Houdini Nation's blog/

Ok. A bit behind schedule I'm finally starting on what was supposed to be a "little" project.

Some of you might know a company called Spreadshirt where you can upload your designs, place them on shirts (among other things) and order them. So far, so easy.

Before I went to the USA in August, I was in contact with two guys at Spreadshirt here in Germany (where I live) and the result was me being comissioned to do this project: Create a Shirtain. (here is a logo:)

Shirtain logo-sketch.

The main idea:

T-Shirts are groovy. You can wear them, you can wet them (for the contest), you can wear them out, you can transform them into a Tuareg-style bandana. But what else can you do with T-Shirts? The fabric is nice, 100% cotton (for most of them), they can be washed and ironed easily, they keep you warm and it is actually quite hard to see through them (when dry and not white). Perfect material for: A curtain!

The project outline:

I have bought a cheap sewing machine from IKEA. Over the next few days I will produce a prototype from shirts provided by Spreadshirt. I will document the process on here for everybody to follow, to comment and to make their own. Stay tuned!

My background:

I earn my money as a marketing muse for Dorten in Stuttgart/Germany. I have a few Spreadshirt Shops, none of which sell, but I can't be bothered to advertise that stuff. I took a three year course in Performance Design at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (yeah, the Paul McCartney Fame-School), where I also learned how to design and make costumes. This project is a flashback to these times and I hope that I will succeed in the end. This is also meant as a first project in the direction of the art-world. I have a few other concepts that might be more interesting, who knows. I love this Shirtain thing. Let's go, first pics available tomorrow!

Here is a selection of pictures taken when unpacking the mail from Spreadshirt ...

Material for the shirtain

It's shirts!

All the shirts for the shirtai…

Me posing with shirts.

The next step will be as follows:

Hanging system:

The hanging system is actually easily solved. I will use regular coat hangers. Thus the shirtain can be used with almost all standard curtain rails (some McGyver action applies), it can be taken down easily and washed and the shirtain can be constructed from things you have at home. Why that can still be a tricky thing will be explained in the next post.

Colour selection:

I can't do a single colour curtain with these shirts, obviously, except for tiny windows. So I kind of decided to attemp a colour gradient from top to bottom, starting with white at the top (let some light through) and then going down through either shades of green. Prototype 2.0 will sport electric orange and light blue with leftover whites.