This is the first Tourettes coat. I am starting to make garments about my Tourettes. In hopes to showcase how amazing having Tourettes is. But also reach out to the community and give awareness.

I used burlap coffee sacks given to me from my aunt. I left all of the imagery on the burlap sacks. Instead I tried to work with the imagery. I just used what embroidery floss I had in the studio. I started adding yellow to the halo on the back. To play with the religious figure printed on the sack. I added some purple embroidery to create a border and stars. I also added a cross just for fun. On the back I wanted to add Tourettes Is Contagious in the middle. To fill in the negative space. I used hot glue and yarn from my mom’s studio. I wrapped the hot glue in the yard to give it a 3D affect.

The front is filled with neon embroidery repeating the word TIC. Each tic is a representation of the act of doing a tic for someone with Tourette’s. So each tic represents that expression. Now some people only tic a few hundred times a day or less. While others can tic up to thousands of times a day. I covered the garment until I ran out of embroidery floss.

I used four pairs of denim jeans, from my great aunt, for the lining. I patch-worked most of the panels to make it work with the pattern. I really love how the waistbands from all the pairs of pants accents the front and the back. I was able to keep the original pockets on the jeans and use them as the interior pockets.

The buttons are all large four hole black buttons. I was lucky to find enough to match this jacket. I used nine in total.