck joins Ned and Emerson, and the show chronicles the team’s sleuthing adventures.
So after six straight episodes of Pushing Daisies, what do I think about? How can I be like Chuck?! I subsequently went to this Pushing Daisies fan site (where all the pictures in this post are from!) to oogle at the Pushing Daisies cast (mostly Chuck). Chuck wears a lot of 1950s swing dresses, and ebay is the perfect place to find them. The dress up, up above has a Chuckish silhouette, and is well-tailored too! On trips to the morgue, Chuck frequently wears bold-colored wool coats, sunglasses and scarves so Mr. Coroner doesn’t recognize her. (Her disguises are kind of fruitless, but I enjoy seeing her disguises nonetheless!) I wear nearly as many cardigans as Mr. Rogers, and Chuck seems to be the same way too! I’ve always fawned over Anthropologie’s dainty cardigans. They’re always so cozy and detailed! Chuck also enjoys lovely hair things: Audrey Hepburn-sized hats and flower hair clips! When she isn’t at the morgue, Chuck helps Ned bake pies (and even suggests that the Pie Hole should serve CUP PIES…CUPCAKE-SIZED PIES…panda-precious!), and wraps herself in cute aprons. Lastly, a perfect plate for the Pie Hole’s famous Three Plum pie. Yummy!
