Making a Self Defense Tee
Technically this would be considered the second self-defense shirt I’ve made. The first being the cactus shirt I made nearly a whole year ago in October for a costume dance, or one of many costume dances.
Frankly, if you want a shirt that says “stay away from me” that one was better. However, this one is more fun, functional, and easier to dance in without injuring any potential dance partners.
Full transparency, this is not an original idea, I stole it from the amazing Micarah Tewers.
Ok, let’s commence with the recreation.
Step One
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Step One 〰️
Discover a new scroll feature on your website, become obsessed with it’s annoyingness, and use it for the rest of the post. You’re welcome.
Then you’ll need to be planning on going to a weekend dance convention with theme days.
One of these days will happen to be a neon theme.
“Oh no, I have no neon clothes!”
No worries, that’s what thrift stores are for.
I can’t explain the science behind this, but every time I go into a thrift store looking for something, no matter how vague I am about it, I will not be able to find anything.
I didn’t find anything neon enough there to suit me so I got this green shirt and decided to dye it neon green.
Step One and a Half
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Step One and a Half 〰️
Don’t do this step. I thought it was a good idea but it turned out not to be a good idea.
I chopped off two to three inches from the bottom of the shirt, because I thought it would be too long.
Reasons why this seemed like a good idea. a) I had a small sample piece to dye before potentially ruining the whole T-shirt. b) It would make the shirt more of a good length when I did what I was going to do with it.
Step Two
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Step Two 〰️
Make up the dye according to the directions on the bottle and hope it all works out.
I’m 97% sure I didn’t do the dyeing process correctly. For one, this is definitely not a big enough pot. The fabric is supposed to have room to float around and this was just crammed in there. I did stir it often to try and lessen the chances of it dyeing unevenly.
It still came out a bit splotchy, but not too noticeably so.
Step Three
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Step Three 〰️
Put the side seams together, flop the shirt down on the floor so that the front and back now look like the sides to a strange shirt.
Draw a very slightly sloping pyramid in the center.
Cut some strips up to that line.
And then stretch them out.
The finished product will look something like this!
Step Four
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Step Four 〰️
Aka, adding the self defense aspect.
Since this is a neon dance themed shirt, we need to use neon beads. These are those fun larger plastic seed beads.
Thread two per strand, tying a knot underneath each bead.
Step Five
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Step Five 〰️
Repeat the steps (minus the pyramid) for the sleeves.
I cut pretty much perpendicular to the sleeve seam.
I made these thinner. Don’t do that. It was a bad idea. The knots were not big enough to keep the beads on very well.
And then you’re all done!
This might be my favorite shirt that I’ve ever made.
It makes such a fun swishy noise when I move.
As far as self-defense goes, it doesn’t hurt too badly when the beads hit anything. This does make it better as a dance shirt, to be honest.
Grand Reveal
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Grand Reveal 〰️
Well, there it is. At some point I may get a better picture taking contraption and a better back ground, but until then, enjoy this video of me pretending to be a super hero or something.
I’m very happy with how this shirt turned out. I have no idea how or if I will ever be able to wash it. It has shed some beads around, but most of them are still on.
I have three other projects in various stages of being completed. Hopefully, I will have some more motivation when the summer months are over.
However, I did decide to go back to college. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “Weren’t you the one who called college a ‘black hole’?” Yep, I did say that and I kind of still believe that, having had to say bye to everyone going back to college this week. I guess, online college seems different because I’m still able to live wherever I want to and do whatever I want and still do my schooling. Oh, and I’m interested in what I’m studying. That helps a ton!
Anyhow, all that to say I will probably be posting with the same frequency I always do.
Whenever I feel like it. ;)
