Friday, May 17, 2013

HOW TO: Cut a Straight Line

Hey there, T-shirt Surgeons!

Get out your scissors. This isn't kindergarten, but we have to talk about how to cut a straight line.

**Sharp scissors are dangerous! If any young kids watch my videos and read this, please ask a parent to handle your scissors for you! I mean it, you guys! I don't want you getting hurt.**

Now, this blog is happening because so many people have commented on my videos saying they don't understand how I cut the lines in my shirts. In the videos, I usually show the t-shirt un-cut, point at the place where I'm going to cut and say "Cut here," and then the next frame shows the shirt with the line cut into it. In other words, it looks something like this:

T-shirt BEFORE
T-shirt AFTER, with one cut
In these drawings, the outside of the shirt is green, and the inside is shown in blue. So in the second drawing, you can see that there is a slice cut into the t-shirt front, because you can see the inside of the shirt through it. The way I see it, if you can think back to any craft projects you did as a kid, you can see how a line is cut in the center of your fabric. It's just like how you would cut a line in the center of a piece of paper, without cutting all the way to the edge of the paper. But just in case some people aren't with me, let's go a little more in depth!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Coming Soon

Hey there, Recon Artists!

Listen. I know I kept saying there would be more content here, and then have not delivered yet. I was really busy and still am very busy, and t-shirt recon videos just take a long time! The recons themselves don't, but taking the time to show every step, explain it, and so on... Really does take longer than people think, especially when I am hard pressed to find 1) a clear area to work in and 2) hours in the day that are quiet enough to explain and demonstrate clearly without having people or other noises in the background. I won't do a video if I know it won't come out well.

That said, I have been sorting through a lot of my clothes recently, getting rid of things. I have pulled out several things that would be good to recon--Some for which I have projects in mind, and others which just lie around in wait! There are some things I can do blogs about without video, using pictures and text. Other things I will do video tutorials for, but definitely not until at least next month since I'm doing Vlog Every Day in April on my YouTube channel right now.

Some things you can expect upcoming:

  • How to Cut a Straight Line. No. I'm not kidding. I keep getting asked, and I am too astounded by that fact to make a video. But I will make a blog about it. And try my best not to be snippy. =)
  • Cutting More/Different Shapes/Pictures.
  • Basics #5 and #6. They have been planned ever since I started my basics series years ago, but I never got around to recording more of them! So I know exactly what they will be, and those were meant to be the end of the Basics Series. Though I always thought I'd just add more later if I thought of more.
  • Inspired By. People have shown me pictures of celebrities in reconned shirts and said "How did they do this?" We will take a look at these things and make the looks happen.
  • Sewing Projects. Somewhere down the line I will probably do some recons that require a bit of sewing! I do love no-sew, and I think those are the most helpful because you can easily translate them to sewing if you have that ability, but it's also accessible to those who don't/can't sew right now.
Those are just some ideas! Now that it's spring, I have more desire to recon some more, and I should have a little more time, I hope. So I will try to put more content on this blog if not the videos on my channel right away, so at least there can be more quick answers to FAQs, and other tips and tricks here.

Thanks so much for reading!
Happy Snipping,
-C-