The Quest for the Perfect T-Shirt

Newcomer to Hamline Fashion Club stitches together the first step towards a grand ideal

Before last year, Ricardo Martinez had never sewn anything. The extent of his clothing design had been creating team logos out of online presets, but after a short start at Fashion Club, he’s now sewing his way towards the perfect t-shirt.

“Alisha talked me into it,” Martinez said referring to the club’s president and his friend, Alisha Bowen. “I mentioned how I wanted to learn how to sew,” and I had to be a little more original— creative.” That’s when the rest was history, so to speak. She introduced him to flannel sleeves were added out of a pair of shorts turned into Fashion Club and started teaching him the basics. the arms of his top.

“She brought a sewing machine into my room one “That was also tricky because they were female shortnight,” Martinez recounted, remembering how fun that shorts that didn’t really have enough material.” night lesson was. Once he knew some basics, he wanted With help again from Bowen, he figured out a way to to participate. use the minimalistic shorts to add the accent sleeves. But the

“The theme was recycled clothes,” Martinez said shirt still wasn’t completed. The last element to add was a about the first show. Everything they made was to be pocket. made from discarded and donated pieces. “I made it in a spot it isn’t usually in,” Martinez said of its

“I originally wanted to make a shirt that was longer placement on the lower right of the shirt. Besides its location, in length, but still tighter and kind of flowy-ish. Slimmer, the pocket’s size stood unique. “I felt like it’s comfortable to longer, looser and kind of stretchy,” Martinez said. “[I have a pocket down there, and I also made it extra big…” He wanted] a larger collar instead of being choked, slightly demonstrated, putting his entire hand into the black pocket. smaller sleeves and little things like that.” The last step was showing it off.

Even with a mental image of the top in his head, “At first I was like, ‘I don’t know about this.’ It was out of materializing it became a challenge. recycled clothes,” Martinez said, but he found validation at

“It’s hard to do if you don’t have one, big piece of the show. “Some people came from other schools [and said] material,” Martinez explained. “A lot of the donation ‘Wow, I actually wanna wear that.’ ” shirts had designs on them already. What I did from that Inspired by the feedback, Martinez plans to continue in point was see what I could use. I just thought of the basic Hamline Fashion Club and to keep chasing parts of a shirt. There’s sleeves, there’s the body, there’s his first idea: the perfect t-shirt. pockets and designs that are optional.”

Looking at pieces from the donations, Martinez found his options for a body base between two choices: a black shirt or the white he chose. Otherwise, a lot were marked with Hamline designs or parts of the Anderson dining hall button-up uniforms. the quest for the

Working off the base, the next step was making it into something like his vision. “I didn’t wanna do just plain perfect t-shirtcolored sleeves because I didn’t want to make a shirt you’d already find. Words and photos by Franki Hanke