DIY Seashell Bra Mermaid Top | Make Thrift Buy #7

[intro music plays] [zipper sound effect]

Hi, my name is Annika and you're watching

Make, Thrift, Buy, a show where you guys send
me clothes from the internet and I attempt to re-create them!

Today’s Make, Thrift, Buy was suggested
by my friend Tilde who sent me a picture of

this mermaid top, originally from a shop called
Tokyo Hardcore, though there are various iterations

of this theme all over the internet. So, let’s
see if I can re-create it! So first I looked

up pictures of seashells to make a kind of
stencil with. I found this shell whose shape

looks similar to the one on the shirt, so
I copied it into Photoshop and copied it into

two different sizes because I wasn’t sure
what size I wanted. The shirt that I’m using

is this old crop top that I’ve had for five
years. I decided to use the larger shells

which I then cut out properly. Then using
a pencil, I marked where I wanted the top

and the bottom off the shell to be and I traced
the shells onto the shirt. Next up, mixing

the paints: so red + blue + white equals…horrible
grey, apparently. So I eventually got to a

pretty pastel purple by adding a lot more
red, a lot more white…more red, more white.

Yeah, alright, that’ll do. Now I’m adding
one part fabric medium to two parts paint.

Adding the medium helps the paint to stay
permanent on fabric, even when washed. Then

I put a piece of cardboard in the shirt to
separate the front from the back and started

painting. Wait. Wait a minute. At this point,
I remembered what a disaster combination cardboard

and paint were. Oh well, better late than
never. At least I’ve learned from my mistakes.

So I carefully replaced the cardboard inside
the shirt with a piece of plastic and I continued

painting my seashells on. And I finished off
the edges with a really fine brush and after

letting it dry overnight, and according to
the instructions on the fabric medium, I put

a tea towel over the prints and ironed them
for a good two minutes. Then, using a purple

permanent marker and a ruler, I drew some
dotted lines just like in the top from Tokyo

Hardcore. And I ironed this all again because
well, why not. To style this

[music plays]

To style this shirt,

I paired it with some ice cream earrings,
bright pink lipstick, some jelly shoes to give

it a beachy feel, and a long green skirt which
I felt kind of looked like a mermaid’s tail.

So, my conclusion? [scissor
cutting effect, zipper sound effect]

So I’ll admit that you probably could buy this cheaper
than you could make it, although obviously

I’m going to re-use all of these paints
and permanent markers again in new craft projects.

While yes, one of the points of this series
is for me to show you that you can re-create

things from the high street for a fraction
of the cost. Another motive of this series

is to slow down the pace of fast fashion.
Every new thing you buy uses up resources,

and most of the time a lot of the things you
buy are made in sweat shops. On that political

note, please give my video a thumbs up if
you liked it and subscribe to my channel and

I’ll see you all next time! [outro music
plays]