DIY Embroidered Collar Tee (VERY EASY) | Make Thrift Buy #58

Hello! Welcome back to another episode of
Make Thrift Buy! This is the show where YOU

send in items from high fashion, to fast fashion,
or super expensive clothes from the internet

and then I try my best to recreate them.

Today’s suggestion comes from @bellespirit,
who sent in these tops from Urban Outfitters.

And as bellespirit said, they’re supposed
to look DIY. Well, the thing about these tops

is that they kinnnnnd of are? They HAVE been
upcycled, in a sense, if in a more commercial

setting. They’re from this small part of
Urban Outfitters called Urban Renewal, which

is actually kind of cool.

While I’m glad that Urban Outfitters is
doing some upcycled fashion, they’re still

not all-round the most ethical company…
at all – and I really don’t want to give

them my money.

Now this isn’t technically the normal way
we do Make Thrift Buy because this is kind

of an upcycled item already, but the whole
point of DIY… is that you don’t have to

buy it from Urban Outfitters. You can do it
yourself – that’s what D I Y stands for.

Alright, let’s jump right into it.

So seeing as we’re doing this for ourselves,
ah, we can personalise the words on the collar,

to anything we want.

And you all know me. I LIVE to make puns.

So the words that I am going to go with are
“Resting Stitch Face”.

Okay so I'm jumping right in here to just
mention, and this has absolutely nothing to

do with sewing, at all, but for some reason
the wikipedia page on "resting b&@$ face",

also known as RBF - is surprisingly well-referenced?
And it's referred to as a "phenomenon"?

And has been studied by actual real psychologists?!
Anyway I just found all of this really amusing

and it's worth a read at some point
– ANYWAY.

Here’s a t-shirt that I thrifted for 50c
to do this project on. Essentially all I wanted

to do was embroider “resting stitch face”
around the neckline. And if you already know

how to hand-sew or how to embroider, this
all might seem pretty easy and self-explanatory,

but you can still stick around for the, I
think, relaxing time-lapse of me embroidering

the whole thing.

First, I opened up a word document so I could
type out my phrase, count how many letters

were in it – which was 19 – and quickly
make a table with 19 columns.

I put one letter or a space in each column,
from the start to the end of my phrase.

Then I halved 19 – which is 9.5 – meaning
that letter in the middle of the phrase is

going to be the 10th letter, with 9 letters
on each side. I used this as a reference for

the rest of the project to make sure my embroidered
words would be centred around the collar.

Then it was time to choose some colours – this
whole box of embroidery threads is a hand-me-down

from my mum who got really into cross-stitching
for a hot second there in the 80s. But she

doesn't use them anymore, so they're mine
now!

I chose a couple of colours that I thought
would go with the grey t-shirt. I ended up

going with a black and a light pink, so that
I could do one word in a different colour

to make it stand out.

Now this next step is to make sure that the
phrase will be centred – of course, if you

want a less-precise look, you could skip this
step!

Using some chalk, I made a mark exactly in
the centre in the front of the collar of the

t-shirt – and then, referencing back to
my table from before, I drew 9 evenly-spaced

lines out from that mark on the right, and
then I drew 9 evenly-spaced lines out from

the left.

So now it’s like I kind of have my table
stretched out along the collar.

First, I cut some embroidery thread to about
the length of my forearm.

I decided to thread my needle with all 6 smaller
threads of the embroidery thread –

As you can see here, embroidery threads are
thicker than usual threads and made up of

6 smaller individual threads.
And these can be separated into groups of

2 or 3 threads if you want. But I'm going
to use all 6.

I used a needle-threader, which is THIS thing,
to help me get this thick thread through an

embroidery needle, left a tail dangling through
the needle, and I tied a knot – 2 knots

actually – in the other end.

I cut the ends off from the knot and now the
thread is ready to go.

Next I grabbed an embroidery hoop.

Now this is what you don’t want to do–
don't put both layers of t-shirt through in

like I did.

Instead, you want to fix the hoop - which
is done by just taking it apart, putting the

fabric inside and then pushing it together
and tightening the bolt - you want to fix

the hoop onto the FRONT layer of the t-shirt
only and basically it just helps keep the

fabric pulled taught so you can get the cleanest-looking
stitching and it's also a lot easier as well.

I was able to easily move the back of the
t-shirt down out of the way, and now I could

begin stitching.

I wanted to give the letters a “digital
clock” look, so that I could pretty much

use all straight stitches.

So I started out with the middle letter that
I marked out before, which was the “T”

in the word "stitch". Now to make this embroidery
stitch, I brought the needle and the thread

up through the back of the t-shirt to the
front. Then I brought the needle across like

this, about a quarter of an inch and brought
it back down through the fabric to the backside.

Then I brought the needle up again, but not
right next to where I just went down – I

brought it up through HERE, about a quarter
of an inch away from where the needle went

down before. And then I brought it across
and down in the same place where the needle

went through EARLIER in the previous stitch.

I continued sewing like this until I had a
“T” made out of 4 stitches.

And then I just continued along! Doing letter
by letter and using the grid lines around

the collar to tell me where each of my next
letters would be. Heheh… tit.

I'm going to make the middle word "stitch"
stand out on the light grey of the t-shirt

by sewing it with a black thread, while the
other two words will stand out a little bit

less on either side in a light pink thread.

And the type of stitching that I’m doing
here is mostly “back-stitch”, as it’s

known in the embroidery world, and it’s
one of the simplest embroidery stitches.

When the threads started getting really short,
I would bring the needle and the thread through

to the insides of the t-shirt, and tie a couple
of knots in the thread, then cut off the excess

with some scissors, like this.

I also readjusted the embroidery hoop so that
the part I was working on was more or less

in the middle of the hoop.

[music plays]

Yeah so, I reaaaally like this.
It's also a really beginner-friendly project

– you can do it without a sewing machine
and you can do it entirely with one of the

simplest embroidery stitches there is.
So, is this a make, thrift or a buy?

[scissor snipping, zipper sound effect]

And you can also do it on an old or a thrifted
t-shirt too for some upcycling bonus points!

Okay, so I also wanted to announce that I’m
going to be at Vidcon Australia in September!

And I wanted to know if any of you guys are
going! Also, if you can’t afford tickets,

um, but you live in Melbourne which is where
Vidcon is going to be and you wanted to go,

then I am giving away tickets as well, so
stick around for about a minute til the end

of this video to learn how to enter.

So, while I’m at Vidcon, um, apart from
just seeing me generally around and about,

you’ll also be able to come and listen to
me speak on a panel about Online Video and

Mental Health. Now I feel quite qualified
to speak on that panel as I’m currently,

in the process of - like, today, switching
anti-depressants – and I'm very loopy, I'm

very dizzy, – and for the past couple of
months I've also had some really fun super

fun times with depression and anxiety, and
also one of the major reasons for youtube

being my job, like what I do, for money, is
because of chronic health problems and mental

illness – anyway, as fun as that sounds,
I do think it’ll be really interesting.

So come and see me talk about chronic and
mental illness and probably see me cry, as

well – it’ll be super fun, I promise!
[laughs]

Now, if you can’t afford tickets but you
really wanted to go to Melbourne Vidcon, I

am doing a giveaway for 5 community passes,
um, for both days of Melbourne Vidcon on this

video. Just leave a comment below THIS video,
saying: “I’d like to win a Vidcon pass

something something” so I know that you’re
entering, and THEN just tell me a little bit

about why you’d love to go to Melbourne
Vidcon. Now the giveaway is for the ticket

ONLY – it doesn't cover travel or accommodation
or anything like that – so it’s probably

best to enter if you live in Melbourne, or
you can easily make it to Melbourne for the

weekend that it's on. I’d also like to kindly
ask you that you only enter if you really

can’t afford to buy tickets. If you can
more easily afford them, then, I mean know

we all loving winning things, but please,
please leave room in this giveaway for people

who can’t afford them otherwise. OH and
also, make sure the username that you comment

with has a link back to your youtube or google
+ page, um, where you have contact info, or

make sure that you get notifications for replies
on your comments – because I’ll need to

be able get in touch, um, with you if you
win!

So I’m giving away 5 here on this youtube
video, but -

I’m giving away another 3 on my Instagram,
so if you enter here and on Instagram then

you’ve got 2 chances of winning. And I’ve
also got 2 more that I’m giving away on

my Patreon page, so if you’re a patron as
well then you can enter 3 times.

Okay, so that’s it from me today! Thanks
so much for watching, as always tag me in

photos with #diyannika if you do try this
project out, ANNNNND I’ll see you all next

time! Bye!

Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon
for making this video possible. To become

my supporter, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria!