How I spent my weekend

Last weekend, I embroidered four western shirts, one for each of the boys in Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds. They’re playing the Scion Garage Shows with Hunx and his Punx at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn tomorrow & Mohawk in Austin on the 29th (free w/ RSVP!). Yay, embroidery! Look! Of course, Kid gets the red one.

Kid’s shirt, with his Stratocaster & a guitar amp.

Kiki’s, with his P Bass & a bass amp.

Ron’s Ludwig snare & kick drum pedal. I couldn’t resist throwing in a few sequins because the drums have a sparkle finish.

And Jesse’s Telecaster. The guitar’s colors are kind of blown out in the pictures. They’re a little more subtle in real life.

The French knot guitar tuners and strap buttons slay me.

I hadn’t done any real embroidery since grade school, and I didn’t get the shirts until Thursday night. Ron was leaving Monday morning, so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pull it off in time, but they turned out swanky. Each shirt has the owner’s instrument and an amp (except Ron’s, which has a kick drum pedal instead), plus a few little sparkles for good measure. Ron drew them all. The instruments are pretty accurate, though the scale of the necks had to be adjusted so they would fit and not look weird. I played around with the amps. I really wanted to emborider their nicknames on the backs, so I think I’ll get Ron to snatch them back after the Austin show so I can finish them. I also need to make on for Jason, who plays with them sometimes.

My only concern is whether they can be trusted to wash them in cold water. They can be machine washed and dried–and they shrank a lot when I pre-washed them–but I do worry they’ll shrink more/fade if they’re washed in hot water. I suspect that boys on tour are in the habit of not doing laundry until everything’s horrifically stinky, then washing everything in hot water. I’ll cross my fingers they won’t be dicks and they’ll just wash them all together as a separate load.

Anyway, I’ve totally got the embroidery bug!