DIY BELL SLEEVE TOP | Make Thrift Buy #43

[singing the opening song]

Ba dom dom chika chika dom dom chika chika bleoeoeop!

Hello!

Welcome to another episode of Make Thrift
Buy, the show where you guys send in suggestions

of clothing or accessories that you’ve seen
online or on the high street, and then I do

my best to recreate them.

A bunch of you have been suggesting to make
bell sleeve shirts and what with the 70s revival

that’s going on in fashion at the moment,
they can be found everywhere.

However, I didn’t think this would be too
difficult to make for ourselves, so lets give

it a go!

Now I showed you all how to make t-shirts
back in episode #37 of Make Thrift Buy.

We are basically going to be following the
exact same process as in that tutorial - the

construction of the shirt is basically exactly
the same as the construction of the t-shirt

in that video - and the only thing that I'm
really doing differently is altering the sleeves

to make them longer and bell-shaped.

So if you want to know how to make this top
from start to finish, follow the tutorial

for making a t-shirt in Make Thrift Buy #37,
and then come back here to see how to make

and attach the sleeves.

So the shirt that I’m going to use to copy
my pattern from is this slightly oversized

red top – which I am now just realising
looks stolen from Where’s Waldo closet.

Anyway I traced around the back and front
of the bodice, and I traced it down onto pattern

paper this time so that I could reuse my pattern
again and again.

Then, I traced around the sleeve, and this
is where this tutorial is going to differ

a little from the other one.

I used a slightly different method of copying
out the sleeves for the top.

The front and the back of the sleeve are actually
slightly different shapes, because as you

will notice here, the front bodice piece and
back bodice pieces are slightly different

– so the front and back of the sleeve actually
need to differ a little bit to compensate

for this.

So first I folded the bottom part of the sleeve
out of the way, because I wasn’t worried

about making the sleeve pattern long yet.

Then I traced around the sleeve, like this,
and to trace out the armhole curve here, I

placed my finger on the seam that connects
the sleeve to the bodice, and I basically

just folded the fabric back, making dashed
marks where the two fabrics join up, which

I then connected with my pen.

Then I flipped the sleeve over like this,
lining up the top of the sleeve with this

middle line there, and then I traced around
the back of the sleeve in the same way.

All up, that gave me this.

Notice how the slope for the back of the sleeve
is slighhhtly straighter and flatter than

the front?

Now the method I gave you for copying sleeves
in THIS other tutorial, where the front and

the back are the same, is still valid – I’m
just showing you another way to do this!

Both methods will give you perfectly fine
sleeves for your t-shirt, but this method

is just “slightly” more correct, because
it allows for the natural shape and movement

of the body.

Although, when you’re using stretchy t-shirt
fabric, it doesn’t really matter – because

stretchy fabric is very forgiving.

So right now we’ve ended up with a pattern
for a short t-shirt sleeve, but obviously,

we need to make it longer!

So, I placed this short-sleeve pattern piece
on top of a much larger piece of paper, and

then I traced around this part of the sleeve.

Then I took one of my favourite long-sleeve
shirts and I measured how long the sleeve

was on that.

I added a couple of inches, one for hemming
allowance and another to make the sleeve just

a little bit longer.

All up that gave me a measurement that was
24 inches, so I drew a mark 24 inches away

from the very top part of the sleeve.

Now, to make a long sleeve all I need to do
is to extend the arm 24 inches down from the

top of the sleeve, like this.

The length of this line here is just the circumference
of my wrist, plus 1 inch, and these straight

lines here simply join up everything.

So that’s how you make a long sleeve, but
to make bell sleeves, what I am going to do

is to make the end of the sleeves looks like…
a bell!

So to make a bell, I made a mark 10 inches
up from the end of the sleeve, on both sides

of the sleeve.

And then, I extended the sleeve out evenly
on both sides like this.

I drew a curved line in this angle here to
smooth out the sides of the sleeves, where

the bell begins.

I’m going to curve the end like this, so
that the angle at each corner here is 90 degrees.

I just eyeballed this – if you wanted to
do the specific maths to get this perfect

then you can – but it’s fine to just eyeball
it.

For a more dramatic bell-sleeve, you would
extend it even further, and for a more subtle

one, you would bring this in.

I also drew a little F and a B on the front
and back parts of the sleeve pattern, so I

would remember which was which.

And that is my sleeve pattern done!

Next I cut out 2 sleeves from my fabric, using
the new pattern, with the stretch of the fabric

running in THIS direction.

Then, after I sewed the front and the back
of the bodice pieces together at the shoulders

like this, the next step is to attach the
sleeves to the bodice.

I lined the sleeve up with the armhole like
this, with the back of the sleeve matching

up with the back of the bodice, and the front
of the sleeve matching with with the front

of the bodice.

And then, I sew the sleeve on in the exact
same way as I did in Make Thrift Buy #37.

In fact, the remainder of the construction
of the t-shirt is basically the exact same

as in Make Thrift Buy #37 – the only exception
is that I used a different finishing for the

raw edges of the fabric at the ends of the
sleeves.

I hemmed the end of the sleeves, which I did
by first turning the shirt inside out, and

then folding the top of the sleeve down 1
inch, and then I sewed all the way around

the opening of the sleeve.

And that’s the shirt done!

So – how did I go?

[music plays]

I ended up making two shirts from stretchy,
thrifted jersey fabric – this black one

was the first one that I made, but the material
was… really sheer, it was really thin and

it was pretty weird to work with – it kinda
twisted in this annoying way and it made the

seams look a little bit bunched up.

The second one is a thicker blue jersey, and
this worked out a lot better – the seams

and the bells look really nice and smooth.

But I’m still going to wear both because
I think the black one is definitely still

wearable, and I already love it!

And that’s it!

It's pretty easy to make, if you’re familiar
with working with stretchy fabric, and if

not, I've got some tips in this video here
to help you out!

And the finished product is really damn cute
and also on trend.

I'm going to try making this with a more tightly-fitted
t-shirt - I quite like the dropped-shoulder

version that I made here but I want to try
it with a couple of different styles of shirt.

So anyway, the conclusion is!
[scissor snipping sound effect]

Make this for yourself.

By the way, thank you SO MUCH if you are subscribed
to my channel because I just hit the very

exciting, arbitrary milestone of 500,000 subscribers!

That’s half a million people!!

I can’t even comprehend how many people
that is – that’s bigger than the population

of Malta!

Of Iceland!

I’m glad you guys seem to like what I do,
because I really enjoy doing it too.

If you want to see me being a massive dork
when the subscriber count ticked over to 500,000,

you can see that video on my instagram feed.

Anyway... arghh - thank you.

And I will see you all in my next video.

Bye!

Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon
for making these videos possible.

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