4th of July Fashion Tribute to B.A. Baracus

Happy American Independence Day! For my remnant project this week, I wish to pay tribute to an all-American TV hero from the 1980′s, the incomparable A-Team great B.A. Baracus. I liked the recent movie with Liam Neeson as Hannibal, but I really feel a rush of nostalgia for the old A-Team reruns that have been streaming on Netflix. It reminds me of when I used to lovingly tuck my young ones into bed after an episode, but of course they were too wound up and had to play car chasing and blowing up stuff before settling down!

Mr. T playing B.A. Baracus: what is not to love and admire? He was so ahead of, yet part of, his time. By way of fashion statements, he sported African batik fabric accents, red knee-high Boy Scout regulation socks, enough gold jewelry at one wearing to stock an entire pawn shop! I wondered if the B stood for Barack; wouldn’t that be cool considering that’s the given name of our current President of the US, and it goes rather well with the last name Baracus? But alas, his B stands for Bosco, although in the series, he maintained that B.A. stood for Bad Attitude. Check out the Wikipedia log of all things BA Baracus.

denim dress from Beall's Outlet

For my tribute I’ve chosen to remake a denim dress that I found at Beall’s Outlet, a store that re-sells all the goods that didn’t get sold at the regular markets; for instance, this dress had a Faded Glory label on it, which is a Wal-Mart brand. What could be more all-American than Wal-Mart trying to sell for $17 a dress made in Bangladesh, not succeeding, then sending it down the line to a discount store where I bought it for $8? And, although I like denim, I like cotton lace accents, and I like machine embroidery, the combination of all three is downright frugly, to say the least.

To make this Independence Day tribute to B.A. (although his character is fictional, I honor who it stands for, an American soldier) I cut off the offending skirt and left a denim vest to embellish B.A. style. First I embroidered Bad Attitude in Chrome Black and Very Red Robison-Anton rayon thread. [hint: what are the colors of B.A.'s rockin' ride?]

embroidery step

Then I added some African fabric embellishments to the vest (which 1 yard piece I scored from the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo) to give it some character. Now, it looks like the jazz, man.

back view

All we’ve got left to do is add the bling and pair it up with some camo capri shorts.

Aint gonna ride in no airplane...what? ZZZZZ.

“Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and home of the brave?” Yes, thanks to our awesome soldiers, sailors, and loyal patriots who fought the fight for us. Love you! And happy 4th of July!