10 Shirt Challenge

My family is in the process of renovating our house.  We made space for new furniture, and we're getting rid of things that have no value other than taking up space.  I usually go though a massive purge every year because of college (moving causes me to organize), so this kind of change is common ground.  However, as I was cleaning, I was still shocked by the huge amount of... stuff... I have.

This year, the first thing I did was go though all of my shirts.  I knew that I had too many shirts, and that many of them did not make me feel special. Plus, I did not look good in any of them.  There was no point in keeping things that (1) I did not like and (2) made me look terrible.  After all, "life it too short to have on a bad outfit!" (Kit Scarbo, Project Runway Season 4).

I was able to get rid of some shirts very easily.  Unfortunately, this was not a bigger trend.  The pile of shirts in the "keep" pile kept on getting bigger. At one point I counted at least thirty shirts!  And I still had more shirts to sort!

The growing pile had a social impact on me.  I instantly thought about the people who do not have one shirt to spare.  Why do I keep on having the urge to buy more clothes when I clearly have enough?  I also thought about where the throw-away-shirts end up when the are... expired.  Do they go into land fills like all other garbage?  I know that people give old clothes to charity, but I also realize that this isn't the reality for all clothes.  Plus, if everyone gave their old clothes to charity, the charity people are bound to throw some stuff away.

These thoughts made me question the design society. We are constantly told to buy clothes in the media.  Designers are encourage to pop out things like crazy (spring/summer collection, resort collection, couture collection, fall winter collection).  We really have too much clothes in the world!

Anyway, after this reflective moment, I decided to come up with the 10 shirt challenge.  I had to get rid of at least 10 shirts.  These 10 shirts would eventually go to our local charity.

The following picture shows how I did:

The pile on the right are the shirts that I'm getting rid of.  There are 17 shirts in that pile.  I surpassed my goal.  Awesome.
The pile in the middle are the shirts I'm keeping.  There are 22 shirts in that pile. That's still a lot of shirts considering I'm not including the shirts in the laundry or dress shirts.
The pile of shirts on the left are the shirts I can't part with. I got these 15 shirts from clubs and other school events. They have too many good memories.  HOWEVER, I'm not going to wear these shirts, either.  I'm going to save them for a project.  One of my friends took these types of shirts and made them into a quilt.  That seems like a good option for me.

Now if you do the math, 17+22+15= 54 shirts.  That's WAAAAY too much.

Try the 10 shirt challenge yourself!  Maybe even extend the challenge to other articles of clothing.  Perhaps make the category even broader!  Check out what this blog did to get rid of junk:
http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/throw-away-50-things-you-did-it/

Overall this was a sobering experience because it made me realize that I have too many things (and I'm not one to buy things in the first place). It was also sobering because it made me consider in impact of advertisement.  Do ads tell us how to dispose of our goods when we're done with them? 

Reconstruction: Yellow Sweatshirt

I have taken many design courses, watched all Project Runway episodes multiple times, read a plethora of information regarding clothing construction, and talked to other sewers.  All of these sources had one common message: inspect and reconstruct existing clothes.  

My professors would tell me to go to stores and look at the clothes to see how they are made.  This would teach me different ways to tackle different sewing ideas. "Fashion Inside Out" by Daniel Vosovic talks about buying old clothes from thrift stores, taking the garments apart, and putting them back together.  Doing these tasks would teach me how clothes are made, too.  Simply stated, clothes that already exist are some of the best teachers.  

Project Runway has had many challenges where the contestants needed to take old clothes and make something new.  The point of these challenges was to take dated trends and make them new, something I imagine is very important in the garment industry.  This shows me that reconstruction is important because it will help me with the design process.

Furthurmore, another way to look at existing clothes is through the lens of sustainability.  Sustainability and green products is a huge factor in today's businesses.  Businesses are starting to add "green" initiatives to help promote products.  My only problem with this new promotion technique is that the idea of "recycling" is being pushed aside.  People are still buying products.  On one hand the products are made more cleanly, but what happens when these items are thrown away?  Do people have the same motivation to dispose things in the proper way?  I do not have a PhD in Environmental Studies or Sustainability, but I think the answer to the last question is "no."  By recycling "upcycling" old things, I can help make the world more green.

My challenge to inspect and reconstruct existing clothing came to me when I found this chunky, yellow sweatshirt in one of my dad's suitcases.  

[Above] As you can see, this sweatshirt was HUGE.  If you take a ruler and measure the length of my face and then measure the arm hole on the right of this picture (my left, the arm holding the hip), you will see that it's close to the same length.  Not only that, the top of the sleeve started way past my shoulder.  In this picture, the sweatshirt goes to the fullest part of my hip.  If I just stood up straight, the sweatshirt would have gone way past.  
My dad is shorter than me, so I have no idea why he bought this thing!  Well, maybe that's why he put it in the suitcase.
As a look, it was sort of cute... for, like, a day.  It was nice as a over-sized sweatshirt for a winter get together.  But it was more satirical than serious.  It's best use would be fore a 90s party or something.  The other use would be around-the-house use only.

I actually liked this yellow because it is so crazy.  Because of this, I decided to take it in.  Here's what I got:

[Above] Yes, much better. The sides are more fitted, the bottom does not go too low, and the sleeves are more acceptable (start where my shoulder point is).  

I added a zipper and gave it a V-neck.  I did this because I like the Mr. Rogers sweaters that are out there.  I originally wanted to add buttons, but adding a zipper was much for friendly for an already constructed piece.

This was a great recycling project!  I got a new sweater out of an old sweatshirt.  How much more green can it get?