DIY Alien Patch Ringer Tee | Make Thrift Buy #37

Hello! Welcome back to a brand new episode
of Make Thrift Buy! And I am SO happy to be

sitting right here making a video again, because
I’ve been really sick for the past month

thanks to my chronic illness, and it's just
been so good for the past few days to have

a bit more energy to sew again. I don’t
know how long it’s going to last, hopefully

I'm on the mend but – I’m back for this
video at least! And I just want to thank all

of the people who have been giving me love
and support on instagram - it’s really helped

me get through some tough days.
Anyway, ONTO THE PROJECT FOR TODAY!

Oh yeah – and just in case you’re new
here, Make Thrift Buy is a series where you

guys send in clothes that you’ve found online,
from chain stores and wholesalers and expensive

designers, and then I try and recreate them
and show you all how to do it in the process.

Now, Jaelyne Grace, Chloe Underwood wanted
me to try and recreate this ringer-style t-shirt

with an alien patch on it from Brandy Melville
– which now appears to be gone forever from

their website – and copied throughout the
cheap fast-fashion world – but never fear!

Because today we’re going to try and make
this for ourselves. So, let’s go!

First I’m going to show you how to make
a t-shirt from scratch, but if you just want

to learn how to make a patch then skip forward
through the video to part 2.

Okay so, first I grabbed myself a top that
I like the fit and style of.

And you guys know me - I love my crop tops!

SO, to make the t-shirt, first I layed down
some stretchy grey jersey, folded over like

this, with the stretch running in this direction.

Next, I grabbed the t-shirt that I’m going
to copy, and I folded it in half so that the

front neckline was on the outside, and then
I matched up the folded edge of the shirt

with the folded edge of the fabric. Now it
doesn’t matter if the sleeve is running

off the edge of the fabric here, because I
wasn’t tracing around that part yet – First,

I was just going to be tracing around THIS
bodice section.

I started out trying to trace around the shirt
with chalk, but that didn’t work out so

well because I couldn’t see the chalk lines
on the grey fabric – so I switched to a

permanent marker. Now this isn’t the best
idea for tracing onto fabric because you can’t

exactly rub out a permanent marker’s lines
if you make a mistake. So - just be careful

if you also go down this route.

So, I traced around the bottom of the shirt
– making the line straight because it was

curved for some reason – and added a little
bit for hemming allowance. I also traced down

the side from the armhole, and the shoulder,
which is from the neckline to where the sleeve

begins. Which gave me these three lines.
Now I just needed to connect them with a neckline

and armhole line.
This is a little bit trickier to trace. To

trace out the front neckline, I put my finger
on top of the neckline, folded the fabric

back to where my finger is, and then I made
a mark with my pen. I did this at both edges

of the neckline first, and then I worked my
way in. And then when I had a few marks like

this, I basically just connected the dots
and joined this curve up. And there we go,

there’s the neckline! Then I did the exact
same thing for the armhole curve, putting

my finger on top of the sleeve seam, and making
little marks with my pen, and then joining

these marks up.

And there we have it, the front bodice-piece
for the t-shirt! Then I simply had to cut

this out, cutting through both layers of fabric,
which unfolded looks like this.

Then, I did the exact same thing to copy the
back of the t-shirt, except that I folded

it the other way so that the back neckline
is on the outside, and I traced out the back

neckline instead.

So, these are my front and back pieces.

Now I needed to make sleeves.

To copy the sleeves of my original t-shirt,
I folded the fabric over once with the stretch

running in this direction, and I placed the
top of the sleeve down onto the fold like

this. Next, making sure that the sleeve was
laying totally flat on the fabric, I traced

around the sleeve like this.
Similar to tracing around the shirt, the bottom

and sides of the sleeve are easy to trace
around, and I also added a small seam-allowance

at the bottom of the sleeve.
Then, to trace around the more difficult armhole

seam, I again used this method where I placed
a finger on top of the seam that joins the

sleeve, folded back the t-shirt, made small
marks with my pen, and then joined these marks

up into a nice curve.
So, this is my sleeve, which I then cut out

and then copied directly onto some more fabric
in order to give me TWO sleeves.

And now it’s time to sew everything together!
First I placed the front and back pieces together

and I sewed them together at the shoulders
like this.

Then, I lay the shirt out like this with the
right sides facing up, and I am going to attach

one of the sleeves.

Okay now watch carefully because this is a
little confusing – I put the sleeve on top

of the shirt, with the middle of the sleeve
matched up with the shoulder seam. Now I need

to sew these two pieces together, but as you
can see, the curve of the armhole and the

curve of the sleeve go in two VERY different
directions.

But, because I am working with very stretchy
fabric, I can use pins to solve this!

So, first I put a pin in the middle, matching
up the middle of the sleeve to the shoulder

seam.
Then I pinned the sleeve on all the way down

ONE side only. It’s easiest to do one side
of each sleeve at a time, because otherwise

things will get very bunched up.
So with half the sleeve pinned on, I sewed

it on to the bodice like this, using a zig-zag
stitch.

And once that side is sewn on, I pinned the
other half of the sleeve to the bodice and

sewed it on in the same way.

I repeated this for the other sleeve, and
now I had something resembling a t-shirt.

Next, with the fabrics facing right-sides
together, I’m going to sew the arms and

the sides together like this.

Things will work out best if you first sew
from the underarm to the end of the sleeve,

and then from the underarm down the side of
the shirt.

Now I have a t-shirt with raw edges, and I’m
going to finish it off by adding the contrasting

neckline and armhole bindings.

So to figure out how much material I would
need for the neckline binding, I measured

the circumference of the neckhole which came
out at 24 inches. I then took 4 inches off

this measurement.

Next, I cut out a strip of black jersey fabric
which is what I'm going to be using for my

contrasting binding. This strip is 20 inches
long. I was able to take away 4 inches from

the neckhole measurement because this fabric
was extremely stretchy, but you will have

to adjust this depending on the stretch of
your fabrics.

A good test to make sure that you have cut
a long-enough strip of fabric is to fold this

strip in half, place it on the front of your
neckline, and, with your fingers holding it

in place, stretching the fabric and kind of
"walking” it along the neckline like this.

Next, with this strip folded in half (right
sides together), I sewed down the edges.

Then, I turned it the right way around,

folded
it in half length-ways,

then, I quartered it with pins.

I did the same thing with the
neckline, quartering it with pins, so two

pins at each of the shoulder seams, and one
in the centre back, and one in the centre

front. Now I’m going to sew these two together!

To do this, I placed the neck binding onto
the machine first with the raw edges facing

THIS way. The shirt goes on next, and the
binding then goes on top of the neckline,

with the raw edges matching up, and at the
same time I also matched up two of the pins.

Removing these pins so I don’t sew over
them, I’m going to then sew the two pieces

together, stretching the binding so that the
next set of pins match up.

I’m sewing the two together with about an
eight of an inch seam allowance.

I’m also using a straight stitch to sew
the neckline on, because next I am going to

overlock (or, serge) the stitches, but if
you don’t have an overlocker then you should

be using a zig-zag stitch at this point.

So, with the neck binding sewn on and flipped
around the right way it looks like this, and

I'm also give everything a good iron to ensure
that it lays flat.

Now, going to make contrasting bindings for
the sleeves and I'm going to use a very similar

method. So I cut out a strip of black fabric
that’s shorter than the armhole by about

2 inches, so, with the strip folded over in
two it looks like this.

I then sew the strip into a loop by stitching
down here, cutting off the excess fabric,

turning it around so that the seam is on the
inside, folding this in half lengthways,

and then placing it over the top of the armhole,
with the raw edges of both fabrics up, matching

and then I sew it on all the way around
the armhole like this.

Now I’m not bothering with pins this time,
I’m just stretching the black binding fabric

slightly as I sew, but if you want to be a
bit more accurate then you should quarter

everything with pins just like you did for
the neckline.

Then, to hem the bottom of the shirt, I folded
the raw edge up inside the shirt about one

inch, pinned everything in place, and then
I went over the top of the fabric with my

twin-needle, and I also used my walking foot.
Hemming stretch fabrics can be difficult,

but I find that this combination with the
walking foot and the twin needle stops the

fabric from ruffling. If you don’t have
these attachments then you can always place

a piece of paper underneath while you sew
and zig-zag stitch your way along the hem,

tearing off the paper when you’re done.
AND, that’s how I make a t-shirt! And now

I can move onto part 2.

Sooo I’ve never made a patch before, and
I also don’t really have any proper patch-making

materials on me, so I'm going to be honest
- I’m kind of making this up as I go along.

I grabbed myself this scrap piece of plain
white cotton, which I pre-ironed to make it

nice and flat. And then I drew an alien’s
face onto it with a pencil, using the original

t-shirt image to help guide me.

I figured that I needed something to stabalize
the patch so I grabbed some interfacing that

I already owned, and I cut out a small square
of this and ironed it onto the back of the

alien drawing.

Next, with a very narrow zig-zag stitch, I
went carefully around the outsides of the

alien’s head, following the pencil line
as closely as possible.

And, I ended up with this!
In order to stop the patch from fraying when

I eventually cut it, I’m going to add fabric
glue all around the edges. So I brushed the

fabric glue on in a thin layer, both around
the edges of the stitches and also a little

bit on top of the stitches, just in case I
accidentally cut through any later, to stop

them unraveling.
Next, I put the fabric into an embroidery

hoop and I used an embroidery needle and thread
and a satin stitch to fill in the eyes.

I’ve talked about how to make a satin stitch
in many other videos which I’ll link in

the description, but really quickly, you do
a satin stitch by going UP at one edge of

your shape, the bringing your needle down
at the OTHER edge of the shape, and then pulling

the thread through. Then, you simply push
your needle up right NEXT to the spot where

your needle just went down, bring your needle
over to the other side of the shape, and back

down again, and repeat this until your shape
is filled in with these long stitches!

And always make sure when you’re done to
flip it over to the back and tie a couple

of knots to stop the threads from coming loose.

So once I’d embroidered both the eyes, I
grabbed these iron-on patches, which you should

be able to find at most craft stores.

I roughly cut out the alien’s face, and
then I sewed the alien onto the iron-on patch

like this.
Basically, I just used a straight stitch to

go over the top of the already-exisiting zig-zag
stitch.

Then, using some sharp fabric scissors, I
cut out the alien’s face by going as close

to the zig-zag stitches as possible. And,
the fabric shouldn’t fray now because of

all the fabric glue that I used earlier (which,
by the way, I allowed to dry before cutting

this out).

So, here’s my patch! And I’m so happy
with how it turned out!

Now in order to attach it to the shirt, all
I'm going to have to do is to iron it on because

the back of the patch has this heat-activated
glue.

So, I layed the patch down on the appropriate
spot on the shirt, covered it with some cotton

to protect it, and then following the instructions
on the iron-on patch I held my iron down on

top of it for 20 seconds.

And now I'm finally done!
SO, after all of that, how did the shirt turn out?

How did I go?

[music plays]

So my conclusion is: [scissor snipping sound
effect].

I love how this turned out! And this was a
project that had surprisingly few hiccups

for a project of mine. But if you didn't want
to make an entire t-shirt from scratch, then

you could always just get a t-shirt that you
liked and make your own patch and stick it

on the front. You can really make this project
as easy or as difficult as you want to! And

I really want to make a bunch of other patches
now and put them on cute, different-coloured,

ringer-style t-shirts. What kind of simple
embroidered patches could I make? If you have

any ideas, let me know in the comments down
below!

As always, thank so much for watching, thanks
for sharing, liking, supporting my videos,

all of that, the kind words you leave on instagram
and in the comments - anyway, I’ll see you

all in my next video, bye!

Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon
who helped to make this video possible. To

become my patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria.