A while ago, I ordered this t-shirt for my huzbs. It was drawn by the very clever Kenzie of Hand Made T-shirts by Kenzie.
Tim, well, he loves that t-shirt! He says that even though it is about two sizes too small and thus looks like it belongs on a Mardis Gras float, he’ll wear it to bed some days any old how.
In a relationship that has spanned 17.5 years, I have successfully gleaned that three of his favourite things are:
1) Kevin Costner’s feel-good baseball hit of ’89 ‘Field of Dreams’;
2) The Commodore Amiga home computer; and
3) Lars Ulrich (whose hand he shook once at some sketchy event hosted by an even sketchier commercial radio station).
Kenzie drew them up, and WOW, there they are. RAD!
While these days he is all paired down simplicity in his Scandinavian-esque dungarees, Tim really is no stranger to the DIY aesthetic. And, around 2002, things were wildly DIY in our home.
Every night, I used to sit there DIY-ing, in front of that brand TV new series, Scrubs, all the while wondering if Meg and Jack White were really brother and sister or husband and wife.
“Dude, you cannot get shit this RAD in the shops!” I would orate over the peaky whiff of that fabric pen.
True, I never quite had the DIY skillz to match my DIY enthusiasm, but here’s a bunch of things I made for him using fabric pens, felt, and poorly wrangled embroidery floss.
And, because he loved me lots and knew RAD when he saw it, Tim usually wore these creations. Even the jumper that had a stuffed (faux) koala’s head sewn on it!
(Not pictured. Someone threw it in the bin).
The Toucan Sam off the Froot Loops box hat!
Look! I even came up with my own slogan. If that isn’t DIY, I don’t know what is!
Three Michelin-stars go to my weird crappily tattooed Bibendum in a post-Apocalyptic city (complete with strange floating teddy bear’s head).
Even when you’re DIYing a baseball cap, it pays to think about this mortal coil we’re whizzing around. Here is my ode to Ghostbusters on Día de los Muertos fabric.
And, there were oodles more.
I was constantly using the pinking shears to re-fashion a tie into a cravat, and sticking all sorts of stupid crap on t-shirts (most visually arresting and difficult to wear was a Barrel of Monkeys).
These were my favourite sneakers, that someone in Japan customized (you’ve seen my drawing skills, above):
Anyway, while most of this stuff is stuffed in a box somewhere, there will always be a little bit of DIY in my heart. One day, I will deploy it properly in a CWA meet somewhere. With skill opposed to grit!
Almost a decade on from my own frenzy of DIY, I still feel a rush of joy when I see a proper young person proudly wearing something they have obviously made.
Rocking a DIY aesthetic, you Rad My World!
