One way to celebrate national holidays . . .

 . . . is by making something.

I came home from my recent trip to Tennessee and Alabama (via Georgia) with a couple of new t-shirts and some inspiration. At the Shakerag knitting get-away, besides knitting ideas (which were there in good supply) there is also a lot of Alabama Chanin style sewing and t-shirt embellishment in the crowd. 

The other inspiration came from visiting Montgomery Square, a new memorial to what they call the Montgomery Decade (1955-1965), which began with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We're posing in front of the sculpture of Rosa Park's hands holding her arrest number. The decade included the march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights. After the horrors of Bloody Sunday, the march was finally allowed to leave Selma on March 21, 1965. And on March 24, the people entered Montgomery (the Alabama state capitol) and walked right down the street on the right side of this pictures, to the steps of the state capitol. 

On Juneteenth, I was inspired to use the holiday to embellish my souvenir t-shirt from Montgomery Square. I started by sewing beads on the words on the back. As I often do to unisex t-shirts, I shortened the sleeves and the length of the shirt. 

I hemmed the sleeves with embroidery thread, and I hemmed the bottom of the shirt with a stretch stitch. I did a little reverse applique with the cut-off fabric at the EJI logo. 

I embellished the front with beads as well (gold bugle beads from Craft Warehouse).

And so on Friday, when half the farmer's market crowd was in red, white, and blue, I had my own kind of patriotic shirt.

A shirt to commemorate these heroes of the US and democracy.