APPARATUS, KIT AND METHOD FOR EMBELLISHING AND FORMING APPAREL

Abstract

A fabric based apparel, kit and method for its use and manufacture are disclosed and described. The kit for making a decorative article of clothing may include a fabric suitable for receiving decorative embellishments and artistic implements. The fabric may be flexible, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth. The fabric may also be configured and arranged in apparel form and suitable to be worn by a person. The kit may also include a set of decorative embellishments or a set of artistic implements for drawing or painting on the article of clothing. The decorative embellishments or artistic implements may be affixed by a user to the article of clothing to enhance and develop the creative expression of the user.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/165,380, filed Mar. 31, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, including but not limited to those portions that specifically appear hereinafter, the incorporation by reference being made with the following exception: In the event that any portion of the above-referenced provisional application is inconsistent with this application, this application supercedes said above-referenced provisional application.

BACKGROUND

The disclosure relates generally to apparel, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to an apparatus, kit and method for embellishing and forming apparel using fabric suitable to be worn by a person with decorative embellishments and artistic implements.

Fabrics, including synthetic materials, may be used in clothing or outer-wear, including applications that require lightweight and breathable outer-wear. Synthetic materials may be made of flash-spun high-density polyethylene fibers may be strong and highly breathable, which lends itself to numerous applications for outer-wear. Synthetic clothing may be worn in clean rooms and manufacturing facilities.

Spun bonded polypropylene may be used as material in bags because of its relative strength and variable density. Non-woven fabrics are used in the textile industry because of their flat, porous structure, and are used in diapers, wipes, bandages, feminine hygiene products, filters, vacuum bags, carpets, insulation, batting, pillows, cushions, drapes, covers, and even envelopes. Non-woven fabrics may be used in surgical gowns, scrub suits, and caps. Non-woven fabrics may be made by bonding long fibers together in an entangled matrix by mechanical, thermal, or chemical processes. Specific functions provided by non-woven fabrics include absorbency, liquid repellence, sterility, filtering, cushioning, flame retardancy, strength, softness, and resilience.

Olefin is a synthetic fiber made from alkenes, and is called, among other names, polypropylene and polyethylene. Olefin fibers can dry quickly when wetted because they do not readily absorb moisture and any moisture can be wicked from the material. Olefin does not dye effectively, but it is colorfast, meaning that when colored upon its colors are resistant to fading or running.

It is noteworthy that no other application known to applicant provides wearable fabric based apparel made of synthetic material that is designed to be customized, decorated, colored upon with ink, crayons, markers, paints, or other artistic implements, or decorative embellishments to allow creative expression, and then be worn by the user or other person. Psychologists and developmental psychiatrists agree that artistic development and expression are vital to the mental development of children. There is a need in the marketplace for costumes and apparel that encourage artistic development and expression for children by allowing children and others to create, design, color, draw, and paint upon the costume or apparel, and otherwise artistically decorate the costume or apparel, which may be suitable to be worn, to their liking. While synthetic materials exist that receive and retain colors from the likes of ink, crayons, pencils, markers, and paints, while contrasting those colors satisfactorily for artistic applications, to the applicant's knowledge, none of these materials have been used in an application that specifically encourages children and others to exercise and develop their artistic talents by creating, designing, drawing, coloring, or painting upon the material arranged in a wearable costume or apparel.

Furthermore, fashion designers are limited to certain mediums to illustrate their designs. Simple drawings on paper or illustrations in computer programs are common ways in which fashion designers can display their designs. A useful, cheap, and practical method of allowing designers to develop and display their fashion designs on a life-like medium is needed.

Further, the disclosure goes beyond mere displaying the creation of the user. The disclosure contemplates creating, decorating or otherwise embellishing fabric based apparel that can then be used, worn or played in. It will be appreciated that paper and thin foam have been used for self-decorated costumes, but such materials are both non-durable and easily torn.

The applications that applicant is aware of may be thus characterized by their inability to be embellished or otherwise customized by a user to create a costume or apparel that is suitable to be worn by the user or other person, which limitations may be addressed by the disclosure. The disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.

The features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent from a consideration of the subsequent detailed description presented in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure illustrating how the apparel or costumes may be decorated with kit items;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure with preprinted designs;

FIG. 4 is a representation of an article of a fabric based apparel made in accordance to the principles of the disclosure illustrating possible fasteners on the apparel or costume to fit various users;

FIG. 5 is a representation of an article of a fabric based apparel made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure illustrating multiple watermark designs in the apparel or costume;

FIG. 6a is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel with portions of the apparel detached from one another and made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure;

FIG. 6b is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel with portions of the apparel reattached to one another and made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel with detachable and re-attachable portions and a similarly styled accessory made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure; and

FIG. 8 is a front view of a representation of fabric based apparel, including an accessory, made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles in accordance with the disclosure, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended. Any alterations and further modifications of the inventive features illustrated herein, and any additional applications of the principles of the disclosure as illustrated herein, which would normally occur to one skilled in the relevant art and having possession of this disclosure, are to be considered within the scope of the disclosure claimed.

Before the fabric based apparel, kit and method for its use and manufacture are disclosed and described, it is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to the particular configurations, process steps, and materials disclosed herein as such configurations, process steps, and materials may vary somewhat. It is also to be understood that the terminology employed herein is used for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting since the scope of the disclosure will be limited only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

The publications and other reference materials referred to herein to describe the background of the disclosure, and to provide additional detail regarding its practice, are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties, with the following exception: In the event that any portion of said reference materials is inconsistent with this application, this application supercedes said reference materials. The reference materials discussed herein are provided solely for their disclosure prior to the filing date of this application. Nothing herein is to be construed as a suggestion or admission that the inventors are not entitled to antedate such disclosure by virtue of prior disclosure, or to distinguish the disclosure from the subject matter disclosed in the reference materials.

In describing and claiming the subject matter of the disclosure, the following terminology will be used in accordance with the definitions set out below.

It must be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

As used herein, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “containing,” “characterized by,” and grammatical equivalents thereof are inclusive or open-ended terms that do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.

As used herein, the phrase “consisting of” and grammatical equivalents thereof exclude any element, step, or ingredient not specified in the claim.

As used herein, the phrase “consisting essentially of” and grammatical equivalents thereof limit the scope of a claim to the specified materials or steps and those that do not materially affect the basic and novel characteristic or characteristics of the claimed disclosure.

Applicant has discovered that decorating, creating or otherwise making costumes and apparel may greatly enhance the artistic development and expression of children, and adults, when the costumes and apparel are made in such a way as to allow a person the ability to draw, color and paint upon and otherwise decorate, adorn or embellish the costume or apparel. Furthermore, persons in the fashion industry may benefit from having actual wearable apparel as their design medium instead of being required to illustrate their designs on a sketch pad or similar medium. Applicant has thus conceived of a fabric based apparel apparatus, kit and methods for embellishing the apparel, which can receive and retain colors from ink, crayons or wax-based pigments, pencils, pens, markers, paints, other artistic implements and decorative embellishments, and which may also be adorned with lace, beads, ribbons, fabrics or other materials to allow children and adults to use their own artistic expressions to create wearable costumes or apparel.

Referring now to FIG. 1, exemplary articles of apparel, which may be made in accordance with the principles of the disclosure, are illustrated. The articles of apparel may be a dress 1 or a vest 3 and may be made from a decorateable fabric based material. However, it will be appreciated that other articles of apparel may also be used and are within the scope of the disclosure, including, but not limited to, pants, shorts, leggings, stockings, socks, shoes, leg accessories, shirts, blouses, tunics, jackets, sleeves, gloves, arm accessories, hats, bandanas, other headwear and the like. Referring briefly to FIGS. 7 and 8, it will likewise be appreciated that other apparel and accessories may also be made from the decorateable fabric based material without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Examples of such accessories 80, 95 include, but are not limited to, handbags and purses, and such accessories may fall within the scope of the phrase “articles of apparel” as used herein. The articles of apparel of the fabric based material may be arranged from multiple pre-cut sections of fabric. The pre-cut section of fabric may be die cuts or formed from other cutting processes.

It will be appreciated that the fabric based material may be a natural fabric, a synthetic fabric, or other fabrics that can readily accept, receive or otherwise react with artistic implements and decorative embellishments to decorate the fabric. The fabric may be composed of a natural material or fibers, or synthetic material or synthetic fibers, and may be woven or non-woven fabrics and fibers. For example, a synthetic material may be a non-woven spun-bonded olefin having continuous fibers. The fabric based materials may be low-linting, may have outstanding flexibility and dimensional stability, and may be non-toxic. The fabric based material may also have a high opacity for ease in printing and is also colorfast with a substantially smooth, brilliant surface for high contrast when used with ink, crayons or wax-based pigments, markers, pencils, paints, other artistic implements and decorative embellishments. The fabric may also be paper that is coated and reinforced for added durability, flexibility, and ease in coloring upon. The fabric may also be flash-spun high-density polyethylene fibers, synthetic paper substitutes, non-woven spun bound polypropylene material, and other non-woven polymeric fibers. These materials may all display potentially advantageous qualities, including high opacity, durability, flexibility, non-toxicity, and colorfastness. Other fabric based materials are contemplated by the disclosure, including any colorfast material that is durable (meaning not easily torn and opposed to paper, which is considered by applicant to be easily torn), flexible and easy to color with the ability to react with and contrast color from ink, crayons or wax-based pigments, paints, markers, pencils, pens, other artistic implements and decorative embellishments. It is also within the scope of this disclosure to use a composite fabric of two or more natural or synthetic materials or any combination thereof.

It will be appreciated that the artistic implements and decorative embellishments used herein may correspond with the selected fabric to ensure the color or other feature of the artistic implement or decorative embellishment can be maintained on the selected fabric. The artistic implement or decorative embellishment may comprise a chemical agent or medium for adhering, bonding, affixing or otherwise applying the pigment of the artistic implement or the decorative embellishment to the selected fabric. The agent or medium may comprise a chemical compound or it may comprise both a pigment and a chemical compound. In either case, the agent or medium may be used for interacting or reacting with the selected fabric, such that the decorative embellishment or artistic implement, i.e, the pigment in the agent or medium, may be retained on the selected fabric.

It will be appreciated that the disclosure may include multiple, pre-cut sections of fabric to form an article of apparel. When multiple pre-cut sections of fabric are used to form the article or articles of apparel, several methods of joining the sections may be used and are contemplated as part of the disclosure. Some such methods of forming seams 5 (illustrated best in the enlarged window of FIG. 1) may include traditional stitching, ultrasonic bonding, embossing, tapes, adhesives, heat sealing, melting, and heat stamping. It will be appreciated that other methods of joining sections of fabric at seams 5 may also be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure. When one unitary section of fabric is arranged to form an article of apparel, the same methods of forming seams 5 as disclosed herein are contemplated, including traditional stitching, ultrasonic bonding, embossing, adhesives, heat sealing, melting, and heat stamping. However, the disclosure is not limited to these methods of joining fabric as other methods may be known or may become known in the future, which may also be used and is considered within the scope of the disclosure.

Referring now to FIGS. 6a and 6b, it is also contemplated by the disclosure that portions of the costume or other apparel may be formed with detachable fabrics or one portion being detachable from another with the ability to re-attach the portions. For example, an article of apparel of the costume, such as a full-length dress, may have portions of the gown detachable so the wearer or user may detach a bottom portion of a full-length dress to convert the costume into a skirt. Also, by way of example, it is within the disclosure for sleeves of a shirt or blouse of the costume to be detachably joined to the remainder of the costume such that the wearer may remove the sleeves to further adapt the costume to the artist's liking. The attachable and reattachable portions of the article of apparel may be joined or detached using a zipper, snaps, hook and loop fasteners, or other fabric joining and detaching mechanisms, known or that may become known in the future, and such mechanisms are also contemplated to be within the scope of the disclosure. Thus, it will be appreciated that the costume may be provided in a single piece or multiple pieces that may be configured and arranged so as to create different apparel options.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an article of apparel in the form of a costume is shown in a decorated form as if it were being customized by a user with ink, crayons or wax-based pigments, markers, other artistic implements and decorative embellishments. It will be appreciated that the artistic implements and decorative embellishments may be provided as part of a kit as discussed more fully below.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an article of apparel is shown with printed and colored designs 11 preprinted on the fabric. It is contemplated and within the scope of the disclosure that preprinted designs 11 may be incorporated into the costume, guiding the artist in coloring portions of the apparel or clothing item similar to a typical coloring book. These preprinted designs 11 may allow the apparel or clothing item to be adapted to have the look of apparel or characters already known to children or other artists. For example, popular characters from books, movies, television shows and the like may be preprinted on the costume to help facilitate or create a particular look for a costume or article of clothing.

Referring now to FIG. 5, articles of apparel and clothing are shown with watermarks 17 incorporated into or as part of the fabric based apparel. In an embodiment, the watermarks 17 may be slightly visible with the naked eye. In an embodiment, the watermarks 17 may only be visible when viewed against a light source. It is also contemplated by the disclosure that the watermarks 17 may require an external tool to be viewed. For example, the watermarks 17 may consist of markings only visible when viewed under a blacklight. The watermarks 17 may indicate only one design on the costume, or they may indicate a multiplicity of coexisting designs. An article of apparel of the costume with multiple watermark designs 17 would allow the artist to view multiple design suggestions and choose the design of their liking, or mix-and-match watermarked design suggestions and create a final artistic expression incorporating several watermarked designs 17. The watermarks 17, by virtue of their nature of being not immediately visible, also allow the artist to design and color the costume to their own liking as if the costume was blank.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an article of apparel is shown with various fasteners to help fit the article of apparel onto a person or user. A variety of fasteners are contemplated by the disclosure, and include, but are not necessarily limited to, hook-and-loop fasteners 13, such as Velcro™, a string-tie 15, and a button and loop fastener. Other fasteners, such as zippers, hook and eye, snaps, or other fabric closing mechanisms, known or that may become known in the future, are also contemplated to be within the scope of the disclosure.

Referring again to FIG. 2, several portions of a kit are illustrated, including ink, crayons and markers. It is within the disclosure to provide a kit comprising a fabric based article of clothing, such as a costume. The kit may also comprise a variety of artistic implements, including: ink, crayons or wax-based pigments, markers, pencils, pens, paints, paint brushes. The kit may also comprise a variety of embellishments and instruments for embellishing the article of clothing and accessories, including instruction templates, stickers, buttons, beads, stencils, scissors, rubber stamps, ink stamp or other stamps, tape, glue, adhesives, additional fabrics to attach to the costume, such as lace, beads, ribbon, frills or other fabric materials. These items are not to be viewed as limiting what may be included in the kit. It is also contemplated within the disclosure that the kit may include an eraser or a cleaning agent to remove colors from the costume and allow the artist to remove mistakes. For example, the kit may include pieces of fabric that may be used to create a hem, or a collar that may function to hide or otherwise cover a mistake made on the clothing item. The kit may also comprise a flashlight, blacklight, or other item to aid the artist or user in viewing any watermarks 17 in the costume. Referring briefly to FIGS. 7 and 8, it is also within the disclosure for the kit to include an accessory 80, 95, such as a handbag, an Easter-egg bag, Halloween bag, or similar bag, made of the same fabric materials disclosed herein for the fabric based apparel, such as a costume. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the accessory 80 may be pre-printed or watermarked with the same or similar designs, or may be decorated using the same or similar decorative embellishments 82 as the designs or decorative embellishments 72 used in connection with the fabric based apparel 70, i.e., the costume, dress or other article of clothing. It will similarly be appreciated, as illustrated best in FIG. 8, that the accessory 95 may not be pre-printed or watermarked, thereby allowing the creative process of the user to add any image, color etc. that is desirable for that user. The kit is not intended to be limited to the items identified or otherwise listed in this paragraph, and it is within the scope of the disclosure to include any other items, artistic implements, and decorative embellishments in the kit.

In accordance with the features and combinations described above, an embodiment of a kit for making a decorative article of clothing may comprise:

a fabric suitable for receiving decorative embellishments, wherein the fabric is flexible, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth;

wherein the fabric is configured to be arranged in apparel form suitable to be worn by a person;

at least one of a set of decorative embellishments, or at least one set of artistic implements comprising wax-based pigments, paints, paint brushes, pencils, and markers for drawing or painting on the article of clothing;

wherein the decorative embellishments or artistic implements are configured and arranged for affixing to said article of clothing by a user; and

wherein the decorative embellishments or artistic implements comprise a medium that corresponds with the fabric for ensuring that a feature of the decorative embellishment or artistic implement is maintained on the fabric.

An embodiment of a useful method of making an article of clothing may comprise:

forming said article of clothing from a fabric, wherein the fabric is flexible, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth; and

decorating said article of clothing with at least one of set of decorative embellishments, or at least one set of artistic implements comprising wax-based pigments, paints, paint brushes, pencils, and markers for drawing or painting on the article of clothing by a user.

An embodiment of a useful method of using a kit may comprise the steps of:

(A) providing a kit comprising:

a fabric suitable for receiving decorative embellishments, wherein the fabric is flexible, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth;

wherein the fabric is configured to be arranged in apparel form suitable to be worn by a person;

at least one of a set of decorative embellishments, or at least one set of artistic implements comprising wax-based pigments, paints, paint brushes, pencils, and markers for drawing or painting on the article of clothing;

wherein the decorative embellishments or artistic implements comprise a medium that corresponds with the fabric for ensuring that a feature of the decorative embellishment or artistic implement is maintained on the fabric; and

(B) affixing the decorative embellishments or the artistic implements to the fabric by a user;

(C) placing said article of clothing on a user for use as apparel after the user has affixed the decorative embellishments or the artistic implements to the fabric.

In the foregoing Detailed Description, various features of the disclosure are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed disclosure requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into this Detailed Description by this reference, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of the disclosure.

It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the disclosure. Numerous modifications and alternative arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure and the appended claims are intended to cover such modifications and arrangements. Thus, while the disclosure has been shown in the drawings and described above with particularity and detail, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous modifications, including, but not limited to, variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use may be made without departing from the principles and concepts set forth herein.

Claims

1. A decorateable article of clothing, comprising:

a fabric suitable for receiving decorative embellishments, wherein the fabric is: flexible, durable, colorfast for ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth;

wherein the fabric is configured and arranged in apparel form and is suitable to be worn by a person; and

wherein the decorative embellishments are configured and arranged for affixing to said article of clothing by a user.

2. The decorateable article of clothing according to claim 1, wherein the fabric is a non-woven spun bonded olefin having continuous fibers for low-linting, substantial flexibility, and dimensional stability, high opacity for ease in printing, and a substantially smooth brilliant surface for high contrast when used with artistic implements.

3. The decorateable article of clothing according to claim 1, wherein the fabric comprises at least one of flash-spun high-density polyethylene fibers, non-woven spun bound polypropylene material, and non-woven polymeric fibers.

4. The decorateable article of clothing according to claim 1, wherein the fabric is one of a paper and paper-looking material, wherein the one of the paper and paper-looking material is at least one of coated and reinforced for making the fabric durable, flexible, and easy to decorate, color and paint.

5. The decorateable article of clothing according to claim 1, wherein the article of clothing comprises pre-formed sections of the fabric arranged and joined to form apparel capable of being worn by a person.

6. The decorateable article of clothing according to claim 1, wherein the article of clothing comprises one of a dress, pants, leggings, stockings, socks, shoes, leg accessories, shirt, blouse, jacket, sleeves, gloves, arm accessories, hat, bandana, and headwear.

7. The decorateable article of clothing according to claim 1, wherein the article of clothing further comprises detachable portions for allowing the user to alter the costume style.

8. A method of making an article of clothing comprising:

forming said article of clothing from a fabric, wherein the fabric is: flexible, durable, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth; and

decorating said article of clothing with at least one of set of decorative embellishments, or at least one set of artistic implements comprising wax-based pigments, paints, paint brushes, pencils, and markers for drawing or painting on the article of clothing by a user.

9. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 8, the method comprising cutting the at least one fabric into predetermined shapes using at least one die cut during the arranging step.

10. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 9, the method comprising joining the predetermined shapes of the at least one fabric together by at least one of stitching, ultrasonic bonding, embossing, melting, heat stamping and heat sealing.

11. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 8, the method comprising forming at least one of creases, seams, and styles in the article of clothing by at least one of melting, heat stamping, and ironing.

12. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 8, the method comprising printing at least one of various designs and colors onto the fabric.

13. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 8, wherein the at least one fabric is a non-woven spun bonded olefin having continuous fibers for low-linting, substantial flexibility, and dimensional stability, high opacity for ease in printing, and a substantially smooth brilliant surface for high contrast when used with ink, wax-based pigments, markers, and paints.

14. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 8, the method comprising the at least one fabric comprises at least one of flash-spun high-density polyethylene fibers, synthetic paper substitutes, non-woven spun bound polypropylene material, and other non-woven polymeric fibers.

15. The method of making an article of clothing according to claim 8, the method comprising at least one of the steps of coating and reinforcing the at least one fabric for making the fabric durable, flexible, and easy to color and paint.

16. A kit for making a decorative article of clothing comprising:

a fabric suitable for receiving decorative embellishments, wherein the fabric is: flexible, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth;

wherein the fabric is configured to be arranged in apparel form suitable to be worn by a person;

at least one of a set of decorative embellishments, or at least one set of artistic implements comprising wax-based pigments, paints, paint brushes, pencils, and markers for drawing or painting on the article of clothing;

wherein the decorative embellishments or artistic implements are configured and arranged for affixing to said article of clothing by a user; and

wherein the decorative embellishments or artistic implements comprise a medium that corresponds with the fabric for ensuring that a feature of the decorative embellishment or artistic implement is maintained on the fabric.

17. The kit according to claim 16, wherein the article of clothing further comprises at least one removable portion of the fabric for further altering the appearance of the article of clothing.

18. The kit according to claim 16, wherein the fabric comprises at least one watermark for revealing suggested designs to be painted, colored, or drawn on the article of clothing.

19. The kit according to claim 18, wherein the kit further comprises a blacklight and the at least one watermark comprises a design discernable under the blacklight and not under the light spectrum visible to humans.

20. The kit according to claim 18, wherein:

the fabric comprises at least one of a non-woven spun bonded olefin having continuous fibers, flash-spun high-density polyethylene fibers, synthetic paper substitutes, non-woven spunbond polypropylene material, and other non-woven polymeric fibers, the fabric material selected for low-linting, substantial flexibility, dimensional stability, high opacity for ease in printing, and a substantially smooth brilliant surface for high contrast when used with ink, wax-based pigments, markers, and paints;

wherein the fabric is coated and reinforced for making the fabric more durable, flexible, and easy to color and paint;

wherein the decorative article of clothing comprises pre-formed sections of the fabric arranged and joined to form apparel capable of being worn by a person;

wherein the decorative article of clothing is formed into at least one of a dress, shirt, blouse, jacket, sleeve, arm accessory, socks, stockings, leggings, leg accessory, hat, and headwear; and

wherein the kit further comprises at least one of stickers, die cuts, stencils, illustrated instruction templates, fabrics attachable to the costume, beads, sequins, adhesive, patches, erasers, and agents for removing marks made by at least one of ink, wax-based pigments, pencils, markers, paints and dyes;

wherein the kit further comprises a fabric holding device for improving a user's ability to decorate said fabric.

21. The kit according to claim 16, wherein the kit further comprises an accessory that is made from a fabric that is:

flexible,

colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint,

suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments,

sewable, and

substantially smooth.

22. A method of using a kit comprising the steps of:

(A) providing a kit comprising:

a fabric suitable for receiving decorative embellishments, wherein the fabric is: flexible, colorfast for marking pen ink, colorfast for wax-based pigments, and colorfast for paint, suitable for receiving adhesives for attaching decorative embellishments, sewable, and substantially smooth;

wherein the fabric is configured to be arranged in apparel form suitable to be worn by a person;

at least one of a set of decorative embellishments, or at least one set of artistic implements comprising wax-based pigments, paints, paint brushes, pencils, and markers for drawing or painting on the article of clothing;

wherein the decorative embellishments or artistic implements comprise a medium that corresponds with the fabric for ensuring that a feature of the decorative embellishment or artistic implement is maintained on the fabric; and

(B) affixing the decorative embellishments or the artistic implements to the fabric by a user; and

(C) placing said article of clothing on a user for use as apparel after the user has affixed the decorative embellishments or the artistic implements to the fabric.