DIY HOLOGRAPHIC SLEEVES | Make Thrift Buy #45

Hello!

Welcome to a brand new episode of Make Thrift
Buy, the show where you guys send in cool

clothes you've found on the internet, and
then I do my best to recreate them, in order

to fight against cheap, disposable fast fashion
and how to teach you guys how to make your

own stuff!

Today’s suggestion was sent in by zelhis..
.zelhistoir… that person.

Who wanted me to make this t-shirt.

Now if you cast your mind back to episode
22, I’ve actually already made this bag,

but back then I wasn’t able to find any
proper holographic material, and this kinda

caused some people to lose their minds – GUYS
– you know you’re actually allowed to

use whatever fabric you want when you recreate
these things for yourself?

ANYWAY guess what – I actually found some
proper, stretchy HOLOGRAPHIC MATERIAL the

other day, so those people who were unreasonably
angry at me last time can now chill out a

little bit.

Anyway, let’s get started.

You can start this DIY with any plain t-shirt
that you own.

I thrifted mine for 50c, and it is tighter
fitting than the one in the suggestion, but

it’s all I had on hand and I also wanted
to show you that you can use whatever style

of shirt that you like.

It doesn’t have to be white either – basically
any t-shirt will work.

It’s hard to see on the camera, but this
particular t-shirt also had yellow sweat stains

that were just on the sleeves, so it was the
perfect t-shirt to upcycle and give a new

life.

Now the first step is to remove the sleeves.

So, I turned the t-shirt inside out and I
got a pair of small, sharp scissors.

Most store-made shirts will use overlocking
stitches, that look like this, to attach the

sleeves to the body.

The quickest and easiest way to remove these
stitches is to find the side of the seam where

the overlocking stitches look like this.

Notice these two lines of thread going across
the loops?

These are the threads that I wanted to cut
through, so I snipped through these every

3 or 4 stitches along.

Once I’d done that all the way around the
sleeve seam, I could basically just pull on

the threads on the other side of the seam,
and ALL of the threads came loose.

By using this method it only took a couple
of minutes to remove the sleeves!

Now I’m going to set the body of the shirt
aside for the moment, and I’m going to use

just one of the old sleeves to make a pattern
for some new sleeves!

Now, the original sleeves on this t-shirt
were pretty small and tight, however I wanted

to make the new contrasting sleeves both wide
and longer.

So I’m not only going to trace and copy
the old sleeve, I’m also going to modify

it to make it bigger as well.

So first I cut open the original sleeve to
make it flat, and then I traced around the

top of this original sleeve, onto some blank
butcher’s paper.

I then made the sleeve a little bit longer
by extending the pattern straight down from

the curved edge, like this.

And I ended up with this sleeve pattern.

Now, I also wanted to make the sleeve WIDER,
so I cut up the pattern vertically in 3 places

like this, and then I separated the 4 resulting
sections.

The top of the sleeve is still the same length
as the original, but the rest of the sleeve

is now WIDER.

I traced around this slashed and spread-out
pattern, onto more pattern paper, also extending

the sleeves to make them a little bit longer
again, adding an even 7 inches on both sides,

and then I added a slightly curved bottom
edge to join up the ends, and now I’ve got

my new sleeve pattern, which I cut out.

Notice how much bigger it is in size to the
original sleeve?

However, the top edge is still the same length,
which is important because the new sleeves

with still fit on the original t-shirt.

With the sleeve pattern done, I grabbed my
holographic material.

To cut out two mirrored sleeves at once, I
folded the fabric over in half like this,

right sides together and then I laid the pattern
down on top of the wrong side of the fabric,

put some heavy items on top of the pattern
to hold it in place, and I cut around the

pattern with my rotary cutter, cutting through
both layers of fabric at the same time.

This gave me two, mirrored sleeves, that look
like this.

For each sleeve, I folded it in half, right-sides
together like this and then I sewed down the

straight edge.

I used an overlocker (also known as a serger)
for this step, but a zig zag stitch will also

work just fine.

Next, I finished off the bottom edges of the
sleeves by first overlocking right around

the bottom edges – and again, this is a
totally optional step – and then with the

sleeve still inside out I folded the bottom
edge up about 5/8ths of an inch (which is

about 1.5 cm).

I stuck some pins in and I sewed all the way
around the edge using a zig-zag stitch to

make a hem at the bottom of the sleeves.

Because I’m using stretchy fabric, I am
also using a walking foot on my sewing machine,

so that the hem doesn’t become all weird
and ruffled.

I am also using clear thread so the stitch
won’t be visible from the outside.

After I repeated that process on both sleeves,
it was now time to attach them to the body

of the original t-shirt!

To do this, first I turned the body of the
t-shirt inside out.

Then I pushed one of the sleeves inside the
armhole, hem-first, so that the curvy, raw

edge of the sleeve matched up with the armhole,
right-sides touching, positioned so that the

seam on the bottom edge of the sleeve matches
up with the underarm seams on the t-shirt

body.

Then using lots of pins, I pinned the two
pieces together really well.

The last step was to sew the sleeve on, using
a zig zag stitch, all the way around the armhole.

You can see that I’m struggling a little
bit with the stretchy, slippery fabrics here,

but it’s not impossible if you leave the
pins in ‘til the last moment and you go

really slowly.

After sewing the two together, I did finish
off the seam by going over it again using

my serger, but again, this step is totally
optional - it just gives you a more professional

finishing inside the garment.

After turning the shirt the right way around,
I noticed that I should also iron the seams

to help them lay more flat.

But anyway - that’s it!

So, how did I go?

[Music plays]

Okay, so I just went into the sunlight wearing
this t-shirt and I lit up like a rainbow!

I can - I understand why people defend holographic
material so viciously now because LOOK at

this!

I'm a walking rainbow!

Woooow!

Pretty.

So, obviously my t-shirt is a little bit tighter-fitting
than the picture in the suggestion, but I

knew that going in, because basically, I wanted
to show you guys that you can use this technique

to add holographic sleeves – or, indeed,
any kind of sleeves in any kind of stretchy

material you want – to any style kind of
t-shirt that you want!

So my conclusion is:
[Scissor snipping and zipper sound effect]

If you'd like to leave a suggestion for a
new make thrift buy then use the hashtag #makethriftbuy

on twitter, instagram, or leave a comment
in the comment's section down below on my

most recent video.

I've given up telling people to not send them
to me on twitter and instagram, 'coz you all

did anyway, so if you want me to see your
suggestions: put up a picture, use the hashtag

#makethriftbuy and I'll browse it frequently
to look for new suggestions for new videos!

OH and if you haven’t already, please check
out my Patreon page!

I’m currently trying to fund a proper sewing
workbench that is adjustable so I can raise

it to a level where I don't have to bend over
and hurt my back all the time, it will also

be really useful for using patterns because
I am to be - hopefully soon - doing a "how

to sew with patterns" series for you guys.

So it basically means new and better quality
videos for you guys, and selfishly, I also

won't be in so much pain anymore when I try
and sew.

And thank you so much to all of my amazing
Patreon supporters, I couldn't do what I do

without your help.

But of course, if you can't help me out on
Patreon right now, then feel free to share

my videos on social media, with your friends
who you wanna get into sewing and have some

crafternoons with...

Anyway, that’s it from me and I’ll see
you all in my next video.

Bye!