A blank chore coat showed up with almost no instructions, just an invitation to make it my own. What I did to it, and what it turned into, is this story: a hand-printed coat, a merch drop, and a whole lot of roses.

The Invitation

The project was a chore coat. It came in pieces, with loose instructions and not much else. One blank chore coat. Eight buttons. Two large pockets, a chest pocket, a branded neck tag. And the freedom to do what I saw fit with it.

When the invite came from April Cornell and Shelter Cultivation Project to be part of The Cut & Sew Show, I was interested right away. The ask was simple: engage with the garment in whatever feels authentic to your practice. I like seeing how many places I can get Humbles™ into. Anything can carry the Humbles style, the application changes, the art stays the same. I learned that the hard way, moving from tattooing more into printing more.

Where Humbles™ Comes From

A little history, for anyone who doesn't know me yet. Before Humbles™, this was tattooing, a pretty recognizable style of flash illustration developed over years. These days the art's focused more on textiles than skin, and that's how Humbles™ was born. Tattoos are personal. I took that same idea, personalized illustration, and put it on clothing instead, something to wear the way you'd wear a tattoo. Bold prints over hand-dyed garments, like a tattoo on imperfect skin.

Everything happens on a manual press in this studio. Manual's slower, and that's the point. Slowing down, making something. Everything's so readily available now, you have to wonder if it's even worth having.

Making the Coat

I thought about April Cornell's floral patterns early on and knew I wanted to do roses. I've always been drawn to flowers, probably comes from the tattoo background. Drew them by hand, in the Humbles style. Added some Humbles charms and filler, and of course, stars. Stars go on every piece.

This is the original Humbles™ way: put everything onto two screens, then use each one as a stencil, moving it and placing it in awkward positions to get prints into tight places. I wanted an all-over print, so each image went down one at a time. Water-based ink too, on heavy material like this it keeps things light and lets the fabric move right, long term.

I free-floated the screens for this instead of running the press. It slows you down, makes you actually consider the print instead of just spinning the machine like a carousel and pulling the squeegee as fast as you can. I'd rather work slow, with intention.

This coat has somewhere around thirty to forty prints on it. Instead of a repeating pattern, I made my own version of one, the way you'd place tattoos on skin: main images, gap fillers, placed naturally, even running over seams on purpose. It's a risk, but it's like tattooing over a scar, or any other imperfect skin. You adapt to the material.

Buttons were dyeable, so I dyed them black, with contrasting thread, wanted them to stand out without stealing the show from the print. I'm not much of a sewist myself, so I brought in the Humbles family for this one, strong, durable, double-stitched, done right. Then came the color, hand colored the whole thing with Highlighter, one piece at a time, the part where you actually get to breathe, relax, and enjoy making the art.

Nothing about this coat came off a machine untouched. Every part of it, I touched.

The Merch: Something 'Bout the Roses

The story doesn't end at the coat. You can't have Humbles™ without merch, it's how the artwork turns into something people can actually wear and take home. This became "Something 'Bout the Roses," a hand-colored tee available in three styles: Classic, solid fill, the graphic as it was drawn. Point-Tone, dotted fill, same graphic done in dot work instead. And Artist's Choice, both of those plus an outside-the-box wild style, my call. Made to order, hand colored one at a time, available for preorder through the run of the show.

The Show

The Cut & Sew Show is a group art and apparel show at Karma Bird House, 47 Maple Street, Burlington, Vermont, running September through December, in collaboration with April Cornell, Shelter Cultivation Project, and many more contributing artists. 
 

Featured Artists

The show is a group effort, some new faces and some familiar ones from past projects, like the tote bag we did with FSP Outdoors. Featured artists include April Cornell, Shelter Cultivation Project, B. Thom Stevenson, Erika Senft Miller, Absorka, TimeChangeGenerator, J. Augur Design, Jamie Alpert, and many more: Granite Rocks, Anemone VT, Beenanza Design, FSP Outdoors, Rigg NY, Pepo Press Yes, Sand Is A Cult, Fern Valley Studio, Dailo Lab Klyn, J Becauze, Hypadelic, Herrie Clothing, J Lou Cohen Art, Big Time Industries, Lil Kool, Gyrl Kyle Thyngs, Una and Kepic, Silk and Spandex, Mase Man, Elmer Gomer, Peak Work, Hibbledy Gibldy, and Humbles™.

Watch It

Check out Studio Episode 5 and learn more about the process of the humbles™ chore coat. 

Shop It

If you see yourself benefiting from merch for your own art, don't wait for a show to make it happen. This project was a lot of fun, we really enjoy what we get to do here, and we like to share that with others. Shop "Something 'Bout the Roses," or if you're an artist thinking about your own merch, Learn more here.