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comment by tacocat
tacocat  ·  2163 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 25, 2018

What did you do with it? I have some shirts in a plastic bin that I like for whatever reason and I want to stretch like paintings around stretcher frames because I know how to do that.

Sorry. I can't tell from the picture but I guess I thought my method is novel since most people can't do it or even know paintings are usually done on fabric pulled tight around wooden slats.

I know a few shirt preservation methods after working in a frame shop. I only remember framing one shirt for emotional reasons but it was a common thing people wanted something done with





_refugee_  ·  2162 days ago  ·  link  ·  

To make a long story short, when I was book-binding I started using old material as covers and that included old t-shirts (disposable non-favorites). When I finally had to admit my first permanently-great shirt was at death's door this summer (like, it was irresponsible to wash it), that was my first idea for preservation. but the graphic was way too big, for various reasons it just wouldn't work.

One night I got drunk and was going through art supplies and thinking about the shirt and I saw a lid to one of those stiff fabric-covered "decorative" storage boxes you can get at like, Target and shit. And it was the perfect size for this shirt's graphic, which was admittedly large enough that my only other idea before this had been that "you know, i've read about people making t-shirt quilts and stuff, before," an idea which was promptly shut down because fuck no i'm not learning quilting to preserve my favorite t-shirts. i have to draw the line somewhere.

so i had practice keeping material like reasonably taut and even from book covers and i grabbed a hot glue gun and just went at it. i did 2 that way

(no i don't really advise this because it does complicate/limit the use of your storage boxes later, a realization which i almost regret, but i have lots of boxes)

And then, laugh at me for this, i ghetto-fabulous-DIY-i-ain't-need-to-spend-money-on-this-even-though-it's-deeply-meaningful'd the next 2, of which "Extreme Makeover" is the second.

i just found shipping boxes that were the right size and i cut down the sides of them so i had decent frame-like structures and i hot glued right onto that

(i have finessed the technique with "Extreme Makeover" and honestly, it's the best looking 'job' of the set)

- comme ci comme ca 's superpower : if i was wearing this in a photo i invariably actually liked the photo. once upon a time i left come ci comme ca at a boy's house after hooking up with him. i kept forgetting to get it back and then one week i found out he slept with a friend of mine who'd known how i felt about him. damn it, i thought, that was such a great shirt. i stopped talking to both. the 'friend', who was unmedicated and is nuts, was desperate to get me to talk to her/conceivably forgive her for her choice. she offered to do anything to get us to talk and "move past this." OK i said get the shirt. and, crazy is as crazy does, but when crazy thinks it can get you to welcome it back with open arms crazy can actually bother a typical oblivious sweatydude into finding some ex's shirt in his messy of a room and getting it from him.

so i got the shirt back. and the crazy girl and i met up at our bar and talked, and when she realized she wasn't magically getting her way and no, i wasn't going to buy her line about "i felt closed out from your life so i slept with him, soo now what we need to fix this is for you to tell me more of your private secrets and feelings!" -- she threatened to pour a beer on some other poor girl's head and getting in between the two of them is the closest thing i've ever gotten to being in a real fight. and i was just getting between them til the bouncer came over (because i was pretty confident she knew if she poured the beer on ME, she was going to have no future chance in my life, at all).

what a story, right? you see why i had to keep that shirt.

- the baretta 92 fs. once in a tiny townhouse in fishtown, philadelphia, hanging out with a beautiful boy and his roommate, i dropped a joint and burned that hole. another time i wore this to a 4th of july party with american flag acid wash shorts. at the end of the party (the end of it for me anyway) i got quite drunk quite quickly on shots of tito's vodka and then accused a partygoer of being sexist. he saw me leaving with a female friend, and my brother, and stopped us to tell me that i wasn't driving. (nope not a question.) i said yea i mean, that sounds good to me. there's three of us. he turned to my brother, who i'd just done shots in the kitchen with, to reiterate his point. and i was drunk and it made me mad he was being so bossy (i wasn't even trying to drive out of there), and it made twice as mad he was trying to put my also-drunk brother in charge, and 3x as mad because my perfectly sober female friend was just standing there getting ignored! and my brother didn't even have a goddamn legal license at that point!

so i called him sexist but i think my point got a little lost beneath the tito's. hey i stand by what i said. and am happy when i'm drunk to walk or give up my keys.

-this shirt is complicated, but my oldest. if i could figure out how to edit everyone else from sophomore year of high school out of the photo, i would share a precious shot of me in braces wearing it