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Hello! Welcome back to another episode of
make thrift buy, the show where you send in
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suggestions of cool clothing or accessories
that you’ve seen on the internet and I do
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my best to recreate them! Today’s episode
was suggested by LxIDIY13, who wanted me to
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try and recreate this animal face shoulder
bag. The one that was suggested to me is from
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a cheap wholesale website called CNDirect,
but you can basically find these things, like,
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everywhere. You can find them in all different
sizes from large tote bags to really small
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coin purses, and you can also find them for
worryingly cheap. Like I found these purses
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on ebay for 93 cents, and that includes free
shipping.... Now when something is this cheap,
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it makes me a little bit worried about exactly
how much the person who made it was getting
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paid. Besides, it looked like something that
would be a really fun challenge to try and
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recreate for myself. SO, let’s begin!
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So the first thing that I needed to do was
to find an image of an animal's face. I went
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onto a royalty-free image website and I typed
in “puppy”. Sorry cat people, but I wanted
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to make a dog face bag instead. Now, the best
type of image for this project will be an
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animal that has a really round head, and sticky-up
ears – so, like this one, or this, or this
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or this. However, this French Bulldog won
my heart, and it was also a perfect image
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to use because it had a really round head,
very sticky-up ears and a white background
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which would be easy to remove.
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Next, I opened up the image in photoshop and
I removed the background and the body. Then,
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I carefully separated the ears from the image
so that they were separate from the head.
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I also made the ears a little bit smaller
in relation to the head, because I didn't
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want GIANT ears on my bag.
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I saved the image as a high quality JPEG,
opened it up in a word document and then printed
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it out onto photo transfer paper; along with
a bunch of other images that I’m going to
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use for future projects, because I don’t
like to waste my photo transfer paper on blank
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space! This stuff isn't that cheap!
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Speaking of wasting photo transfer paper,
the first printing… didn’t go so well.
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I tried to fix this dodgy print job with a
black marker, but… I’m not the artist
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I thought I was, and, this looked... let's
be honest, really bad. So, I needed to print
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out another.
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Now when you’re printing your image, make
sure that you select the highest quality printing
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possible. This is where I went wrong before.
Now THIS is much better.
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Then I also decided that the head needed to
be a bit bigger anyway, so I printed out a
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third.
And I guess that I’ll make a coin purse
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out of the smaller one.
Anyway, as you can see I cut out and separated
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the head and the ear pieces. And then, I peeled
the backing paper off the photo transfers.
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Then, with this cotton linen material that
I thrifted, I cut out pieces of fabric that
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were a bit larger than my images. And then,
I ironed both the head and the ears onto their
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respective bits of linen fabric to transfer
the images onto the fabric.
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Then, I used some fabric scissors to cut the
fabric to the same shape as the images, leaving
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about half an inch of fabric border around
the edges.
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Then, I worked out all the different pieces
that I was going to need for my bag.
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So, for the ears, I cut out two more pieces
of black linen that were identical in shape
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to the ears that I have already cut out.
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Then, I placed each ear and it’s identical
back piece right-sides together, and then
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I sewed them together like this.
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Then, I cut off the excess fabric outside
of the stitches, and I turned the ears the
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right way around, so that the photo transfer
is on the outside.
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For the front face section, I grabbed this
thick fake leathery material, that I already
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owned, and I cut out a piece that was identical
in size to the face piece. This backing made
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out of this stuff material is basically going
to help the bag maintain it's shape. Then
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I sewed the two together, wrong sides together,
like this, leaving a gap down the bottom.
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Through the gap, I filled the piece with a
little bit of stuffing which will also help
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it maintain its shape.
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The next step is attaching the ears, which
I attached to the front piece like THIS. I
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know this looks like you’re sewing them
on upsidedown, but just wait – this will
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all make sense at the end.
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I also cut off the excess fabric at the ends
of the ears. Now in the next few steps, these
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ears will need to stay DOWN out of the way
on the front of the bag like this.
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Now I'm going to attach my bag’s strap.
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With 52 inches of bag strap… material…
whatever you call this stuff – I secured
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the strap onto the front of the face piece.
I attached it using paper clips so that I
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wouldn’t pierce through the photo transfer
with pins. Making sure first that the strap
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was not twisted, I sewed it onto the front
of the bag like this.
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Then, I gathered up all of the bag’s strap
and I secured it with an elastic band. Like
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the ears, this will also have to stay out
of the way in the next few steps.
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Finally, the front piece was FINISHED, and
the bag-making can begin!
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Now the method that I’m going to use to
make my bag is extremely similar to how I
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made this fluffy clutch back in episode 32.
Now, if you’re wanting to try and make this
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round bag, I highly recommend that you try
it out using RECTANGLES first, using the same
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method that I did with my clutch.
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SO, in order to make my bag I am going to
need my outer front piece, an outer back piece,
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for which I am also using fake leather, and
front and back lining pieces.
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I am also going to need a zipper. Now, the
zipper is best if it’s the same colour as
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your photo transfer, but unfortunately I didn’t
have any black zippers that were long enough
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so I had to use this thrifted cream-coloured
one instead.
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Now, the first step of making a simple bag
like this is to attach the front pieces to the zipper.
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So first, lay down the lining piece and then
I attached the zipper, with the zipper facing UP,
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to the lining.
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Now it helps here if you use a zipper foot
on your sewing machine, and you can also unzip
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the zipper because that will make sewing around
the curve a little bit easier.
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As you can see, my zipper is a little bit
longer than I needed it to be, so I just let
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it go off the edges like this. As long as
you leave the zip part in the middle, this
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will work fine. Next, it was time for me to
attach the front piece, which I placed right-side
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down on top of the zipper, and then I sewed
it on like this. This is probably the most
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difficult part to sew together, so I unzipped
the zipper and I went really slowly.
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Once that was all sewn together I flipped
the lining over to the other side, so that
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the zipper was free. The next step is to essentially
do the same thing again – I placed the lining
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down, then I put the zipper on right side
up, and I sewed them together like this. Next
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comes the outer back piece, which is placed
right sides down, and then sewn on like this.
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Then, again, I flipped the lining on the back
piece around to the other side.
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And now, I have something that almost resembles
a bag! Kind of.
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Now the next thing that I did was to place
the front and back outer pieces right sides
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together, move the lining UP and out of the
way, and then I sewed the front and back outer
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pieces together like this.
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Then, I pulled the lining UP and above the
bag as far as I could – and as you can see,
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this is rather difficult to do on a circular-shaped
purse – and then I sewed the lining pieces
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together like THIS, with a large gap in the
middle.
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Then through that hole in the lining, I pulled
everything the right way around. And, from
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what looked like a big old mess just a moment
ago, I got something which actually looked
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ALMOST like a finished bag!
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The only part which still needed sewing together
is the small gaps at the side, which I wasn’t
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able to sew together earlier because of the
bag’s roundness.
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Basically, all I have to do is to hand sew
the gaps together using a needle and black
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thread, like this.
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Now with the outer section of the bag all
sewn up, the last step was to pull out the
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lining and sew the gap closed. Then, I put
the lining back into the bag, zipped it up,
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and I am DONE.
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So, how did I go?
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[music plays]
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So, this was the final product, or products,
and I couldn’t be happier with how they
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turned out! They turned out soooo so well.
This project is a definite:
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[scissor snipping sound effect]
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The only frustrating thing was that the size
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of the bag was kind of limited to the size
of a standard A4 size sheet of paper because
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that's all my printer can handle. I couldn’t
think of a way to make it bigger without actually
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going and getting purchasing printed fabric,
which is kind of expensive. So I was wondering
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if any of you had an idea of a way that I
would be able to make this bigger at home,
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without just having to stick two transfer
sheets together because there would be a line
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right down the middle; it'd look kind of dodgy...
If you have any ideas, then I'd love to hear
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them, let me know in the comments below!
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Now, I want to address an issue that I know
is going to come up if previous youtube comments
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are anything to go by. Each of these cost
me around about $5 each to make. And while
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yes, while one of the points of this series
is to make fashion more accessible by showing
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you how you can recreate items from the high
street for a fraction of the cost, that is
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not the main point of this series. Another
extremely important reason that I do this
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series is to reject the culture of “fast
fashion”. And if something like a coin purse
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only costs you 93 cents to make and then ship
halfway across the world to your doorstep
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– something seriously wrong is going on
here. The person who made it is most likely
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working in awful sweatshop conditions, or
they're a child, or they're working under
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slave labor, and I can’t support any company
that would allow its workers to be treated
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that way in order just to sell people who
are more well-off cheap stuff. And THAT is
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half of the reason that I make my own things.
Be conscious of where your stuff is coming from!
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And ending on that kinda political note, it’s
now time to say goodbye. Tag me on instagram
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using the hashtag #diyannika if you try out
any of my projects and if you haven’t already,
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then go check out my Patreon page! My Patreon
supporters are AMAZING! Because of their support
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I’ve been able to buy my camera a new camera
lens, which is what is currently filming me
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right now, because my old lens was broken.
My patreon supporters are literally the reason
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that you are watching this video right now.
To give back to my Patreon supporters I have
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exclusive vlogs, google hangouts, giveaways,
sneak peeks of projects and behind-the-scenes
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footage. So, consider to help me to keep making
these videos by supporting me on Patreon!
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You’re all beautiful, and I’ll see you
all for my next video. Bye!