Fast Fashion & The Easiest-Ever T-Shirt Surgery

27Jul/1010

Fast Fashion & The Easiest-Ever T-Shirt Surgery

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My friend Grimlocke posted a few links in my comments about “fast fashion” as it relates to ethical shopping; they touched on a number of subjects, from sweat shops to creating garbage to thrifting when you’re an odd size or pressed for time. I’ve read up a little on the subject but am hard-up for new ways to improve my shopping habits — I’m pretty utilitarian with my money and I’ve been checking the “Made In…” tags on my clothing since I was in high school.

Fortunately, I live in an area that’s pretty populated with resellers, discount shops, and secondhand stores. Most of my clothing shopping is done at Goodwill (not Salvation Army, I try not to support religious organizations) or resellers like TJ Maxx, and I though that was conveniently ethical. Two minutes’ digging on TJX shows I was wrong — low wages for factory workers? TJ Maxx has factories? As far as I knew, they were simply re-selling overstock from other retailers, which is why I see so many mall-store items from last season on the racks. Well, shit.

It’s one of the first world’s biggest shames, but unless you’re living like Ted Kaczynski, it is nigh impossible to live an American existence without exploiting others. It’s worth thinking about minimizing that impact, though — especially since many people just can’t afford to buy union-made sweatshop-free bamboo-and-soy clothing at the markup that comes with them, and such things are inaccessible to lots of us in other ways. (If there are brick & mortar shops besides American Apparel, where I don’t shop anymore, I don’t know about them.) There’s plenty of online shopping, but some of us — ahem — oddly shaped folks need to try things on.

So I guess my shopping methods may seem like a cop out, but I feel pretty comfortable in purchasing from Etsy, fair trade items from The Hunger Site shop, secondhand shops, most re-sellers (despite those mystery factories out there), and I am definitely not too proud to dumpster dive. Hell, I just picked up a few Urban Outfitters items (another place I don’t shop) used through Amazon; I saved money, bought secondhand, and got a sweet wall hanging without breaking a sweat. I’m still going to check tags and lean heavily toward handmade or union-made, but when I’m staring down a $40 t-shirt and a $40-marked-down-to-$3 one, the latter’s going to get preference, because I need to eat, too. To me, the most important aspect of keeping an ethical wardrobe is to make things last — waste is just about my least-favorite thing. I take care of my clothes, and even the cheap ones last for years, so I’m not constantly restocking. The last time I moved, I tried on everything in my closet and separated out the items that don’t fit — my friends got to come by for first pick at them, and the rest went to Goodwill, because seriously, who throws out clothing?

Recent lifestyle changes are making me smaller, which means I’ll need to do another purge-and-donate cycle and pick up some basics that fit soon. Can you share any tips that will help me generate a smaller footprint?

On a related note, I own a lot of t-shirts from shows and from silk-screening friends. I know that a crew neckline is probably the most unflattering cut for a lady, but it straight-up makes me feel like a little boy when I wear ‘em. I’ve done my share of t-shirt surgery, to the point where the only unmodified shirts in my closet are the ones I really love — I’m frankly nervous about fucking them up with my sub-par tailoring skills. Unfortunately, the fact that they have what my mother calls a “nun’s collar,” I never wear them — so I spent a scant few minutes dicking around with sewing scissors and pins to see what I could do without damaging the prints on them.

This is disgustingly god-damned easy.

Step One

1. Get together your supplies. A crewneck shirt that fits you, a good sharp pair of scissors, a needle and thread, pins (optional).

Step Two

2. Take your shirt and fold it in half vertically. Try to get it as centered as possible — I found it helpful to line up the shoulder seams. Crease the fold and jam your scissors down there, and snip as deep as you want, being careful not to catch the rest of the shirt in your scissors.

Step Three

3. Take your shirt and turn it inside out. Turn down the little flaps you just cut and straighten them out. Optionally, you can pin the flaps into place and try it on to see if the neckline lands where you want.

Step 4

4. Make delicious peanut butter flaxseed dark chocolate chunk cookies. (Optional but highly recommended!)

Step Five

5. Thread your needle — I doubled the thread so it would be stronger. Sew the corner of the flap down with a couple of small stitches, double-knot it, and cut the excess thread. Repeat with the other flap.

Step Six

6. Turn the shirt right-side out and see if you like where it lands. I usually go right down to the start of the print, because I’m a little anal about that — you might want to go deeper, in which case, you can take out the stitches with a seam ripper, cut deeper, and try again.

Step Seven

7. Put your shirt on.

Et voilà! This took me about five minutes per shirt and was totally nonthreatening, so I made v-necks out of about a dozen shirts over the course of a lazy Sunday afternoon. Some went deeper than this one, others were about this cut, but all are more comfortable, feel more feminine, and look better with a necklace, so I’m pretty happy with my lazy alterations.

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Grimlocke
July 27th, 2010 - 13:22

Woohoo! Garment alteration is my #1 favorite way of extending the life of my miniscule wardrobe. All of my stuff is secondhand anyway, from places like GW, Garment District and Buffalo Exchange (god I love that place), so my clothes tend to self-destruct faster than most. I’ve found that there’s almost nothing that can’t be reused or reinvented if you have the right tools. Now that I have both a serger and a regular machine, I’m teaching myself to sew in-style clothes out of my old crap and scraps. It’s tricky, but think about the results : one of a kind! fits your unique body shape perfectly! FUCKING GREEN, YO! And best of all, you did all the back breaking labor yourself, while happily drinking an IPA and smoking some German Shag. Secondhand and DIY FTW!
E. Bleak
July 27th, 2010 - 14:51

I haven’t been to the Buffalo Exchange because I keep hearing that it’s so expensive! I’m planning a run to the Goodwill soon anyway, I want to make some mega-deep V-necks and maybe a couple of tee dresses soon, I’ll likely wander across the street to B.E. just to check it out. (Is Poor Little Rich Girl still there?)

Really, the idea that TJX uses factories boggles my mind, do they have a house brand that I don’t know about? Because every time I’m there I usually snag super-overpriced brand names off the clearance rack and feel OK about it, since it’s not like Free People is making any money off their clothing when it sells for $2 a pop. (Just an example, but I keep finding FP stuff on sale there so I’ve been getting my twee hipster fix.) Between sweatshop labor, horrible hiring practices, creepy CEOs and more, the transparency that the Internet lends to business practices is making it harder and harder to shop with a clean conscience. :P

I reeeeeeeeeally need to improve my sewing/tailoring, I’ve been scouring the thrift stores for a sewing machine that’s in working condition…but at this point I’m just hoping that my mom gives me her old one someday.
Annie Spandex
July 27th, 2010 - 22:21

Personally, I would just cut out a v, but I’m lazy. ;)
Had no idea TJMaxx has factories!
E. Bleak
July 28th, 2010 - 12:18

I have definitely cut it out before, but I always seem to end up overdoing it and then the shirt falls off of my shoulders (fine) or gapes a ton when I lean forward (less fine). These at least cover my bra. :)

Thanks for commenting BTW, I’m checking out your site right now and holy crap it’s rad. Looooove your outfit for the Boygirlparty. :)
Beth
August 3rd, 2010 - 18:33

The main thing I want to know is where you got that AC/DC shirt you’re wearing in your Robo.to from???
E. Bleak
August 4th, 2010 - 13:49

Beth! I got it in the dollar bin at the Garment District! It’s a great slouching around/running shirt, I also wore it here. :D

Hacking liberally at the sleeves and neckline of like, any other t-shirt would give it the same look!
Euphoria
August 16th, 2010 - 12:25

Just as a point of reference from someone who used to work in retail and is now in the fashion industry. Stores like T. J. Maxx, Ross, Tuesday Morning, etc. don’t just sell things that couldn’t make it out of the store at clearance prices. They also sell clothing with defects that the companies weren’t willing to accept, clothing made from subpar fabric that the company wasn’t willing to accept (sometimes because the tag doesn’t state the actual content), and things they design, cut, and sew themselves.

As another point from the inside. Many companies will reroute clothing through different countries so that the point of origin isn’t necessarily were labor was done. If a shirt is embroidered in China and then is shipped to India to be sewn together, the tag is going to say India and you would never know that people in China were sewing on the beads.

One more thing: Most coperations (including the one I work for) have very very strick standards for factory audits. For instance all the workers at factories producing our clothing have to be 18 (even though you can legally work in China at 14) and we have standards for pay, conditions, and the like. In fact, we just failed a factory twice and told the vendor making the clothing for us that they can not use that factory because they couldn’t pass our audits.
E. Bleak
August 16th, 2010 - 13:14

Euphoria — thanks so much for the POV! I’ve definitely found some defective pieces on the racks at TJ’s, some of which I’ve picked up at a steal and repaired at home…no matter where it’s sourced, I’d rather have something be sold and used rather than put in a landfill. :)

Withdrawing financial support from factories that don’t meet an acceptable human rights standard is the only way that we’ll ever see change, IMO — it’s uplifting to hear that your corporation is enforcing that. Too many manufacturers are content to turn a blind eye.
Steff Metal
August 26th, 2010 - 04:02

E — fantastic idea for the collars — I have this problem too — I often just chop them out and let them fray away, but I don’t want to do this to the shirts I really love. I am such a slackass when it comes to the sewing.
Euphoria — seriously didn’t know any of that stuff. That rerouting tactic seems pretty scuzzy.
E. Bleak
August 26th, 2010 - 09:30

Steff — I think I chopped up every crewneck in my closet except one. (I tried, but failed, to put scissors to my Type O Negative shirt from Pete’s final tour…siiiigh.) My mom might set me up with her old heavy-duty sewing machine sometime down the line, hopefully I’ll get to do some bigger projects without having to stab myself in the finger with a sewing needle over and over again. :)