-
Hey!
-
Welcome to Make Thrift Buy, the show where
YOU send in clothes that you’ve seen online
-
– clothes that are either expensive, mass-produced,
or the brand just doesn’t make efforts to
-
pay their workers a living wage – and then
I do my best to recreate them.
-
So today I’m doing an item that’s been
suggested by … oh… about a BILLION of
-
you.
-
Coming in at a cool $95 are these pair of
mom jeans from Topshop, that feature little
-
windows for your knees.
-
Assumedly the windows are there so that your
knees can gaze out upon the world, no longer
-
constricted by cruel, opaque fabrics.
-
#freetheknee
-
Anyway – the internet has been divided by
these jeans and my social media has been flooded
-
with requests asking me to try and recreate
them, so I’m basically just doing them so
-
I can go back on my twitter account without
having to scroll through pages and pages of
-
these damn jeans.
-
So let’s get started.
-
***
-
So I took myself to the thrift store – I
went to a warehouse sized-one that I know
-
has a lot of pairs of jeans – and the quest
for a suitable pair of mom jeans commenced.
-
After trying on like 30 different pairs of
jeans – I finally found my perfect pair
-
of mom jeans.
-
They fit snugly on the waist but they are
nice and loose on the legs.
-
The main thing you want to look for in any
pair of jeans you’re using for this project,
-
is that it should have lots of loose fabric
around the knee.
-
This project won’t really work with tight-fitting
jeans.
-
So while wearing the jeans, I grabbed some
chalk and I roughly measured out where I wanted
-
the top and the bottom of the cutouts to be.
-
As you can see, I’m bending my leg a lot
in this process, that’s because I wanted
-
to make sure my knees would be around the
middle of the cutout.
-
If you measure only while your legs are straight
you’ll probably make the cutouts a little
-
bit too high.
-
These jeans also had a really cute pocket
on the side down here, but unfortunately it’s
-
in the way of the cutouts, so I had to remove
the top part of the pocket just to make life
-
easier.
-
Then, I laid the jeans out flat on my table,
and I made the chalk lines thicker and I also
-
made sure they were even on both legs and
the same height as each other by using a ruler.
-
I then made small chalk marks exactly in the
centre of the pant legs, by measuring the
-
width of the pant leg and dividing this by
2, and then I drew on rectangles that were
-
4 and a half by 7 inches.
-
Of course, the length of your rectangles might
differ slightly depending on where you drew
-
your first chalk marks but this is a good
ball-park measurement of the size that your
-
cutouts should be.
-
Then using a pair of fabric scissors I chopped
out the fabric inside the rectangles.
-
Then at the corner of each rectangle, I made
small slits like this at 45 degrees, each
-
about half an inch long.
-
Then, I turned my jeans INSIDE OUT, make sure
you turn them inside out before this next
-
step, and I folded the edges of the cutouts
back like this.
-
Now, we’re going to sew these pieces down,
using some thread in a matching colour to
-
the jeans.
-
Now you can hand-stitch this, but if you’re
doing this on a sewing machine, you’ll need
-
to do some clever folding so that you don’t
sew through the back of the jeans as well.
-
So, I manipulated my jeans like this, to make
sure that I’d only be sewing through the
-
FRONT fabric of the jeans, and then I sewed
down this edge using a straight stitch and
-
a normal sewing needle.
-
And I repeated this for all of the raw edges
around the cutouts.
-
Annnnd don’t goof up and sew one of these
flaps on the wrong way like I did here – I
-
accidentally sewed this flap to the right
side of the jeans, and didn’t notice that
-
I'd done this until after I’d sewn on the
plastic – and I spent a lot of time unpicking
-
my stitches.
-
Don't do this!
-
ANYWAY, next I grabbed my plastic material.
-
This is flexible PVC plastic that I had remaining
from this plastic skirt that you guys got
-
me to make back in episode #33 – I think
it was originally meant to be a table protector?
-
– and I laid it on top of one of my cutouts,
and then I drew out a rectangle shape directly
-
onto the plastic, making the rectangle slightly
larger than the cutout.
-
And…
-
damn, I accidentally drew onto my fabric here,
luckily the jeans are still inside out so
-
it doesn’t really matter!
-
Anyway I finished drawing on that rectangle
and then I cut it out.
-
Now actually sewing the plastic onto the inside
of the cutouts is a little bit tricky and
-
took me a while to work out, because there’s
a lot of fabric that you DON’T want to sew
-
through in the way!
-
If you just put this straight on your sewing
machine now you will have a lot of difficultly.
-
So what I’m going to do next is to open
up one of the side seams on this pant leg,
-
just from here to here, because this will
give me easy access to the cutout and make
-
it about 100 times easier to sew the plastic
on.
-
When I’d done that, I made sure that the
plastic was in place over the cutout, and
-
then I pinned it on around the edges, making
sure that I’d only pinned it to the front
-
layer of the jeans, not the back, and then
I sewed the plastic on using a straight stitch
-
like this.
-
Now, sewing with PVC plastic is a little bit
difficult – it kept getting a little bit
-
stuck on my sewing machine’s feeding mechanism
– but I didn’t need to use any special
-
sewing tools or sewing feet, I simply helped
feed the fabrics through by pulling on it
-
a little bit, using my hands as I sewed.
-
Now once that plastic was sewn on around all
4 edges of the cutout, I sewed the side-seams
-
of the jeans back up and then I cut off the
excess edges around the plastic, leaving about
-
half an inch next to the stitches that I just
made.
-
Finally, I wanted to cover up the edges of
the plastic so they wouldn’t dig into my
-
legs, so using those denim scraps that I cut
out from the knees of these jeans earlier,
-
I cut these into strips, brushed some fabric
glue on the edges of the plastic, and then
-
I placed the strip of fabric down over the
plastic edge, covering it entirely.
-
And I did this at both the top and the bottom
of the cutouts; I didn’t worry about the
-
sides because they weren’t ever going to
touch my legs, but you could do this if you
-
wanted to.
-
Finally, remember that cute leg pocket that
I cut off before?
-
I sewed the top of the pocket back in place
– which would have been a lot easier if
-
I’d done this before I sewed the side seams
back up, but I still managed to sew it on
-
using a needle and some thread – and then
I was done!
-
So, how did it turn out?
-
How did I go?
-
[Electronic dance music plays]
-
Look, I did try really hard to film this seriously
for you guys, but…
-
[singing]: Boop!
-
Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop!
[laughs]
-
It's so hard to be serious filming these!
-
I mean, knees are really weird!
-
And they're just - they're just so THERE,
like, WHAT ARE THEY DOING THERE?!
-
[Whispering]: What are knees?
-
Yeah, I think this episode has broken me.
-
A little bit.
-
It definitely initiated an existential crisis
about the meaning of knees.
-
[Sound of knees slapping up against the plastic]
-
Seriously I’ve looked at my knees so much
now, both filming and editing this video,
-
that I don’t really feel like they’re
a normal body part anymore.
-
Alright so – it worked!
-
And…
-
I have to admit…
-
I actually quite like them.
-
Sure, there’s some definite cons – the
main one being that they’re… really not
-
comfortable.
-
Whenever I bend my knees – like, every second
while I'm walking – my knees bump up against
-
and stick to the rigid plastic.
-
I am literally sitting like this right now
because I don't want the plastic to touch
-
my knees! [laughs]
Also, on a hot day, your sweaty knees will
-
produce a lot of condensation that'll be very
visible and show up on these windows.
-
I just thought of another one if you're someone
who occasionally shaves their legs like I
-
do, you can't just forgo shaving in the winter
if you're going to wear these!
-
Oh, I just thought of another one, if you're
pale, like I am, you're going to have to put
-
sunscreen on your knees before you go out
because this is not UV protective - unless
-
you want rectangle burn lines on your legs.
-
Man, so many of the clothes I make on Make
Thrift Buy give you weird tan lines.
-
But there’s some pros, as well, like...
-
You can put stickers on them!
-
And change the stickers up!
-
You can also grab a whiteboard marker and
write down things that you have to remember!
-
Your knees won't get wet in the rain...
-
They're certainly a conversation starter.
-
As if someone isn't going to mention these
weird-ass jeans.
-
Also - fashion.
-
I guess that's a pro.
-
For some people.
-
Anyway, in conclusion, these jeans are a:
-
[scissor snipping, zipper sound effect]
-
Thrift a pair of jeans, and make these for
yourself.
-
Mine came in at about $5 total if you include
the plastic material and thread I used.
-
So I hope this video either helps, or amuses
you, and I’ll see you all in my next video.
-
Bye!
-
Hey!
-
Youtube family!
-
This is a call-to-action to sign up and donate
to my Patreon page!
-
If you have ever used one of my sewing tutorials
and you’ve made something awesome, consider
-
all the money you’ve saved on taking sewing
lessons, and on clothing, and consider throwing
-
a couple of dollars my way.
-
Currently only 0.03% of my Youtube subscribers
donate to my Patreon page.
-
If just 0.1% of you pledged a dollar per month,
it’d really really really help me out!
-
I spend like 20-30 hours on each of these
videos, so it's something that I put a lot
-
of time and effort into.
-
So consider signing up – it’s Youtube
communites coming together and supporter their
-
favourite content creator that keeps us going.
-
If you can’t commit to a dollar a month,
that’s okay, you can also support me by
-
making a one-off purchase on my merchandise
page, or, if you absolutely can’t spare
-
a dollar a month, then at the very least force
all your friends to watch my videos as well.
-
Alright, thanks again, I'm going now.
-
Bye!