It’s Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, and if you are anything like me you’ll be avoiding the stores for the rest of the year and doing your shopping online instead.
If you are looking for unique handmade gifts this year, check out my online shop DocPopCrafts.com

I make iPhone cases, wallets & wallet chains, and coffee cozies out of re-cycled materials. I’m especially fond of using durable upholstery and scraps from awesome selvage jeans like Samurai, Imperial, Nudie, Evisu, Sugarcane, Iron Heart, Skull, and some of Levi‘s better stuff.

Now for the SALE!

This weekend I’m adding some special new items to my shop, including wallets and wallet chains made from vintage neckties and selvage denim. I’m also including free shipping (within the US) from now until Monday evening (11/26 @11pm pacific time).

If you can’t see the label in the image, it says “FASCIST” by Sheildron. I googled it and nothing turned up, it’s a bit of a mystery. The tie appears to be made in the last 30 years, but I really have nothing to verify that, the label does indicate that it was manufactured in Korea.

My only guess is that the company that manufactured the tie assumed that the words “fascist” was somehow associated with the word “fashion” or “fashionable”.

I would suspect that the tie was not a very popular seller in a post WWII America.
I left the tie unripped, but managed to get a lot of work done making patterns and surging throughout the night. I’ve got some great material for some new wallets and chains. Speaking of which, check out this gorgeous piece of polyester magic

I LOVE it when the inside material is even cooler looking than that on the outside. It’s like a easter egg, waiting to be discovered by my crafty hands. I have a special idea for this brown and white beauty… instead of doing a leather front pocket (for credit cards), I’m going to use the brown side, and for the big pocket I’ll flip the material and use the cool white side. The wallet chain will be brown side out. I’ll post pics when its done.

I came back to 826 later that evening for our pirate craft night event. There where about 20 people there, making peg legs, eye patches, and pirate hooks. Good times.

I brought my sewing machine and showed the basics of pirate patch upholstery, and of course I brought plenty of scrap tie fabrics. We made 15 “tie patches” that I believe the store will sell for $10 each. I’m really happy with my embroidered ones, but some of the other ones turned out specatucalarly.

Read it here.