The Macgyver Shirt
Concept –
The theme and creation of our shirts were inspired by Mac Macgyver, a famously creative problem solver in the TV show Macgyver, originally played by Richard Dean Anderson. Mac Macgyver is a secret agent who never carries a gun, forcing him to be innovative with everyday objects to save the day. This allowed him and his name to become infamous for being an outrageously creative guy who can solve any problem with every day objects.
Objective –
To create a sewn functional addition to all the students and the teacher’s shirts. In this exercise, we became Macgyvers to some extent, as we had to take an everyday shirt and add something functional for everyday use to it.
Beginning Stages –
To start off this project, I first chose a task to do for all the shirts! I unknowingly chose this task, not realizing how challenging and how time-consuming it would be to do embroidery text for ALL of the shirts.
Sketches –
My first idea for this project was to create a cartoon style picture of Robert by hand sewing his face on the collar of the shirts. However, this had more to do with the creation of a logo, rather than being a functional addition to the shirt.
My second idea was to put a pocket on the side of the shirt for pepper spray, as I carry it every day with me, and it is not easily accessible from my purse. Although, none of the other students carried pepper spray so I moved on from this idea.
My other ideas were to add a waterproof pocket or reflective pocket on top of the shirt pocket or to add a key-card/metro cardholder, however, similar ideas were already going to be implemented.
My final idea, that was also suggested by Robert, was adding and creating a new tag for the inside of the shirt. I sketched out a few different options for the layout of the tag and went to work!
Prototypes –
Before delving into the full creations of the tags, I made three prototypes to figure out which layout looked best. Because someone else decided to put our room number on the backside of the shirt, I decided to only include “TNS” for The New School, my classmates’ last names, and the current year.
Sewing Process –
I first ironed out the muslin and sketched out a rough outline for the tags. I made sure to leave room to hem the raw edges while also giving the space needed to hand stitch the words into the center of the tag.
Then I cut out the squares and pressed the edges to begin hemming.
During the hemming of the raw edges, I struggled with keeping the lines straight and made a few errors in the beginning stages of creating the tag.
After, I began to hand sew the previously stated words onto the tag, making sure to use larger tags for the longer last names.
When the tags were finished, I was ready to attach them to the shirts.
I took off the labels showing everyone’s last name on them and attached my tag. I decided to keep the previously attached with the size and brand tag so I could better line up my tag to the shirt. When sewing the tag onto the shirt, I used red thread for the front of the tag, and black thread on the bobbin so the backside of the shirt would still have a seamless black color. After fastening them to the shirt, I trimmed any loose threads.
Results –
Problem-solving –
In our class, we had an extremely hard time keeping track of all of our shirts, as they were constantly being passed around from person to person. Some were even lost! The tag I created was to help make sure we always knew which shirt was ours by adding our last names, what college we go to (TNS/The New School), so that if it was ever off-campus they could know where it came from, while also giving the shirt the year we made it so we can always remember our first sewing project we did collectively in our first year of college.
Conclusion –
Working on this exercise was very tedious and took a lot of time, however, the outcome allowed me to try to perfect my work and keep improving on my sewing skills. I learned how to collaborate with my peers and how to work on time management together. Throughout this process, I feel I learned a lot about problem-solving, although not to the extent that Macgyver would be doing it, but in a more everyday way where I now have more experience working out problems with my classmates, which I feel will be very beneficial for the future. As a class team, I felt we succeed in that we all brought different and interesting things to the table which made me really excited about doing this project.
