Great Funny T-Shirts And Celebrity Trends

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Posted on 11th January 2012 by socialchange in Fashion

celebrity tshirtsOne of the biggest celebrity fashion trends is to put a picture of a celebrity on a tshirt. Just have a look at Beyonce (left). Perhaps the best way to sell clothing is to put it on a celebrity’s back. Failing that, put a celebrity image on the back of the t-shirt; either way it’s trendy, it’s funny and it’s celebrity…

Celebrities on t-shirts

Of course there’s always the official merchandise: images of squeaky clean Justin Bieber sporting his shinny white-toothed grin on the back of a teenaged-girl (or boy, I guess…) And then there are the unofficial ones. This is where the fun starts.

The question is: who owns the celebrity image, and in what way? In many countries mainly outside the US, the visual image belongs to the person who took the picture, and it may be used in any way that’s not damaging to the person portrayed. This is particularly good if you’re producing a product that parody’s a celebrity: very useful during presidential election campaigns!

In North America, it’s all rather vague. As long as a funny t-shirt doesn’t try to pretend to be official merchandise, it should be safe. As for the celebrity: tough luck! A life in the media spotlight works both ways, and a few funny t-shirts with celebrity trends is all part of being famous.

Celebrity t-shirts and charities

The other completely different market for celebrity funny t-shirts is for raising funds and awareness for charity. In the UK, the BBC runs an annual fund-raiser for children’s charities known as ‘Comic Relief’. Each year notable comedians, celebrities, the rich, the famous, the great and the good, all come together to raise $1,000,000’s for charity. As part of this campaign, funny t-shirts with a celebrity theme are available throughout the country.

Celebrity trends to support good causes through the marketing of clothing and other merchandise is now starting to take hold in North America. One of the easiest items to merchandise is the good old funny t-shirt: easy to produce and quick to distribute.

The big celebrity t-shirt market

By far the biggest market for funny t-shirts sporting images of the rich and famous is online. Funny celeb T’s are big business for an increasing number of companies. Catch phrases, cartoon-sketches, photo-shopped images, parodies, the clean, the rude and the outrageous, have all found their way onto the online shelves. There are literally hundreds to choose from and can make great presents for yourself or your friends and family (best not get your mother a rude one…)

The only limit to the humor is in the imagination of the t-shirt designer. It seems the trend in funny t-shirts, poking fun at celebrity, is set to stay. That’s great news for everyone, even for the celebrities. Who was it that said, “Any publicity is good publicity”? With funny t-shirts having a jest at the rich and famous, celebrities should be pleased with the growing trends!

Uses for Fabric

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Posted on 6th December 2011 by socialchange in Fashion

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When people think of fabric, the rows of thin cotton calicos used in quilt making at the Joann Fabrics are what usually springs to mind. While calicos are a large part of the selection in a fabric store (particularly Joann Fabrics, which typically dedicates an entire wall to them), there are many other types of fabric for endless uses available.

Joann Fabrics (I am using Joann Fabrics as the example because it is the most common store near me) keeps, in stock, varieties of apparel fabric, decorator fabric, canvas, vinyl, felt, faux fur, and occasionally faux leathers. In the front of the store, Joann Fabrics keeps a section of holiday relevant merchandise like Christmas Themed calicos or specialty fabric for costumes around Halloween.

My favorite section of any fabrics store, but particularly Joann Fabrics, is the clearance fabric section. It is always worth a look, even if you don’t have a specific project in mind. In the Joann Fabrics’ clearance section, I have found heavyweight wool tweeds, stretch denim, silky jersey, perfect for making dresses, cotton knits, glittery vinyl, and, my favorite, several yards of waffle knit, thermal fabric with multi colored hearts. The clearance section usually has something similar to what I am looking for less than $7 a yard.

Making quilts and clothes are not the only reason for buying fabric. Many people use fabric in scrapbooking as backgrounds and to make page decorations. In the past, I have stretched my own canvasses for art projects using cotton duck fabric–a heavy weight, sturdy, woven fabric available in many colors, think a cotton version of the fabric found on a camping chair. My mother has used different types of felt and flannel to create “paper” dolls for most of the young girls in our family because the texture of the fabric lends itself to sticking without using Velcro.

One of my favorite reasons to use fabric is actually fairly lazy. When I get bored of my window treatments, I go to Joann Fabrics and pick up several yards of an eye-catching fabric and either drape it as a swag over the top of the current curtains, pin it at one end and hang it in pace of the current curtains, or, if I am feeling particularly ambitious, I will sew a panel of fabric on one edge of the curtain, changing its look without causing me to buy all new curtains.

Another easy and fairly fast change to my décor that I like is to use a piece of fabric that coordinates with the curtain fabric and quickly hand stitching it to a throw pillow. Before stitching it on, I use my iron to press the folded sides so that the fabric won’t leave threads sticking out as the decoration is used.

Other useful things that I keep with my fabric stash are hand sewing needles and thread, fabric glue, heat fusible web (it looks like tape and holds like stitching when pressed with an iron–supremely useful when I’m being lazy or I was something like a temporary hem), sharp scissors, and a seamstress’ measuring tape.