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(Sigh) Yep. I'm actually doing this.
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[Make Thrift Buy Intro Music]
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Hey! Welcome to Make Thrift Buy, the show
where you send in suggestions of clothes that you've
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seen on the Internet and then I try my best
to recreate them.
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So a LOT of you have sent me messages in the
past few weeks asking me to recreate the "Virgin
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Killing Sweater". Appppparently this sweater
recently blew up on Twitter in Japan, and
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later it was also picked up by Western major
media outlets in their monthly "isn't Japan
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so craaaazy" stories, although I am pretty
sure it's actually manufactured and sold in
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a Chinese store called Seventy Three.
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It's also apparently received the name "virgin
killer" from a Japanese person on Twitter
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because it's so erotic....that it kills...virgins?
Look everything about this is a little bit
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iffy; I'm just here to sew.
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Oh yeah. Important thing to note about this
sweater: It's supposed to be so low cut at
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the back that it shows off "butt cleavage".
Now I didn't know butt cleavage was a thing
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until today. And in attempting to keep this
video PG I'm not going to show you the photos
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of people wearing it where you can see their
butt cleavage, nor will I be showing my own
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butt cleavage if I do make it successfully,
but if you want to see this worn on actual
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human beings (or a bunch of anime girls or
my little pony characters, which, I pre-warn
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you, you will not be able to unsee) there's
a Not Safe For Work page on knowyourmeme.com
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all about this sweater with about 300 pictures.
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Anyway, let's try and recreate this.
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Well, I started out by finding a suitable
sweater at the thrift store. This one was
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$15 and it's a men’s size large. Most importantly,
it has a turtle neck, and it's also quite
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long on me – it ends about where my shorts
end so it’s the perfect length for this
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DIY.
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Anyway, off with the arms! We sure won’t
be needing those!
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Oh yeah, guys, I should just stop here, I’ve
created such a sexy look already.
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Anyway next I wanted to make it fit more snugly,
so it’s time to take in the sides.
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I pinched the material at the sides until
it was more snug on my body, estimating how
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much I’d need to take it in by.
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Then I turned the sweater inside out, and
I laid it out flat, and I drew straight lines
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down both sides using some chalk. And I also
stuck some pins through both layers of fabric
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to help keep them together through the next
step, because knitted fabric STRETCHES like
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nothing else.
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In the next step, I’m going to be using
my overlocker to SERGE down these two lines.
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So here is some actually useful tips about
sewing with knitted fabrics.
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So this is an overlocker, also known as Serger
- stickers available from DFTBA.com - and
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before serging any kind of fabric, especially
bulky, knitted fabric like I'm using here,
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you should adjust the settings on your serger.
So I am setting my differential feed to "2",
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which will give me, hopefully, flat seams.
If you set it to this, we're going to get
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real wavy seams, so it needs to be set to
"2".
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I'm also setting my stitch... length? Yes.
This is length. I'm also setting my stitch
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length to the, uh, longest length possible.
And finally I am using nylon threads because
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they are stretchier.
I worked out all of these adjustments by reading
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the manual for my machine - your machine will
probably be a bit different, so a good idea
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is to read the manual.
But the most important one is this one here,
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the differential feed.
And I practiced on the fabric that I cut off
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from the arms until I got a nice, flat seam.
See, this is one of my first attempts - that
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is what I did not want.
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So, after doing all that I put the sweater
into the serger and I serged down those lines
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I drew earlier!
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And, guys, I actually managed to sew a pretty
flat seam on my sweater there! It was still
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the tiniest bit ruffled but hey, it’s pretty
good – because sewing together two layers
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of chunky knit is really difficult, so I'm
pretty proud of myself.
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Okay so then I decided to do the rest of the
measuring by putting my sweater on this dress
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form, because I was sick of how itchy and
hot the sweater was making me.
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So the thing I did next was to essentially
trace those cut-outs directly onto the sweater
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using some chalk. Obviously, using a dressform
also makes this process somewhat easier than
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trying to trace it out while wearing it on
myself.
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So once I had drawn on those cutouts I…
cut them out. Using some fabric scissors.
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I cut about 1 inch outside the chalk lines,
to give myself some hemming allowance.
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And when that was done… it looked like this.
And it’s looking quite similar to the original
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at this point, if I do say so myself!
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The next step was to hem all the raw edges
to give them a neat finish, which I did by
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first going all the way around the raw edges
with my overlocker...
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And then folding the hem up inside the garment
about ½ an inch and using a stretch stitch
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to go over the top, and using a walking foot
attachment as well. These two techniques stop
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the hem from ruffling on the knitted fabric.
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So this is what it looked like when I was
done, and ummhhh... I realised at this point
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that I had been a bit too enthusiastic with
those side cutouts...
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See now, on this mannequin, it looks like
there’d just be “tasteful” amounts of
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sideboob, right?
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But unfortunately this dress form is not exactly
the same size as me. SO when I actually tried
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this on – uhh… how to say this delicately…
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My boobs spilled out the sides.
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This is why I probably should have tried it
on before cutting it out. Welp. Too late now.
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It’s time to try and salvage this project.
Which I did by grabbing the one sleeve that
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I hadn’t already butchered by practising
on it before with my serger, and I cut this
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sleeve in half, then I placed it underneath
the side cut outs like this, to give a little
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bit more coverage at the front. I pinned it
on, repeating this for the other side, and
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then I sewed these extra pieces on like THIS,
again using a stretch stitch.
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Next, the fabric also went a little bit more…
floopy? Than I expected after making the cutouts,
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and it also gaped a bit at the sides, so to
fix this, I turned the garment inside out,
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laid it flat like this… and essentially
I made this part tighter by sewing a line
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like this, through both layers of fabric.
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The very LAST step was adding a tie at the
back.
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I’m not sure why this tie exists on the
original, I think that it’s probably just
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purely decorative – in any case, it’s
definitely not going to be functional on my
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backless sweater.
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So first I estimated how long each tie would
be by pretending that my measuring tape was
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the tie, and getting the approximate length
from this.
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I cut out two long pieces of cotton fabric
in a matching colour, each of them measuring
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33 by 2 and half inches.
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And I folded both in half lengthways, sewed
down this edge, turned them inside out using
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a bodkin, ironed them flat and then sewed
down the middle of them like this.
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Finally, I attached them together in one long
strap, and then I hand-sewed it onto the back
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of the sweater just underneath the turtleneck…
and I tied it into a pretty bow.
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And with that… I was done. So…. Oh man
I still can’t believe I’ve made this item
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of clothing… How did I go?
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(dorky music plays)
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Mmpphh!! I wanna take this off NOW!
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(Sigh) but first - some shots.
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This is what it looks like from the front.
I'm gunna put pants on to show you the back.
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So we've got the turtleneck at the front,
we've got ample side-boob... we have a "V"
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cutout at the butt, waistline here, for a
lot of...
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butt cleavage!
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Oh look! We've got some more sideboob there,
we've got the tie... that doesn't... function.
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Mmm. Yeah. So, uh, Pfffft. This is, uh, 100%
wool! So... and it's, it's summer where I
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live right now!
I do not feel sexy... at all.
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Mm, baby. I'm so itchy.
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Here's a hot tip for those of you planning
on recreating this - not that I particularly
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recommend doing so - use a sweater that's
not 100% wool, like maybe, more polyester?
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I couldn't figure out what the original was
made of but I'm betting it isn't 100% pure
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wool.
Turns out, that's not very comfortable to
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wear!
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And yep, so I'm feeling REALLY uncomfortable
and awkward right now... so... uhh...
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END CARD!
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'Kay so I made it.
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[Make Thrift Buy Music .... Bowp bow!]
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At the very least, even if you don't plan
on making one of these for yourself - and
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more power to you if you do, I think you should
be able to wear whatever you want... it just
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doesn't suit me! - I hope you learned some
tips and tricks on serging knitted fabrics!
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Make sure you check out my merchandise store
over at dftba.com for some punderful sewing
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stickers, and an awesome Make Thrift Buy poster,
to help support my channel and more quality
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videos like this one! That's all for now,
I'll see you all in my next video.
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Bye!
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Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon
for making these videos possible. To become
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my patreon supporter go to patreon.com/annikavictoria!