Petal drip applique

I bought this roomy black tote several years ago for about $7 at Big Apple grocery in Nob Hill. It has since served me quite well: worked through my moves, accompanied thrifting jaunts and successfully snuck in many snick-snacks at the movies. Recently, the original straps started fraying aggressively and the cherry, glitter iron-on looked more ho-hum than intended. I replaced the straps with wider webbing and added this petalish, drippy applique of various cottons. Now I'm all fancy-like and can be spotted carrying a bag full of butterflies.

Renewed tote, cotton webbing from safety straps, applique of recycled fabric: red & white cotton chintz, wine/pink cotton calico, accent of hot pink cotton & red ultrasuede.

Cloud-camo applique

Since my tri-color applique number, I've done a few customizations for friends. Here's the result of an custom job I did on Mario's Ben Davis shirt. He requested something cloudy and I came up with this number. As I sifted through my fabric, I found a forgotten blue camo (is there such a thing in the military?) jersey. I decided to incorporate it with the other fabrics and suprisingly the whole shebang turned into a cloud camoflauge of its own design. Hoppy hoppy cloudy ho!

Model's Ben Davis shirt, applique of recycled fabric: multi-printed cotton, blue camo cotton jersey, blue cotton-velvet, and plum silk. model: Mario, location: Lower Haight, SF.

el STRANGEco

photo by McCarty PhotoWorks

In the Summer of 2003, I was working with STRANGEco furiously preparing for our first San Diego Comic-Con. In the buzz of activity -- pressing Mini Treehouse buttons, printing press kits and the like -- I created these customized t-shirts of lucha-ish character, el STRANGEco. We ordered those nice, slim-cut cotton tees from American Apparel and put the iron and scissors to work. I made a variety of masks with different materials and color combos, all on a navy tshirts.

In retrospect, I realize this design was a combined influenced from my years living in National City, San Diego, and my brief stint in the 80's in an all-girl breakdancing crew. Ha! Funny story, the latter one, which I won't get into. The connecting thread being the heavy influence of Chicano styling: the lowriders, neatly pressed chino'ed guys with plaid shirts buttoned at the collar, heavy eyeliner and those handmade shirts bearing our crew name on the back and our "nickname" down the sleeve. Throw in an iron-on, glitter rose and bandana and you were ready to rock that body.

100% navy cotton, sweatshop-free American Apparel tee, 2-color applique of recycled cotton/jersey/tweed/twill, purchased gold Olde English letters added for whomp. torso: Brian McCarty, location: Los Angeles.

Stay Alive in 2005

Happy New Year Everyone! More love, more success, more peace.....