Old T’s, new skirts - Missoula Saturday Market vendor recycles well-worn shirts
By PAMELA J. PODGER of the Missoulian
Old T-shirts are given a new life as skirts in Carol Lynn Lapotka’s fledgling business.
Recycled materials are in vogue these days in everything from construction materials to carpets to couches – and now clothing.
Lapotka, 31, said she’s been working 70 to 75 hours each week sewing skirts, shopping for materials at Goodwill and other thrift stores and staffing her booth at the Missoula Saturday Market downtown.
She said her designs are aimed at mainstream consumers, with clients ranging in age from high school students to women in their 50s.
Carol Lynn Lapotka stretches an old T-shirt in her studio at the Zootown Arts Community Center on Wednesday. Lapotka buys and collects old T-shirts from thrift stores and transforms them into skirts for her REcreate Designs business. Photo by ASHLEY McKEE/Missoulian
“This isn’t just for hippies or ‘green’ people,” she said. “Apparently, they’re addictive. People tell me they bought one for their friend, put it on and now they need another for their friend.”
She also customizes skirts from T-shirts that have a sentimental value for the owner – from a marathon, a bike race or from their favorite sports team.
Her skirts caught Paula Seaholm’s eye earlier this summer. She raided her husband’s Boise State University T-shirt collection and ordered one for her daughter, who attends school there.
Seaholm, a bookkeeper at Sentinel High School, is having three purple-and-gold skirts made from the school’s T-shirts for a cheerleader and for the principal’s two young daughters.
“I thought they were something different, so cute and they are really well made,” she said.
“When I went back to get the Boise State skirt, my daughter talked me into getting one for myself.”
Rachel Atkins, 29, said the two raw-edged skirts with pockets she owns can be dressy, yet are casual enough to wear when she takes her two young children to the playground.
“As a business, I like that she’s doing recycled goods. That is the essence of Missoula,” she said. “And I enjoy supporting a local business.”
Lapotka said she and her husband, James, a second-year law student at the University of Montana, have been “crazy busy” making about 50 skirts each week in a studio she rents from the Zootown Arts Community Center on North First Street West.
On Sept. 6, ZACC will open The Shop where Lapotka and other artists will sell goods.
“Most of us are interested in using recycled items to create something beautiful,” said Hanna Hannan, an artist who manages ZACC.
The Shop is commission-free for about five artists who’ve collaborated to display their wares there.
“Otherwise, they couldn’t afford to grow,” Hannan said. “So, ZACC becomes a birth center.”
Lapotka said the A-line skirts have a drawstring waist and a yoke that is flattering to many figures. She says it takes her about one hour to sew each skirt.
Eventually, she hopes to run her REcreate Designs business full time instead of in her free hours after work as a graphic designer at Vann’s.
First, she wants to have a functioning Web site, contacts at 10 shops and more than nine months of living expenses saved in the bank. Eventually, she would like to expand beyond skirts and jersey materials and broaden her line into dresses and other items.
She said she’s taken a tax class for business and consulted with a lawyer to establish a solid foundation for her business.
“I want to make sure I’m legit and legal,” she said. “But I could use some help with my accounting. Right now, I have a bucket full of receipts.”
Dave Glaser, business consulting manager at the Montana Community Development Corp., said he advises entrepreneurs to thoroughly research their market and potential customers.
“It’s also really, really important to put together a cash flow projection so you understand what your business will look like from the numbers,” he said.
Lapotka said she sells her skirts for $28 at the Saturday market, and for about $40 at shops in Missoula, Milwaukee and Madison, Wis.
At thrift shops, Lapotka hunts for T-shirts with nifty logos, humor, vintage patterns or something eye catching. She avoids any shirts advertising alcohol or cigarettes. She takes those castoff items, cleans them up and creates her clothing.
“I don’t want to promote another company, but help promote recycled T-shirts,” she said. “My favorite last week was a shirt emblazoned with the words, ‘Be Safe – Sleep with a Firefighter.’”
If the fabric is worn thin or white, she’ll line it with another T shirt. Many of her skirts are reversible, showing a logo on one side and a pattern on the other.
“T-shirts come in all different sizes, so it presents challenges for my production,” she said.
She devised the skirts one day when she wasn’t absorbed in her other creative endeavors – making recycled bingo cards and maps into notebooks.
“I was flipping through a magazine and read an article about reusing shirts to make into another top, and I thought a skirt would be cute,” Lapotka said.
Originally from suburban Milwaukee, Lapotka majored in art and environmental studies at Edgewood College in Madison.
One woman arrived at her booth recently with several Sentinel High School shirts. “She told me, ‘If these catch on, you’ll end up doing the whole cheerleading squad.’ ”
Reporter Pamela J. Podger can be reached at 523-5241 or at pamela.podger@missoulian.com.
