Monday, January 22, 2018

Take Back the Nightshirt


Pam encounters herself in the Take Back the Nightshirt

Experiments with t-shirts and lace continue. I still have lots and lots of Tennessee Williams' mother's curtains at my disposal (for the back story on how I got the curtains, and to see the original art piece created from these voluminous drapery sheers, see Rise and Shine: Tennessee William's Mother's Curtains). For this version of the nightshirt, I decided to substitute the sheers for the lace.

The original inspiration for the t-shirt and lace nightshirt came during a spiritual retreat at Findhorn in northern Scotland. Our group for the week was a motley international mix of ages, inclinations, neuroses, and nationalities. My roommate Sondra, a high-powered, type-A businesswoman from Hong Kong, appeared one night in our bedroom wearing what appeared to be a regular old t-shirt with a deep border of lace on the hem. I jumped (as well as I am able at this point in life) out of bed to inspect the garment more closely. Below is a photo of Sondra, clearly sliding from type A down to type P or Q after feeling the Findhorn influence of fairies and garden sprites.

Sondra, looser than when she arrived at Findhorn.

My first stab at creatively interpreting Sondra's nightshirt was a children's wear twist on the theme (which tosses in two poets for good measure), The Longfellow, Williams, Milne Memorial Nightshirt for Fractious Young Women. This time around I tried an adult version. In both cases the shirts were failures in a sense: they are just too charming to be worn in the dark. 

The Take Back the Nightshirt

This version of the nightshirt incorporates a large, gray, man's t-shirt from the thrift store, a swath of Tennessee William's mother's curtains, and a length of white ribbon. 

Border detail: the "rise and shine" quote

I have once again used a Willliams' quote from The Glass Menagerie: "Every time you come in yelling that God damn 'Rise and Shine!' 'Rise and Shine!' I say to myself, 'How lucky dead people are.'" I suppose that could be seen as depressing, but those among us who are "bad-waker-uppers" will appreciate the sentiment. The letters were hand-printed onto the ribbon using a vintage alphabet printing set.

Detail: polka dot

For the polka dots, I used a cardboard template to cut out a bunch of circles from the drapery sheers and then used a simple blanket stitch to attach them to the t-shirt and keep the edges from unraveling.

And here is my friend Pam doing a fabulous job of modeling the Take Back the Nightshirt.

Note the single polka dot, center back.

Pam, experiencing the power that only a Take Back the Nightshirt can endow.

4 comments:

  1. I love the embellishment & curtain story.
    Pam owns the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can see why you said they're too charming to be worn in the dark. It came out just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the top! Am intrigued with the bottoms, did you make them as well?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I didn’t make them, they are hers. But I have eyes them carefully in the past. Those are ribbons too-stitched horizontally at the bottom.

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