Canadian Gift Guide

This is a weird story. About a year ago I sat down at a meeting with two industry contemporaries, and we chattered a bit about Earth Day. One of the people in the meeting mentioned she knew these women that made these incredibly durable, stylish, reusable shopping bags out of plastic shopping bags. I then mentioned I’d heard of something similar with tee-shirts. I did some searching online until I found two books dedicated to reinventing the tee, and took one out from the library.

My gift suggestion today is meant for the craftier friend in your life that is willing to spend a few hours of their time (or already does) with scissors and a needle to rejig their wardrobe. It’s also ideal for the friend you want to send a gentle hint to, namely, that oversize promotional tees should not be worn unless they’ve been reworked into one of the insane ideas in these books.

The book that I took out from the library was Generation T: Beyond Fashion, featuring 120 ways to transform your tees into all matters of other shirts, dresses, skirts, accessories for your home, pet, car, and man. I myself tackled the cover image ‘Pin-Up Halter’ in a matter of minutes, while also starting (and not quite finishing sigh) a placemat project. The thing I really like about this book is they don’t just give you individual ideas, they give you whole themed sections, complete with ideas for a ‘tee party’ to gather your girlfriends together to make customized baby gifts, housewarming ideas, and more. Consider this book a double whammy – you can buy it for yourself to make gifts for other people, or you can buy it for a friend to make gifts for other people (including yourself).

The original book in the series, plain ol’ Generation T, tackles 108 ways to transform a tee into mostly fashion-oriented pieces (including a wedding dress) but is generally pretty similar to the original. Both books are priced at $14 a piece, meaning you could easily buy them both for an uber crafty friend, and still have money left over for supplies to make their tee crafting dreams come true.

A couple of caveats – these books are geared towards a younger set – think teens, twenty-somethings, and young-at-heart thirty-somethings. They’re also geared towards festival-going hipsters that love the idea of reworked, unrecognizable, one-of-a-kind pieces. This is not the gift to bequeath on your Banana Republic-obsessed, corporate lawyer gal pal. Nor is it ideal for the girl-about-town that has nary a spare second to spend on, ick, sewing! But for the girls out there that participate in ‘Stitch N Bitch’ sessions, attend outdoor music festivals, or simply dig shopping vintage, this is a fun, unique gift that will keep on givin’ for years to come.