Transcripts
1. Intro upcycling project: Welcome to my class today, where I will teach you
an upcycling project to create new pieces of art from old clothing that
you find at garage sales, thrift stores or
your own closet. So this is a really
fun and easy way to make old things new. Again, you will use patches
that you make or find. You will use pieces
that you shop for or have in your own
closet or get from friends. You will need a sewing machine and the basic knowledge
of how to use it. But other than that, this is a really easy and fun project to create lots of new pieces, either for yourself to
sell or to give us gifts. They are really
interesting in one of a kind pieces and I find
that everybody loves them. So have fun today and please let me know if you
have any questions.
2. Supplies Upcycle Project: Okay, so let's go over the
supplies that you will need for today's sewing and
upcycling project. First of all, you will
need clothes to upcycle, maybe that you got
at a thrift store, your own closet
or clothing swap. These will make great gifts
for you and for others and is a great way to give
new life to old things. Next, you will need some patches to sew onto your
upcycled clothing. I have a screen printing shop and a block printing studio. I use a lot of test
prints and misprints or scrap material to print
on and make my own patches. You can also just collect T
shirts with cool art on it. You can paint on patch material. I recommend looking in the pillow case section
at a thrift store. Makes great patch material. You can get creative here. Make patches out of
anything that you want, whether it be your
own art or you use someone else's. All right. Next you need good scissors
to cut out your patches. I like these crimping scissors. You can also use a rotary tool. Next, you need sewing
supplies like pins, threads, bobbin,
a sewing machine, a pin cushion sewing basics. Next, an ironing board and an iron to add
those final touches at the very end of your project, after you sew the
patches onto the shirts, this gives a nice, crisp edge. This is everything you need. Once you've gathered it all, it is time to begin.
3. Cut Patches Upcycle Project: The next step is to
cut out your patches. A lot of mine are on old T shirts or pillow
cases and other things. I'm going to cut them out
with my good scissors. Now I have some line cuts that I put on some old pants
that a friend gave me. And I'm going to cut them
out with my scissors. I'm going to try
to around the edge enough to leave a
border for my patch. So maybe a half inch around. And you can do squares, you can do for the shapes. However, curves
are harder to sew, you're just starting out, it's nice to just start
with a rectangle.
4. Organize and Design Upcycle Project: I have all of my patches cut
out and organized by shapes, colors, sizes, and designs
that I want together. I also will keep
my fabric scraps for some future projects. And we'll do the same
for all my shirts now. Now I have my shirts organized and I will
put 2.2 together. First I will pick a patch
for this lady's shirt. I like this lime green
color lino cut block for the back of the shirt,
so I'll place it there. Then I will grab this other lime green patch to match for the
front of the shirt. I will go through all my patches and shirts in that manner and just mix around what
goes best with what. Now I have everything
matched up. I will fold the clothes all together with their
patches in between, and then now it is
time to pin them.
5. Pin Patches Upcycle Project: All right, now I want to
pin my patches to my shirt. For this example, I'm going
to pin on this shirt. This is the front patch and this lovely lady
as the back patch, I will need my pin cushion in
my pins and a flat surface. I'm using the floor here to lie my shirt as flat as I can. I'm going to do that now. I'm
going to do my front patch. Pull the fabric as
tight as I can. Lay the first patch
exactly where I want. I'm going to lay it just
above the pocket here. Let me show you how I'm
going to pin it on my shirt. I had you cut the patches maybe a half inch or so, two wide. And that is because
you're going to fold over those edges and push the pin in straight
down and through. I recommend in this direction so that you can sew right
over top of the pin. And I'll have to pause to
pull them out as you go. If you did not cut your
patches wide enough. I do like the crimping
scissors because it leaves that zigzag edge so the fabric does not
unravel as quickly. And you can just sew it just along that edge there and it should be fined
through the wash, especially with the
type of stitch that we are going to use today. No worries. If that what happened to you or if
you have a curved edge, sometimes you need to
leave that edge raw. You can't fold the fabric
under curve like that. I'm going to pin around my patch and get it firm just where
I want it on my shirt. Just like that. When I
finish my front patch, I will flip my shirt over
to do the back patch. The back patch is a
little bit trickier, just being bigger, but you will get the hang of
it the more you do it. Lots of pinning and unpinning. I'm going to get that shirt nice and tight again and flat
on my surface here. Then I will grab my
patch and try to find the exact middle
of the shirt using the tag or sometimes there's a crease in the back
of these plaid shirts, where the center is, I will
then find the center of my patch and line it up with
the center of the shirt. Again, using the tag there to find the center of my patch. Sometimes those other shoulder
seams and such help you make sure you get the patch
straight across as well. I place it with my eyeballs,
try to get it right. I will measure with my fingers to make sure it's in the center. Two, always measure
a couple times to make sure that it's
centered and straight there. Use the seams to help you do
this and adjust as needed. I will then put my needles
just into this top seam here. Then I will double check to
make sure that the patch is straight. Pin the top part. Pull up your shirt and
see if your patch is crooked or centered and
straight, just like you want it. This is the easiest time
to adjust to your patch. Really take your time here to make sure that you get it
straightened in the middle. Because these big
patches require a lot of pins and it's a lot
to take them out. And in, once you discover
that your patch is crooked at the very
end or even worse, you don't want to sew it on
crooked and then have to take out all of those stitches. I speak from experience
on that part. Really get your shirt laid out flat and straight and tight. You want that bottom fabric to not crease
underneath your patch. As you sew as well,
make sure that it is nice and tight and continue to pin your back patch or your big patch on
your shirt as well. Here is my big
patch on my shirt. I have it straight and even
on both sides, of course, I will lift it up and double
check again that it is perfect and ready for the
next step of our process.
6. Sew Patches: I have my patches ready to sew on and I need to prepare
my sewing machine. Here I have my bobbin
threads already ready to go. A green for the top, a
black for the bottom. I have a pretty basic
machine here and your user manual for your machine will help
you thread your own. All right. Machine is threaded,
thread is ready to go. Now I need to set the dials
on my sewing machine. Again, this will look different depending on the
model that you have, but with my model here, I like to select
this zigzag stitch. I set my selector to C. I like the length
to be pretty small. I do it two on the length and make sure that that number
is set to two as well. I've got my garment ready
to go where it's pinned, and I will be sewing
that zigzag stitch over where my folded patch
line is, right there. Okay, so I finish up one of my patches here
and we'll cut it free from the sewing machine to show you all what it
looks like finished. Okay. So here the patch is
up close and you can see that I put the
crisscross pattern over top of the
patch and the shirt, so the needle hit both edges
there or both fabrics there, and that really secures the
patch on to your shirt. And I went all around
the edges and did that forward backward stitch
to sew it into place. So you have a really nice,
professional looking patch. And I will do this with
the back one as well.
7. Ironing: All right, so I got
my patches all sewn on, they look nice. There's the back,
there's the front. Have a couple threads to cut. I'll do that, but the last
step is to iron the shirt. And iron around the patch that makes the crease
really nice and makes it a nice finished
piece for you. And I'll lay on my
ironing board here. My iron hot, not too hot. I'm just going to bring
that around the edge there. Just stick up. And then
do the same back piece. Now you have a much
cooler shirt to wear. Now I'm to show off
my finished piece. I love the back in the front. It is so cute. Thanks
for following along. I hope you love your
new pieces as well.
Erika Busse, Artist
