Lucy Leith and the Bespoke Duct Tape Jacket
Katherine Sharpe
Lucy Leith, age 13, came to Maker Faire all the way from Burlington, Vermont with her dad, Andrew. I met the pair yesterday evening outside of our hotel, where we were all waiting for the shuttle back to the airport. Lucy was wearing around her neck what looked like an extra-long version of the ergonomic neck cushions that are sold at airports, in soft fabric with an attractive peppermint stripe. It was, she explained to me, a pair of pillow pants: an original design made by stuffing an old pair of pajama pants and sewing the waist and cuffs closed, for a comforting and economical alternative to the very buckwheat-stuffed cushions they reminded me of.
"She just really likes to make things," said the elder Leith of his daughter, who removed the pillow pants to model another creation: a homemade duct-tape jacket, complete with pockets and a working zipper.
The jacket, Lucy said, came out of a project of using duct tape to create a custom dress form; because her own body was the basis of the model, the jacket fits her perfectly. On first glance it looks more like a well-worn-in motorcycle jacket than a garment made of household goods. It even has a fabric lining, all hand-stitched:
On her blog, Lemon Squared*, Lucy details the process of making her jacket, as well as the other products of her fertile obsession with duct tape: handbags, a robotic crab cover, awesome cotton-lined duct tape pants and my personal favorite, duct tape shoes that she made and and wore to school last spring.
Lucy, ReadyMade salutes you.
"She just really likes to make things," said the elder Leith of his daughter, who removed the pillow pants to model another creation: a homemade duct-tape jacket, complete with pockets and a working zipper.
The jacket, Lucy said, came out of a project of using duct tape to create a custom dress form; because her own body was the basis of the model, the jacket fits her perfectly. On first glance it looks more like a well-worn-in motorcycle jacket than a garment made of household goods. It even has a fabric lining, all hand-stitched:
On her blog, Lemon Squared*, Lucy details the process of making her jacket, as well as the other products of her fertile obsession with duct tape: handbags, a robotic crab cover, awesome cotton-lined duct tape pants and my personal favorite, duct tape shoes that she made and and wore to school last spring.
Lucy, ReadyMade salutes you.
