Tie-Dye on a Tuesday Afternoon

Now that it's finally feeling like spring, I can enjoy the great outdoors during this short sweet spot before it gets too hot, or the cicadas return, or the pollen count gets out of control.   It means I can relocate certain craft projects out of the basement and outside.  And this is especially ideal for said projects that involve working with materials that are best used in a well-ventilated area...like bleach!  

Recently I broke out the bleach to tie-dye and otherwise experiment with a few things.  My favorite transformed piece from the afternoon was a top I got in China a few years ago.  Last fall I wrote about collecting all kinds of souvenir t-shirts but this one is different!  

It's more like a traditional Chinese top than any old standard screen-printed t-shirt with a landmark on it...  I admired it on the lady (above) leading our boat tour and  then I found my own 'authentic' fat 'tourist-sized' version in a street market a few days later.  I bought two; one for my mom and one for me.  Of course, my mom has never actually worn hers so I experimented on that.

And it turned out great!  The material took to the bleach really well and I love the effect I was able to get!    The top was cool before, but now it's one of a kind!  This one is going to the shop since it doesn't fit me (and my mom doesn't wear it...) so I'm hoping I can get a similar effect with the one I bought for myself.  Here's how I've styled them:

I like buttoning this top different ways so it drapes differently and to get a cowl-neck effect:

It's many tops in one!  I've seen blue and white or patterned indigo pieces in a few places this season.  I love this jacket from J.Crew (below, left) and this one from Plentiful Jenn on etsy (below, right):

I'll share pics when I get around to bleach-dying the other one!  (Hopefully, it's before my window of perfect-conditions-for-working-outside closes!)

     

Destination Bag #1: San Diego Tote

Destination Bag #1: San Diego Tote, SOLD

As an east-coaster, with few (read: none) references or associations for the city of San Diego, all I could think of when I found this bag was the annoyingly catchy theme song (by Rockapella) to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, a children's PBS show from the nineties.  I thought Carmen was from San Diego, but no.  This bag, however, is probably from San Diego!  It was even made in the USA: the tag says Dallas, Texas.

It has patriotic red stripes, and the sails on the boat are blue.  Woven straps are also blue.   Main compartment seals completely with zipper along top opening.

Bag is made of sturdy canvas-like material.  It's in great condition and was probably only used a handful of times: I noted one spot on the bottom of the bag and a few dirt marks along the bottom.  Interior is clean save for another dirt smudge that does not show through on the outside.  I did not launder this bag but I imagine that it could be washed by hand.

Measured flat, it is approximately 20.25 inches across the top, 16.5 inches in height from top opening to bottom seam, and handle of straps measure 25 inches in length. 

All of the destination shirts and bags featured on the blog (plus a few that aren't) can also be found in the Vintage Adoption Agency Etsy shop!  This bag is part of my collection (obsession?) with souvenirs from random places that I've never been. I wrote about them here.

Destination Tee Shirt #4: Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal

Miraflores Locks Tee, estimated Medium, SOLD

Nineties Neon Love.

Now we're going international!  Things I know about Panama: I vaguely remember learning about the Panama Canal (and Teddy Roosevelt and malaria) in the 9th grade.  I vividly remember learning the following mnemonic device for the countries of Central America: 'My goodness, but eating hot nachos causes pain!' in 8th grade.  I think I saw an episode of House Hunters International that featured Panama City and I think my neighbor went on a cruise through the Panama Canal.

I don't come across shirts from Panama often.  I love the nineties neon orange and yellow colorway happening and the ombre effect on the font.  The texture on the screen print is slightly raised and I see very slight traces of stray glitter flecks suggesting the shirt was a bit fancier at one point.  It's perfectly soft and the cut is more modern and less fitted.

Tag says shirt is a L or 42.  It is 23.5 inches long measured from center front neckline to hem ad 20.25 inches across the bust measured flat (undoubled) underneath the sleeves. 100% cotton.

Minor things to note: Two points on the inside where it's evident the shirt has been mended (but not evident from the outside, see pictures) and the hem is coming unstitched about four inches at the back left side.  Priced accordingly.

Price for t-shirt is listed in USD.  Shipping is $6 and Paypal is the only accepted form of payment.  If you think you can provide a good home for this item, read over this and send me an e-mail at vintageadoptionagency@gmail.com.

All of the destination shirts and bags featured on the blog (plus a few that aren't) can also be found in the Vintage Adoption Agency Etsy shop! This shirt is part of my collection (obsession?) with souvenirs from random places that I've never been. I wrote about them here.

Destination Tee Shirt #2: Cocoa Beach

Cocoa Beach Tee, estimated Small, SOLD

Fresh Chocolate Milk from Cocoa Beach...

Cocoa Beach, Florida.  This shirt is a brighter, more primary yellow than the Daytona Beach tee.  I've always loved how the waves are brown, like cocoa, and fade into white because it reminds me of chocolate milk.  And could you imagine how delicious it would be to sail in a sea of chocolate milk?  I know it's child-like to imagine the literal interpretation of something and I imagine I'd be a disappointed kid if I had seen that Cocoa Beach wasn't chocolate milk... Anyway.

This shirt is 22.25 inches in length as measured from the center front neckline to hem and the bust is 16.75 inches across (undoubled) as measured underneath the sleeves.  No flaws noted.  It is slightly sheer but it's sheer in that authentic, had-it-for-ages way that's so much softer than all the too-sheer wannabe-vintage new shirts out there. (Attn designers: Stop making every single t-shirt out of that really sheer, crappy material that pills after one wear and two washes. It's for chumps!)

I got this t-shirt when I was in middle school (over a decade ago).  My mom's friend's aunt gave me a bag of vintage tees from the seventies and eighties and this is the last one I have left.  There was a gray 'Property of Alcatraz' one that I wore into the ground and there was a baseball tee with rainbow-striped sleeves and a silver glitter rose heat transfer on the front that I gave to my cousin.

There were a couple of really fitted 'baby' tees in the bag that I loved but was always too self-conscious to wear because my (newly sprouted) boobs distorted the pictures/letters across front.  That's never a good look in my opinion, unless you're in some kind of contest or maybe a Hooters girl, and I've sold a vintage Hooters tee before...  I think the graphic/design placement on this shirt is exceptionally flattering and boob-friendly, which isn't always the case.  I remember one of these little tees showed a scuba diver underwater with the caption "St Croix" and I remember seeing the EXACT same graphic on a t-shirt at Old Navy (when I thought Old Navy was cool*) and thinking I was so cool for owning my vintage original...So cool!

*Old Navy circa the late nineties was awesome.  Can we have a moment of silence for how awesome Old Navy was?  The commercials, the merchandise, the music in the stores...  (I remember everyone singing this at the bus stop like it was a Christmas carol and my mom and I dancing around the store, asking an employee about the song they were blasting.)  It was a magical moment in retail where the stars were aligned for them and they seemed to get all the 5 R's.  These days, Old Navy is like thrifting to me in that I just go in expecting to have a hit or miss experience.

Price for t-shirt is listed in USD.  Shipping is $6 and Paypal is the only accepted form of payment.  If you think you can provide a good home for this item, read over this and send me an e-mail at vintageadoptionagency@gmail.com.

All of the destination shirts and bags featured on the blog (plus a few that aren't) can also be found in the Vintage Adoption Agency Etsy shop! This shirt is part of my collection (obsession?) with souvenirs from random places that I've never been. I wrote about them here.

Destination Tee Shirt #1: Daytona Beach, Florida

'81 Daytona Beach Tee, estimated Medium, SOLD

Party like it's 1981!  This pale yellow tee is super soft and I love the beach scene happening inside of the block lettering on the front.  It measures 21 inches in length from center front neckline to hem and 17.75 inches across at the bust, as measured beneath the sleeves.  Some slight pilling to the material.  And, in case you were wondering what a Stroh Light night looks like (try saying that three times fast), there's this.  (Not exactly the late nineties MTV version of Spring Break I imagined...)

Price for t-shirt is listed in USD.  Shipping is $6 and Paypal is the only accepted form of payment.  If you think you can provide a good home for this item, read over this and send me an e-mail at vintageadoptionagency@gmail.com.

All of the destination shirts and bags featured on the blog (plus a few that aren't) can also be found in the Vintage Adoption Agency Etsy shop! This shirt is part of my collection (obsession?) with souvenirs from random places that I've never been. I wrote about them here.

What I did (or didn't do) on my summer vacation...and the t-shirt that proves it!

Did anyone actually have this essay assignment when they went back to school in the fall? I feel like it's the cliché school scene shown in random movies/tv shows and I’ve been racking my brain to remember if I ever had to recount how I'd spent my summer with an essay or even a diorama, and I don’t think it happened.  (And making a diorama from the summer me and my brother watched the Star Wars trilogy, literally Every. Single. Day. and fought over the last slice of Ellio’s frozen pizza could have been pretty amazing.) 

Nothing says 'most memorable/bizarre/unsupervised summer ever!' like Star Wars and Ellio's frozen pizza.

The assignment that always kicked off my school year was summer reading.  I remember waiting until the last minute and trying to read all of the required books on the four-hour drive home from the beach.  We’d always go to Virginia Beach at the end of the summer and I always felt compelled to bring back a million souvenirs.  Without the keychains, postcards, t-shirts, cup cozies, stuffed animals and sea-shell figurines tackily emblazoned with “Virginia Beach, Virginia” to serve as evidence that I had been there, I feared the other kids would think I made the whole vacation up.

For more avid social media users (not me), I imagine it’s similar to when someone says they did something really awesome, but they don’t have any proof: if it’s not documented in a photo album on Facebook, if no one tweeted a funny observation about it, if there’s no blogger recap…did it even happen?  Does it matter?

These keychains were one of my favorite souvenirs!

My parents didn’t let me BUY ALL THE SOUVENIRS!! so I had to manage with one or two inexpensive but carefully chosen articles to represent the amazingness of my vacation.  Seashells from the beach would not suffice.  My souvenir short-list always included a t-shirt.  I imagined I would wear it and classmates would gather around me on the playground at recess.  They’d comment on the glittery seahorses and dolphins, envy the airbrushed artistry that composed the landscape, read the name of such an exotic locale far beyond our little town and ask if I’d really been there.  And I could say of course I had been there, because how else could I have gotten this t-shirt?  An awesome t-shirt was indisputable proof of an awesome summer vacation, right?

Random destination t-shirts are probably the biggest category of t-shirts I come across at thrift stores,  followed by t-shirts commemorating random events and t-shirts from random schools and companies.  When I worked at a thrift store, I noticed they rarely sold unless someone had been seeking something specific.  If they did sell, it was because of the subject: "I grew up in San Francisco!  What are the odds of finding a San Francisco shirt on the east coast?!"  Or the color: "My kid's little league team color is orange and I want to show my support so I'll just wear this shirt inside out..."  Yes, lots of people would actually explain to me why they were buying the things they bought.  Sometimes it was completely unnecessary:

Yeah, mon.  No shit.

All the random t-shirts sold best when they started to crowd the racks and were put on clearance for something like 5 for a dollar.  That's when the painters that worked around the corner would stock up.  While it was always fun to see a customer wearing something they had bought from our thrift store, my favorite 'model' was when my manager told me she had seen one of our regular customers; a Hispanic man, probably in his thirties or forties, who didn't speak very much English, and was among the aforementioned painters, walking down the street wearing a t-shirt that read 'I danced my butt off at Ally's Bat Mitzvah!' across the back.  While it's ENTIRELY possible he was a guest at Ally's Jewish coming of age festivities, it's more likely he bought it from us.  And didn't care.  (Or maybe he did care and it's the kind of aggressive irony only detected on the highest hipster frequencies...)

¿Cómo se dice Mazal Tov en  Español?

I have my own collection of random t-shirts.  It's not completely out of control but, at one point, I did possess a t-shirt from every school I ever went to, every vacation I went on, every foreign Starbucks I ordered the same drink from, every extracurricular club I was a part of (I even won a t-shirt design contest for one club) and every free promotional t-shirt available to me: 'No, I don't listen to that radio station....pretty sure I still need that shirt...because it's free!' and 'Why, yes, I am in college...pretty sure I need a shirt that doesn't specify which one...oh, it's from Animal House?  Never heard of it...You want me to complete a brief survey about my credit card spending before you give me the shirt?  Luckily for you, that is a hoop I will gladly jump through...'

But I've reined it in. Earlier this year, while at a shopping mall with a friend, there was a smartphone promotion with artists drawing caricatures of people using the smartphone's program and then they would screenprint your portrait onto a t-shirt...for FREE!  If ever there was a free t-shirt to wait in line for, this was it.  And I RESISTED!

Some of my t-shirts are actually relevant to places I've been and things I've done.  But others, particularly the vintage ones, just appeal to me because they are perfectly worn-in and made of that super soft seventies blend of polyester and cotton.  And occasionally, when I wear one, someone will make a comment/assumption and ask me about it.  At that point I have to confess that I just like the color, or the design, or the threadbare softness of it (no more glittering seahorses for me) and usually I'll stammer something vaguely apologetic for being misleading.

It's occurred to me that when you wear a screenprinted shirt, you're literally wearing that image (or text or logo) across your chest and your heart...in a sense, every shirt you wear could (should?) be interpreted as something you 'heart' or love.

My most memorable t-shirt-instigated interrogation happened when I was wearing a shirt featuring a NFL player as a kitchen appliance (refrigerator) while pumping gas.  I heard a guy's voice bellow from the adjacent gas pump: "Whoa, whoa!  That shirt is OLD SCHOOL!  Whatchu know 'bout that, honey?" (Answer: Nothing.)  Apparently, William 'the Fridge' Perry was quite the football star.  He even has this jam dedicated to him and his own brand of barbecue sauce.

I like my Fridge shirt because it's my favorite color (navy blue), insanely soft, and even reversible! I don't like football.

I've noticed Beatles song lyrics on shirts for sale at places like Forever 21 and dELiA*s and, as a Beatles fan (not extreme, but I do have a Beatles t-shirt, which I bought from the Beatles museum in Liverpool), I catch myself wishing there was some kind of IQ test for wearers.  As in, they should be able to name the song title that the lyrics on the shirt reference.  ('What do you mean you didn't realize 'All You Need is Love' was a Beatles song?!' *Pulls out hair*)

A few years ago, I saw a Run DMC shirt in the kid's section at H&M.  If I saw a kid wearing a Run DMC shirt, I'd probably think it was cute.  And I'd also probably be tempted to say "Whoa, whoa! That shirt is OLD SCHOOL!  Whatchu know 'bout that, honey?"

T-shirt Wearer IQ Test FAIL.

My parents always say I L-O-V-E-D Prince when I was little and would sing along to all of his songs on the radio.  When I was a little older, I saw part of Purple Rain and went into denial about the whole thing.  These days, I like Prince.  And I L-O-V-E my thrifted Prince t-shirt.  Favorite Prince song? Batdance.

Flowers! For me? Oh Prince, you shouldn't have...

I'm not ready to part with my Prince concert shirt, but all of the vintage destination shirts featured this week are souvenirs from thrift stores I've been to, none of them anywhere near the place advertised on the shirt.  I think the colors and graphics are great and they're already super soft and worn-in.  Maybe you can wear them and represent a place you're from or have actually been or you can at least look cool and be comfortable during your inevitable t-shirt interrogation: because, really, whatchu know bout that, honey?  

Prices for t-shirts will be listed in USD.  Shipping is $6 and Paypal is the only accepted form of payment.  If you think you can provide a good home for these items, read over this and send me an e-mail at vintageadoptionagency@gmail.com.

Oh, snap! We got some tote bags coming too!

All of the destination shirts and bags featured on the blog (plus a few that aren't) can also be found in the Vintage Adoption Agency Etsy shop!