Wednesday, January 25, 2012

striped shirts

I know they say people with a few extra pounds should never wear horizontal stripes. And yet, I have an obsession with stripes. I cannot stop buying them. All kinds of stripes. Most recently, Le Gap put out some gorgeous striped boat neck long sleeved shirts. I bought the white with black stripe shirt. It fits beautifully, even on a gigantic fat person like myself. Scoff at the horizontal stripe rule. SCOFF! It was so lovely that I wore it out to dinner that night for Indian food. And Thor flung navartan korma at my beautiful white with black striped shirt.

Yes.

There is a turmeric stain on the front.

I bleached with a little itty bitty q-tip. It was ruined. After one wear. And then I started thinking about how cool it would look if I could silk screen something to cover the stain. I don't have silk screening equipment, but in 1997-1998, I worked as an artist's assistant. At that job, I mostly cut amberlith/rubylith, which is a frustrating, precise job, but is the first step of silk screening. Amberlith is masking film. You literally cut the image out of the film on top of plastic to make a negative image for silk screening. It is very easy to try to pull up the amberlith quickly and then rip your entire image. And then you cuss and kick something. I really don't know why I am explaining it, but I guess the point is, sometimes I think in amberlith. Like I look at images as negative/positive space and think of it on top of other images. Maybe this year I should buy some damn silk screening equipment.


ANYWAY, I have been thinking about this since I ruined the shirt. What image would look good over my white with black striped shirt? I first thought of my Obey Frida image, then my husband reminded me that I would have a Frida over each boob, or relatively close to each boob.

In the end, I found a vintage anatomical heart, and decided to change the color to blood red. I bought some printer, iron-on transfer paper, and created this:

And since I have a trigger finger, and already printed the Obey Frida image, I cut it in half and put it on this weird stripe shirt I have with brown and pink stripes. (i heart STRIPES, PEOPLE!)


I had so much fun with this iron-on transfer paper. It just makes me want to silk screen shit, though.

7 comments:

HereWeGoAJen said...

Oooh, that does look like fun.

Mrs. G said...

Fabulous! And I've actually heard that it's not just horizontal stripes. It is actually WIDE horizontal stripes that make a person look wider. Go figure. BUT, you can rest assured that your thin striped beautiful boat neck tops do not make you look as wide as you believe them to. Not that it matters anyway. You are beautiful regardless.

Laura said...

Listen, if they are cut right, and the style is smart, horizontal stripes can be VERY flattering! On all figures! Seriously. Try ours - www.stripedshirt.com Ts - up to women's XL and true to sizes. Women's XL = size 16. Longer, comfortable, soft, and well cut and styled to be v. v. flattering! GO STRIPES!

Sara said...

There's an easier way to make a silk screen. I forget the details, but it involves printing onto a transparency . . . it's been a while and my sister usually actually prepared the screen.

Beth McNeill said...

Did you use a dark fabric iron on sheet or just the regular for white shirts?

still life angie said...

Yes, I did,Beth.

Beth McNeill said...

Thanks much!