1 00:00:00,540 --> 00:00:02,100 [Intro music] 2 00:00:07,540 --> 00:00:10,280 Hello, welcome back to my YouTube channel! 3 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,740 I'm starting this video with showing you this amazing shirt that I thrifted today 4 00:00:13,740 --> 00:00:17,640 Oh my gosh! Juggling. Pochi! MERR. 5 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:19,500 And this hat that I crocheted - 6 00:00:19,500 --> 00:00:25,170 It's the second thing I've ever successfully crocheted. I've only just started crocheting in the past month 7 00:00:25,170 --> 00:00:31,170 and I LOVE it! It's so much fun. And this hat turned out really really cute and I was made from Fairtrade 8 00:00:31,719 --> 00:00:36,779 wool from Uruguay, so... yayy! And I'm also sitting in quite a dark room 9 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:41,339 because I'm still having troubles with migraines and light sensitivity 10 00:00:41,340 --> 00:00:43,000 so if this looks really dark 11 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,880 that's why. If it looks nice and bright then future Annika has done a really good job on post-production. 12 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:50,760 So hopefully it looks good! Whoo! 13 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:57,120 So the other day I was browsing through different patterns for clothing that you can buy online 14 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:02,500 and I was like wow, these are really prohibitively expensive for someone who's maybe 15 00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:06,320 just getting into sewing and doesn't have that much money. I've also been looking at 16 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:12,820 fabrics recently and thought the same thing...So I wanted to make a little list of all the 17 00:01:12,820 --> 00:01:16,820 tips and tricks that I have learned while being someone who is relatively broke 18 00:01:17,350 --> 00:01:20,489 learning to sew, because fabrics and classes and 19 00:01:21,159 --> 00:01:28,228 books and textbooks and all of that stuff... Sewing accessories, you name it are all quite expensive 20 00:01:28,229 --> 00:01:30,809 it's a pretty expensive hobby to just pick up on a whim, 21 00:01:30,810 --> 00:01:32,879 if you don't even know if you're gonna like it or not. 22 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:36,540 So this video is gonna be how to get started sewing without spending a fortune. 23 00:01:36,540 --> 00:01:40,020 My first tip is to go to thrift stores to find your fabrics. 24 00:01:40,020 --> 00:01:46,140 You don't want to be buying especially fabrics for your first ever projects from places like ... 25 00:01:46,140 --> 00:01:49,140 Spotlight and Lincraft are the big craft stores in Australia, 26 00:01:49,140 --> 00:01:54,449 I think you've got Joanne's in the US is that one called Michaels - or am I making that up right now? 27 00:01:54,620 --> 00:01:59,920 Anyway fabric from these places is expensive and you're probably also gonna honestly mess it up 28 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:03,900 because you're learning how to sew and sewing is a little bit hard. 29 00:02:03,900 --> 00:02:07,470 So when I first started sewing I used things like old bed sheets - 30 00:02:07,470 --> 00:02:11,400 you can actually find old bed sheets in quite cute floral patterns. 31 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:17,180 I got one which was all like cute vintage looking teacups that I made a dress out of 32 00:02:17,180 --> 00:02:21,240 actually that I used to make the first tutorial on this channel. 33 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:24,260 This orange one here was floral bedsheets! 34 00:02:24,269 --> 00:02:27,359 This pinafore was an old bedsheet... Bedsheets are great, 35 00:02:27,660 --> 00:02:32,380 especially if it's for your first projects and you just mucking around with things. Another thing that 36 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:35,580 bedsheets can be useful for is for making prototypes, 37 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,620 so before you use the really nice fabric, 38 00:02:38,620 --> 00:02:42,580 if you're using like a light cotton or silk or something like that as your final 39 00:02:43,150 --> 00:02:49,799 fabric, then you can use a bed sheet of the same or at least similar sort of fabric to make your prototype. 40 00:02:49,799 --> 00:02:54,239 Now I know that a lot of you say that you don't have good thrift stores in your country. 41 00:02:54,239 --> 00:03:01,018 And unfortunately that might be the case you might be able to shop online instead - places like Etsy or eBay 42 00:03:01,019 --> 00:03:03,089 often sell secondhand fabrics. 43 00:03:03,089 --> 00:03:08,940 But if you do live in a country that has pretty good thrift stores then you can definitely find good fabrics, 44 00:03:08,940 --> 00:03:10,560 though if you're someone 45 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:14,420 who thinks they never have good luck thrifting then you're probably looking in the wrong places. 46 00:03:14,420 --> 00:03:18,920 And I'm actually going to link to a video on how to thrift which is very applicable to finding fabrics - 47 00:03:18,930 --> 00:03:23,370 even though the video I made was about clothes. Aside from thrifted bed sheets 48 00:03:23,370 --> 00:03:28,049 you might also hit the jackpot and find a craft section at the thrift store. I found these today: 49 00:03:28,599 --> 00:03:31,980 Two metres of gingham, 3 metres of sweater fleece fabric 50 00:03:31,980 --> 00:03:34,888 2 metres of wool tartan, 2 meters of this nice drapey 51 00:03:35,290 --> 00:03:38,640 chiffon pattern material it's really pretty 52 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:45,040 4 metres of this really nice drapey tartan for $4! Thrift store prices! 53 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:49,220 And it's not just fabrics like often there will be a little craft haberdashery section in 54 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,300 different thrift stores like today I also found a handful of zippers 55 00:03:53,300 --> 00:03:56,960 and I probably got all those fabrics and zippers for the price of maybe one or two 56 00:03:57,069 --> 00:04:00,719 metres of fabric in a normal craft store. 57 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,609 Another thing that is great from thrift stores - sewing textbooks, so 58 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,000 this is a woman's day complete book of handicrafts, 59 00:04:09,420 --> 00:04:15,580 a giant, hardcover, like, tome that I got for $3. 60 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:20,820 I got that today at the thrift store and while it's from the seventies the instructions and 61 00:04:21,829 --> 00:04:23,810 step by step photos 62 00:04:23,810 --> 00:04:25,810 to do all of these different crafts are 63 00:04:26,030 --> 00:04:30,760 really well detailed like I've learnt quite a lot of stuff from it just from reading it today 64 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:35,769 There's a whole section on metric equivalents. So I don't have to google it I can just use this as a reference. 65 00:04:35,930 --> 00:04:40,120 We've got how to measure every single part of your body for different 66 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,320 clothes a sewing guide for the thread you should use and how many 67 00:04:44,630 --> 00:04:47,950 machine stitches per inch for different types of fabric, 68 00:04:47,950 --> 00:04:53,760 and this whole thing is just on how to iron fabrics like this thing is awesome, and it includes a bunch of 69 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,080 tutorials of how to make things and patterns so like, 70 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:06,519 yes, this might be a 70s design but a lot of the patterns that they give you are fairly timeless besides seventies 71 00:05:06,710 --> 00:05:11,480 stuff is fashionable anyway! I found this awesome one from the 80s a while ago for 50 cents, 72 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,200 which is also a really good step by step guide 73 00:05:14,380 --> 00:05:20,700 to following patterns and making clothes and this thing I got today as well, which is 74 00:05:21,380 --> 00:05:25,400 from the summer of 87 to 88... You would see people wearing this today! 75 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:32,400 Like I'm pretty sure seeing that girl on Instagram recently. So don't discredit older sewing guides from thrift shops 76 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:36,600 just because of their age they are actually often really well-written, 77 00:05:36,950 --> 00:05:39,759 especially if there's something like women's day if you can find women's day books, 78 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:45,500 I have two of them - they're really well written. Another good place to get cheap fabrics and craft supplies is 79 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:49,560 places, like estate sales and garage sales... Estate sales, 80 00:05:49,660 --> 00:05:56,720 you might be able to score with fabrics because often it might be an older person who has passed away who has 81 00:05:56,740 --> 00:06:01,940 hoarded fabric their whole lives. That is definitely going to be me in the future 82 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:04,520 I pity the person who has to go through my fabric stash - 83 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:08,620 or if you know people who have relatives maybe like their grandma 84 00:06:08,900 --> 00:06:12,420 recently moved to a nursing home and left all her fabric stash 85 00:06:12,430 --> 00:06:17,709 they might be like, please please take this off us! I have had three different people 86 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:22,740 give me huge like roomfuls of fabric that they didn't need anymore because 87 00:06:23,020 --> 00:06:25,540 they knew I liked so that brings me to another tip 88 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:31,720 let everyone in your life know that you like sewing! Make it be known that you are now the sewing person 89 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,479 because not only will you find these people who might have stashes that they want to unload. 90 00:06:35,479 --> 00:06:40,473 They might just be like, oh, I'll buy this person a present. I'll buy them a sewing machine for Christmas. 91 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,460 That's what happened to me. 92 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:46,200 I showed an interest in sewing and for Christmas that year my dad 93 00:06:46,580 --> 00:06:50,680 noticed that there were sewing machines on sale at the post office and he was like awesome 94 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,400 I'm gonna get that for Annika and the rest is history. 95 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:58,120 Talking about sewing machines - if you're going to be spending any money 96 00:06:58,340 --> 00:07:00,440 this is where you need to spend it. 97 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:04,519 You don't wanna be spending your money on fabrics, on patterns, on classes, on books... 98 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:05,980 You want to be spending it here. 99 00:07:06,100 --> 00:07:09,520 Because if you have a bad sewing machine, if you go for like the 100 00:07:09,540 --> 00:07:13,820 cheapest worst type, your projects probably won't work out and 101 00:07:13,820 --> 00:07:16,600 you're probably gonna think that it's your fault that you're a bad sewer when it's 102 00:07:16,610 --> 00:07:19,880 actually the sewing machines fault. It can totally put you off sewing for the rest of your life. 103 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:25,579 Not a good idea, and the benefits to investing in a good sewing machine is that you will have it for years 104 00:07:25,710 --> 00:07:30,650 so you can save money in the long run because you're able to make all your own clothes. If you 105 00:07:30,900 --> 00:07:33,829 improve a lot and really take to it, you can even make money selling things. 106 00:07:33,829 --> 00:07:37,000 So I just really think this is the one thing you really should invest 107 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,940 in if you're getting started sewing. 108 00:07:39,940 --> 00:07:45,040 That said, there are some really decent sewing machines out there for beginners that are only around 109 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,780 $100 - $200. I can only speak from personal 110 00:07:47,780 --> 00:07:55,100 experience, but I really like my Bernina machine it is a beginners, but semi computerized machine 111 00:07:55,100 --> 00:08:00,180 which meant that it has let me do a lot more intermediate stuff not just beginners only stuff 112 00:08:00,180 --> 00:08:04,880 like I can work with swimsuits really easily or I can work with denim and I've had it for - 113 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,440 I think it's four years at this point - and 114 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:12,979 it's I've never even had it serviced and it just works perfectly like the day I got it. 115 00:08:12,980 --> 00:08:17,140 Of course I'm also going to mention free sewing tutorials on the internet! 116 00:08:17,140 --> 00:08:20,920 So if you're just learning to so I actually compiled a whole page 117 00:08:20,923 --> 00:08:23,500 of free beginner sewing tutorials on my website. 118 00:08:23,500 --> 00:08:27,560 And of course all of my tutorials are free and I have 119 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:29,920 a whole beginner's playlist that you can go through which is ranked in 120 00:08:29,930 --> 00:08:33,469 order from easy to hard. They're all free. Please use them! 121 00:08:33,469 --> 00:08:37,789 My last tip is that there are plenty of places to get free sewing patterns 122 00:08:37,789 --> 00:08:41,220 and I'm going to be linking some of my favorites down below. 123 00:08:41,300 --> 00:08:45,260 Colette does a couple of free patterns, Peppermint magazine has a lot of free patterns, 124 00:08:45,260 --> 00:08:47,500 Tilly and the buttons has some free tutorials, 125 00:08:47,500 --> 00:08:49,820 these are all quite beginner friendly and 126 00:08:49,980 --> 00:08:51,840 ones like Tilly and the buttons and Colette 127 00:08:51,850 --> 00:08:56,279 actually teach you how to sew while you use them if you do spend any of any money on them 128 00:08:56,279 --> 00:09:00,749 it's kind of like a class and a pattern all in one. 129 00:09:00,750 --> 00:09:03,980 So it's quite a lot of value for money, but I'll put the links to these 130 00:09:03,980 --> 00:09:06,500 and some are in the description box down below, 131 00:09:06,500 --> 00:09:09,612 so that you can find some good quality beginners patterns that are free. 132 00:09:09,620 --> 00:09:11,500 Also make some sewing friends! 133 00:09:11,500 --> 00:09:15,260 Anyone who is friends with me and shows even the slightest interest in sewing 134 00:09:15,260 --> 00:09:18,680 I like load them up with a bunch of fabrics to take home. 135 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:20,960 Is the answer to this one...become friends with Annika? 136 00:09:21,020 --> 00:09:23,900 No, but I think you'll find that the sewing community is really passionate, 137 00:09:23,940 --> 00:09:28,120 eager to help and teach others to learn so making friends who love sewing and 138 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,500 letting the world know that you love sewing is definitely 139 00:09:30,510 --> 00:09:32,879 not a bad idea! Speaking of making sewing friends 140 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:36,440 It's been like a week since I launched the make thrift try 141 00:09:36,580 --> 00:09:40,120 community challenge and there have already been so many photos on 142 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,600 Instagram who have taken part in the challenge, 143 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:45,800 or they've gotten started on the challenge or what they're like posting works in progress, 144 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:50,369 and it's been so cool to see. Um, thank you so much for posting them 145 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:54,060 I am so excited to see more throughout the month. Remember it finishes 146 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:56,050 at... 147 00:09:56,050 --> 00:09:57,820 31 days after? 148 00:09:57,820 --> 00:09:59,170 My last video was posted 149 00:09:59,170 --> 00:10:03,390 So if you want to join in get started with some sewing - it doesn't have to be super professional! 150 00:10:03,519 --> 00:10:05,459 If you're a beginner you are more than welcome! 151 00:10:05,459 --> 00:10:06,800 Then please join in! 152 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:11,700 If you have any more tips or tricks on how to get started sewing without spending a ton of money 153 00:10:11,700 --> 00:10:14,940 on places where you might be able to find cheap craft accessories 154 00:10:14,940 --> 00:10:19,800 or if you have any favorite free pattern websites that aren't linked in the description box below! 155 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:24,860 Please leave a comment! When I witness like a nice friendly interaction in my comment section, 156 00:10:24,860 --> 00:10:27,480 I get so happy and I'm like.. FRIENNNDDDSSSS! 157 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:31,980 It honestly makes my day. So please do that. I hope you've enjoyed my little 158 00:10:32,140 --> 00:10:37,469 skater beanie, Emo hair in this video. I think it's very cute. I love this beanie. Anyway, thank you for watching 159 00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:40,560 I hope this video was helpful, and I'll see you all next time. Bye!