Hi, welcome to "Get Sewing With Me",

The show where I do a little bit of sewing, and I take you with me for the ride.

Hopefully, teaching you some tips and tricks along the way.

So I have a real problem with buying shirts - like blouses, like ones with collars and buttons down the

front - and the problem

with this is, is that I don't actually wear blouses - like, ever.

But for some reason I can't stop buying them

So I have a closet full of blouses that I don't wear!

So I thought I might wear all my blouses a bit more if I made them a little bit more interesting

And it has definitely worked!

So without further ado, let's begin!

So the first shirt I’m going to try and upcycle
is this boring black blouse.

Now I found these cute buttons a couple of
months ago, and I think that now is the perfect

time to put them to use.
I’m first going to sew two matching heart

buttons onto the collar.
So, using some needle and thread, I bring

my needle up through my collar right in the
middle like this, and then I thread my button

on.
For the first few stitches it’s going to

be all wobbly and move around a lot, but if
I sew it on tightly – and this is about

after 15 times going up and down – the button
will stay in place.

I tied a knot in the thread after bringing
it through to the back of the collar, and

there we go!
And I simply repeated this on the other side.

The buttons on this blouse were also very
ugly, so I chopped them all off, and replaced

them one-by-one with these cute bow buttons.

And I’m really pleased with the final result.
This shirt is now WAY cuter than it was before.

So this is another method for upcycling a
standard old-shirt.

I layed my shirt down flat, right side up,
making sure that the collar is totally flat

like this. Then, I grabbed a piece of lace
and measured it to the width of my collar.

Then, with some fabric glue – and just as
a side not, you can’t use craft glue or

a hot glue gun here because it will make the
collar fabric all stiff – it’s got to

be fabric glue – I put a thin line all along
the back of the collar and then stuck the

lace down onto it.

Then I realized that I probably needed to
cover the entire collar in glue, so I did

that, pressed the lace down, flipped it over
to make sure that the front side of the collar

was totally flat, and then I let the whole
thing dry for about 30 minutes.

Now this is actually something that I’ve
wanted to do a shirt for quite a while. Drawing

inspiration from fashion designers like Vivetta
and Coco Fennell, I’m going to make a shirt

with a statement collar! For this, I’m using
iron-on patches. You can find these basically

anywhere – but ebay and etsy are great places
to find specific designs!

And, as the name implies, all you’ve got
to do here is iron the patches on.

So to do that, you cover your shirt with some
cloth, like a sheet or pillow case, and with

your iron on its highest cotton setting you
place pressure onto the patch and the shirt

for about 30 seconds.
Try not to move the iron back and forth too

much, because you might move the patch.
And – the patch is now bonded onto the shirt.

And I repeat this with the other side.

The last one was inspired by a shirt that
I saw in Dangerfield, which I thought that

I could probably recreate for a lot cheaper.
Now this one does require a specialized stitch

on a sewing machine. This stitch will probably
only be found on mid-range sewing machines

and above, but, if you’ve got this stitch,
you can give this one a go!

So this is the shirt that I’m going to transform.
Before I begin sewing, I round off the edges

of the collar with a pencil, so that I’ll
have a rounder collar. This is the line I’m

going to follow with my needle when I’m
sewing.

Then, I set my machine to that stitch, and,
starting at the inside of the collar, I sew

all the way around the edges, and follow the
pencil line around the pointy-bits of the

collar.

I 
end up with this, and then I simply cut away
all the excess fabric.

And with the scissors, you’ve got to get
right into those grooves, but making sure

not to cut the stitches – and, hopefully
you’ll end up with something like this!

Of course, there is also embroidery! I’ve
already covered this a couple of times in

previous videos, so I will link to them here,
on you can find the links in the description

box if you’re on a mobile device.

So, hopefully this video gives you lots of
inspiration on upcycling your own shirts,

both if you have a problem and can’t stop
buying them like me, or if you’ve got some

spare time, and want to make a couple a cute
blouses!

Share photos of your up-cycled blouses with
me on instagram using the hashtag #diyannika

(and just a reminder that your profile has
to be on public for me to actually see

the photo).

I hope you all enjoyed this video, and I'll see you all next time. Bye!