Negative Space: Colour Blocking

Recently I have been getting both money conscious and antsy about my wardrobe. I have tons of shirts and stuff that I don't wear anymore either because I have worn them out completely (I don't like to shop so I wear things I like until they die) or they just don't work with my wardrobe or myself anymore.

Some of the items which have been sitting in my drawers were old long sleeve shirts I bought at Uniclo back when I was in Japan. I lived in these shirts as I could wear them for extra warmth under my work uniform back when I was teaching preschool in Japan. They were my go to item. Now they are all a little washed out and not nice enough looking to pass off as office wear for work.

Inspiration from Magazine

So after reading an article in the Winter 2012 Altered Couture about how to alter stretch tops I thought, "Sure, why not. I can so do that!"

Colour blocking is not something I gravitate to naturally. Something about these huge blocks of colour are rather intimidating. I also don't want to look like I just stepped out of a Lulu Lemon store. Still I figured if it did not work I would only be out a few shirts which I never wore anymore. So I pulled out two of the Uniclo shirts, navy blue and a strange red colour.

I also had one ruined black shirt from the Gap. Proof that I need a bib or something. All those white spots are grease stains or something which I got all down the front of the shirt. Not a pretty sight. So I marked them with the chalk so I would be sure to cut them all out during the course of the alteration.

So with much trepidation and a very solid ruler I began to make some measurements. This is usually where I get scared and run away, but I soldiered on. This is what I came up with in the end.

Obviously it is not finished. I am still playing with the placement of the red shirt. It was initially going to be even longer but when I tried it on the shirt was skin tight to my behind. Way too risque for me so it is back to the original idea of a tunic top.

I have since decided that the red is too long at the bottom. I think I will shorten it up to the same distance from the black hem to about 3 inches so it matched the red square in the middle front.

I am a little concerned that it is looking a lot like a cardigan over a shirt though so that may need some work as well. At least this is a project I can just throw stuff at and see what happens. It is kind of fun and I think I need to do stuff like that more. Less pattern focused and a little more random artiness.

Random Rupert

over Christmas it got quite cold here. The pond near our place froze and the is was really thick in places. It also created some really neat patterns.