A T-shirt is not a big deal. It is no three-piece suit or evening dress. It definitely cannot earn money for college. But the art club and Kappa Pi, the art honor society, are trying to change all that with Sew Till You Drop.Sew Till You Drop is the latest fundraiser thought up by the Nicholls art department. The NSU Art Dorks (that is what they call themselves) spent previous years raising money in old-fashioned ways such as car washes. They have decided to use their artistic talents this year instead.

“We take T-shirts and cut them up,” Massie Bergeron, art senior from Houma and Kappa Pi secretary, said. “Then we take the different materials and put them together to make something else.”

Bergeron and the other art students have been making their own T-shirts for a while now. They call it “vintage, wearable art.” With the remains of old and new clothes from retail stores, thrift stores and their own closets, the NSU Art Dorks create their own unique attire. They have been creating and wearing their Frankenstein fashions for months.

“It is cool because it is wearable art,” Brett Guidry, art sophomore from Houma and art club vice president, said.

Bergeron said they got the idea from fashions they saw in big cities like New Orleans.

“A friend of mine started doing this like a year ago,” Bergeron said. “He would buy cheap shirts, cut pieces off one and sew them onto another. He would sell them to a store on Magazine Street called Turncoats for $13 a pop.”

Bergeron, who said she has been sewing since she was a child, started creating her own fashions after admiring her friend’s creations, and other art students soon followed.

“I make them for myself,” Bergeron said, wearing a blue shirt with a cut-out heart covered in sharpie scribbles sewn on to the chest. “My friends and my little brother make them, too. When we get tired of buying stuff, we just make our own thing. It is not a fashion statement; it is just something we like to do.”

There is no rhyme or reason to the designs. Some are on the front; some are on the back. Some are colorful; some are gloomy. All are one-of-a-kind.

“Mine are totally random,” Bergeron said. “I just throw something down, pin it and sew it on. I use different color threads, and whatever comes out, comes out.”

The art department has been collecting donations of old clothes in the art office since early September and will be collecting them until tomorrow. They are asking for “anything with potential” that they can “slice, dice and put back together again.”

“I think this is going to be a good way for us to raise money,” Julie Ledet, art senior from Thibodaux and art club secretary, said. “I have seen the contour drawings, and it shows the talent in our department.”

Sew Till You Drop is a fundraiser that benefits the art department, but anyone interested is invited to participate.

Deborah Cibelli, Kappa Pi faculty adviser, said fundraisers like Sew Till You Drop raise money to help the art department’s students and programs.

“We support a lot of student scholarships and programs with our fundraisers,” Cibelli said. “For example, last year a student was able to take a summer art class at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn.”

There is a sign-up sheet located in the art office at 221 Talbot Hall for anyone interested in participating in Sew Till You Drop. Participants will meet at Talbot Hall Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to, well, sew till they drop.

NSU Art Dorks originally planned to sell their creations at Downtown on the Bayou for $10, but it was recently cancelled due to the effects of Hurricane Rita. They are planning, instead on selling the shirts on Ebay.com and possibly at the Southdown craft show in Houma and the Oak Alley craft show.

Anyone interested in purchasing a shirt or getting more information can contact Julie Ledet at 438-2222, visit http://nicholls.edu/kappapi/, email [email protected] or contact Connie Doran in the art office at 448-4597.