What do you do when you accidentally stumble upon a basic tank on Target’s clearance rack for < $6? You buy it, trusting your hunch that the rather plain tank top has amazing potential – once you have your way with it!
Qué bonita señorita!
=
What a beautiful lady!
I’ve had a fascination with Frida Khalo for a while. Her life story interests me, as do her artwork, journals, and imagery. For me, the iconic picture that comes to mind when Frida’s name is mentioned is her braided hair + flower crown.
Inspired by the shirt’s words, Frida, and my own experiences of Mexican culture, I settled on using the rose/leaf graphic below – and cut a stencil from it with a few minor changes.
Then I placed the stencil at different locations on the tank. Some worked. Some didn’t. I liked the idea of a little pop of color up by my face and something to balance it out. After a few tries, I settled on stencil placements and knew that I was going to use the reverse appliqué method for the rose/leaf design.
For the roses and leaves, I used hot pink, salmon, yellow, and lime green cotton jersey scraps and coordinating thread colors.
I friggin’ so enjoy the difference a little bit of work made on this tank top. It went from “meh” to “hey, what’s that?” in no time.
Already I have thoughts of adding something on the back side in the future. . .
