DIY Animal Face Bag | Make Thrift Buy #35

Hello! Welcome back to another episode of
make thrift buy, the show where you send in

suggestions of cool clothing or accessories
that you’ve seen on the internet and I do

my best to recreate them! Today’s episode
was suggested by LxIDIY13, who wanted me to

try and recreate this animal face shoulder
bag. The one that was suggested to me is from

a cheap wholesale website called CNDirect,
but you can basically find these things, like,

everywhere. You can find them in all different
sizes from large tote bags to really small

coin purses, and you can also find them for
worryingly cheap. Like I found these purses

on ebay for 93 cents, and that includes free
shipping.... Now when something is this cheap,

it makes me a little bit worried about exactly
how much the person who made it was getting

paid. Besides, it looked like something that
would be a really fun challenge to try and

recreate for myself. SO, let’s begin!

So the first thing that I needed to do was
to find an image of an animal's face. I went

onto a royalty-free image website and I typed
in “puppy”. Sorry cat people, but I wanted

to make a dog face bag instead. Now, the best
type of image for this project will be an

animal that has a really round head, and sticky-up
ears – so, like this one, or this, or this

or this. However, this French Bulldog won
my heart, and it was also a perfect image

to use because it had a really round head,
very sticky-up ears and a white background

which would be easy to remove.

Next, I opened up the image in photoshop and
I removed the background and the body. Then,

I carefully separated the ears from the image
so that they were separate from the head.

I also made the ears a little bit smaller
in relation to the head, because I didn't

want GIANT ears on my bag.

I saved the image as a high quality JPEG,
opened it up in a word document and then printed

it out onto photo transfer paper; along with
a bunch of other images that I’m going to

use for future projects, because I don’t
like to waste my photo transfer paper on blank

space! This stuff isn't that cheap!

Speaking of wasting photo transfer paper,
the first printing… didn’t go so well.

I tried to fix this dodgy print job with a
black marker, but… I’m not the artist

I thought I was, and, this looked... let's
be honest, really bad. So, I needed to print

out another.

Now when you’re printing your image, make
sure that you select the highest quality printing

possible. This is where I went wrong before.
Now THIS is much better.

Then I also decided that the head needed to
be a bit bigger anyway, so I printed out a

third.
And I guess that I’ll make a coin purse

out of the smaller one.
Anyway, as you can see I cut out and separated

the head and the ear pieces. And then, I peeled
the backing paper off the photo transfers.

Then, with this cotton linen material that
I thrifted, I cut out pieces of fabric that

were a bit larger than my images. And then,
I ironed both the head and the ears onto their

respective bits of linen fabric to transfer
the images onto the fabric.

Then, I used some fabric scissors to cut the
fabric to the same shape as the images, leaving

about half an inch of fabric border around
the edges.

Then, I worked out all the different pieces
that I was going to need for my bag.

So, for the ears, I cut out two more pieces
of black linen that were identical in shape

to the ears that I have already cut out.

Then, I placed each ear and it’s identical
back piece right-sides together, and then

I sewed them together like this.

Then, I cut off the excess fabric outside
of the stitches, and I turned the ears the

right way around, so that the photo transfer
is on the outside.

For the front face section, I grabbed this
thick fake leathery material, that I already

owned, and I cut out a piece that was identical
in size to the face piece. This backing made

out of this stuff material is basically going
to help the bag maintain it's shape. Then

I sewed the two together, wrong sides together,
like this, leaving a gap down the bottom.

Through the gap, I filled the piece with a
little bit of stuffing which will also help

it maintain its shape.

The next step is attaching the ears, which
I attached to the front piece like THIS. I

know this looks like you’re sewing them
on upsidedown, but just wait – this will

all make sense at the end.

I also cut off the excess fabric at the ends
of the ears. Now in the next few steps, these

ears will need to stay DOWN out of the way
on the front of the bag like this.

Now I'm going to attach my bag’s strap.

With 52 inches of bag strap… material…
whatever you call this stuff – I secured

the strap onto the front of the face piece.
I attached it using paper clips so that I

wouldn’t pierce through the photo transfer
with pins. Making sure first that the strap

was not twisted, I sewed it onto the front
of the bag like this.

Then, I gathered up all of the bag’s strap
and I secured it with an elastic band. Like

the ears, this will also have to stay out
of the way in the next few steps.

Finally, the front piece was FINISHED, and
the bag-making can begin!

Now the method that I’m going to use to
make my bag is extremely similar to how I

made this fluffy clutch back in episode 32.
Now, if you’re wanting to try and make this

round bag, I highly recommend that you try
it out using RECTANGLES first, using the same

method that I did with my clutch.

SO, in order to make my bag I am going to
need my outer front piece, an outer back piece,

for which I am also using fake leather, and
front and back lining pieces.

I am also going to need a zipper. Now, the
zipper is best if it’s the same colour as

your photo transfer, but unfortunately I didn’t
have any black zippers that were long enough

so I had to use this thrifted cream-coloured
one instead.

Now, the first step of making a simple bag
like this is to attach the front pieces to the zipper.

So first, lay down the lining piece and then
I attached the zipper, with the zipper facing UP,

to the lining.

Now it helps here if you use a zipper foot
on your sewing machine, and you can also unzip

the zipper because that will make sewing around
the curve a little bit easier.

As you can see, my zipper is a little bit
longer than I needed it to be, so I just let

it go off the edges like this. As long as
you leave the zip part in the middle, this

will work fine. Next, it was time for me to
attach the front piece, which I placed right-side

down on top of the zipper, and then I sewed
it on like this. This is probably the most

difficult part to sew together, so I unzipped
the zipper and I went really slowly.

Once that was all sewn together I flipped
the lining over to the other side, so that

the zipper was free. The next step is to essentially
do the same thing again – I placed the lining

down, then I put the zipper on right side
up, and I sewed them together like this. Next

comes the outer back piece, which is placed
right sides down, and then sewn on like this.

Then, again, I flipped the lining on the back
piece around to the other side.

And now, I have something that almost resembles
a bag! Kind of.

Now the next thing that I did was to place
the front and back outer pieces right sides

together, move the lining UP and out of the
way, and then I sewed the front and back outer

pieces together like this.

Then, I pulled the lining UP and above the
bag as far as I could – and as you can see,

this is rather difficult to do on a circular-shaped
purse – and then I sewed the lining pieces

together like THIS, with a large gap in the
middle.

Then through that hole in the lining, I pulled
everything the right way around. And, from

what looked like a big old mess just a moment
ago, I got something which actually looked

ALMOST like a finished bag!

The only part which still needed sewing together
is the small gaps at the side, which I wasn’t

able to sew together earlier because of the
bag’s roundness.

Basically, all I have to do is to hand sew
the gaps together using a needle and black

thread, like this.

Now with the outer section of the bag all
sewn up, the last step was to pull out the

lining and sew the gap closed. Then, I put
the lining back into the bag, zipped it up,

and I am DONE.

So, how did I go?

[music plays]

So, this was the final product, or products,
and I couldn’t be happier with how they

turned out! They turned out soooo so well.
This project is a definite:

[scissor snipping sound effect]

The only frustrating thing was that the size

of the bag was kind of limited to the size
of a standard A4 size sheet of paper because

that's all my printer can handle. I couldn’t
think of a way to make it bigger without actually

going and getting purchasing printed fabric,
which is kind of expensive. So I was wondering

if any of you had an idea of a way that I
would be able to make this bigger at home,

without just having to stick two transfer
sheets together because there would be a line

right down the middle; it'd look kind of dodgy...
If you have any ideas, then I'd love to hear

them, let me know in the comments below!

Now, I want to address an issue that I know
is going to come up if previous youtube comments

are anything to go by. Each of these cost
me around about $5 each to make. And while

yes, while one of the points of this series
is to make fashion more accessible by showing

you how you can recreate items from the high
street for a fraction of the cost, that is

not the main point of this series. Another
extremely important reason that I do this

series is to reject the culture of “fast
fashion”. And if something like a coin purse

only costs you 93 cents to make and then ship
halfway across the world to your doorstep

– something seriously wrong is going on
here. The person who made it is most likely

working in awful sweatshop conditions, or
they're a child, or they're working under

slave labor, and I can’t support any company
that would allow its workers to be treated

that way in order just to sell people who
are more well-off cheap stuff. And THAT is

half of the reason that I make my own things.
Be conscious of where your stuff is coming from!

And ending on that kinda political note, it’s
now time to say goodbye. Tag me on instagram

using the hashtag #diyannika if you try out
any of my projects and if you haven’t already,

then go check out my Patreon page! My Patreon
supporters are AMAZING! Because of their support

I’ve been able to buy my camera a new camera
lens, which is what is currently filming me

right now, because my old lens was broken.
My patreon supporters are literally the reason

that you are watching this video right now.
To give back to my Patreon supporters I have

exclusive vlogs, google hangouts, giveaways,
sneak peeks of projects and behind-the-scenes

footage. So, consider to help me to keep making
these videos by supporting me on Patreon!

You’re all beautiful, and I’ll see you
all for my next video. Bye!