- I'm not a professional seamstress, oop.
Now I have to rethread the needle.
I should definitely
be doing this over my sink, oop
(soft music)
I really wanted to upcycle clothing
because I believe in sustainability,
I'm actually one of the first fellows
in the Motor Rob fellowship
for sustainable fashion reporting
at Parsons School of Design.
So in my attempt to be less wasteful,
I decided I wanted to upcycle some of the stuff
that's already in my closet.
And also like I'm a crafty girl.
I love me some good crafts.
I'm so Gemini as, it will be good to actually
be able to focus on something.
Now I'm going to show you guys each piece of clothing
that I'm going to alter
and up cycle for this video.
It is very much just a black hoodie,
a waist tie, and it is really comfortable,
but it's also like, black is just really boring.
I have too much melanin for this.
I need color, I'm gonna need tie-dye this,
and make it just a little bit more fun.
And then I'm gonna cut out the shoulders
because I love good cold shoulders,
go shoulders.
We'll see, we'll see what happens here.
I got it from pretty little thing.
And it came with a matching pair of shorts,
which I cannot find the bodice area.
This is so big on me,
I'm gonna cut off the sleeves
and I'm gonna try and take it in the little bit.
And then I'm gonna add some buttons,
which is like my thing I've been adding buttons
since I was like 11.
I'm just going to add
them onto the side somewhere.
This is a black Lacy dress.
It's a full length dress.
And it's very like Adam's family.
I got it from an old roommate
because she was like, well,
you probably need something formal
for events.
And I'm like, yeah.
And then coronavirus happened, so there's no events
and there's nothing formal.
I feel Florida, I don't like long stuff.
I like to show a little skin,
even though I really liked this bottom part, I'm gonna cut
that part off and make it more
of a cocktail length.
I'm gonna add something cool,
like some embellishments to the neckline
to really help us pop.
So that plus cutting it,
I think will really help spruce it up.
I am so excited to get my hands
on some glue and some thread
and get started with this.
I've been watching a whole bunch
of tidy videos on YouTube.
So I want to really make my mark.
There's so much to play with here,
but I really want a design
that still looks, expensive.
I want it to feel intentional.
First, I'm going to have gloves
because I just don't want to make a mess
of my entire life.
I do that really efficiently on my own.
I have really big rubber band.
I also have bleach.
I am going to take I spray bottle
and just kind of spray parts.
I feel like I will have more control over
the bleach with the spray bottle.
So there has been a change of plans.
Leach was not affecting this whatsoever
because it was a synthetic fabric.
The bleach tie-dye effect
was just not going to happen with it.
So that's why I ended up doing my hat
and my tank top because those
are natural fabrics
and I knew that they would take the bleach
I kind of love it, this is a great color.
This is definitely going to pop more.
I think I'm gonna rinse this soon
because I don't want it to get any lighter.
I like this a lot, but hat, the hat is dope.
So let's rinse this bad boy.
Now I'm throwing them into the washer
to make sure I get all the bleach off.
The first step for me is going to be taking off
this sleeves.
So I'm going to actually turn
this inside out a little bit and cut out
the lining first and then cut out the rest of the sleeve.
So ideally ,you would have a seam ripper
to go through and pull out every seam,
but I forgot to get that
and I'm not gonna wait any longer
to do the jacket.
So we're just gonna have to do it with
some old fashioned scissors.
This leaves off. So yay!
It looks like this.
That means at some point
when I have to resew it together
or use fabric glue or buy you 6,000 glue
to put them together.
I love, I definitely am able
to tie it tighter now
that I don't have the sleeves.
Look, my arms, I feel it.
I got these big gold buttons,
because they remind me of Balmain
and Balmain is so huge with gold on any colored blazer.
And then I was looking through my jewelry
and I found this.
Maybe I break apart this necklace
and take each of these little long pieces,
and put them on the collar is really gonna set it off.
This is gonna set this jacket
best all the way off.
I have completed one side of buttons.
This is how the best is looking so far.
I really tried it, the problem is I didn't measure.
So that's why I had to stop
because I realized once I took the necklace apart
that I didn't have enough pieces
to go all the way around the collar,
but luckily it comes off.
So I got this it's gold trim and it's all braided up
and it looks so good with these buttons.
I'm gonna take these pieces off and then replace it with
this all around the collar.
And I even think all the way down here too,
because like why not?
I found this, what!
This is so pretty.
My first thought honestly,
was to put it around the collar.
Then I kept playing, and this area right here,
who is slit, this smells it feels like money.
I'm so grateful, I made that mistake with the beads
because this and this would not have happened.
If I didn't go into Joann fabrics
and kind of go crazy.
I get a little bit nervous using the sewing machine.
I'm so used to doing gluing and irony and hand stitching.
I'm not a professional seamstress,
I'm on a professional sower.
So I'm trying to have some grace for myself.
Like you cannot be a perfectionist at this moment
because you are not the expert at sewing machines.
I still have one item left to finish
and then boom, all the looks are done
and I can stunt on the ground.
I promised myself
that I would get everything done today.
But my dad just got into the hospital
and I'm just really nervous and stressed
because it's the second time during the pandemic
that it's happened.
But I'm so far away, cause I live in Los Angeles.
My family is in Florida.
And so there's not really anything I can do.
And then I have this project,
these clothes and I promised myself,
I would finish, this isn't like as important,
but then I can spend the rest of the day,
the rest of my weekend,
driving myself crazy.
And this is the one thing I can control.
The one thing I can do,
give myself some purpose besides moping and crying
and being upset and being stressed
and feeling powerless.
I'm going to continue the project.
On that note we're in the black dress
and I am going to put some pins
and measure and cut to make sure it's the link
that I want it to be.
The fit of the stress is really nice.
It is so long I'm gonna cut it right where
the top of this laces.
So it's form fitting.
But one thing I still have to do is pin the size.
I have to take it in right here.
Let's cut it by bye bye lace.
Or you could just wear it like this.
Oh, this is cute, yeah.
It is a length where I can twerk
or look classy.
I wanna do the penny now
so that when it's time to put it through
the sewing machine, everything's already in line.
And I don't have to guess this is essentially
what my opinion is looking like pinning and sewing
is something that I learned by myself.
So I don't do it the most clean,
but I get it cleaned before it's actually done.
So don't worry.
It just kind of goes down.
It follows my curves
or the neck line.
I am going to be adding this trim, there like pearls
and rhinestones in the long trim,
the process of putting on the rhinestones
and the trim it was kind of therapeutic
taking your mind off something,
muscle memory, just getting in there,
it was really helpful.
Look at this.
The next thing I'm going to be applying
is this applicate and this one's just diamonds
or crystals, rhinestones,
whatever they're called.
So I pinned down the applicate around
because I want to make sure it's in place.
And I know this looks goofy right now,
but I'm going to add some of the trim
that I cut off here.
Also this is an iron known applicate.
So I literally have to do almost nothing,
which is great cause I've been doing
a lot of love of everything.
Like wow, of course
I have to clean it up a little bit.
Just cause there's a lot of buyer names.
There's a lot of glue.
There's a little glue stains,
but they'll just come up with water.
And I ended up cutting out the lace panels
on the side just because this kept snagging on them.
So I was like, "You know what?
The universe is telling me to cut them out,
which will make it more fun and sexy and useful,
so I'm here for it.
I know it's like all in black,
so you can't really see,
but that was a smooth line.
It's a double stitch, so it's like super secure.
That was a really good line.
Now we're gonna do the other side
because this is where I'm taking it in at the bottom,
below my knees.
So that it goes from being an alien dress
to be more fitting.
This is the trim that I put on the waist
and this is the one that's on the neck line.
So I took these jewels
and put them here and I took these pearls
and put them here.
So it's kind of bringing it all together
and I'm doing each of these by hand
with my 6,000 glue.
I'm finally done upcycling all these clothes
and I'm really proud of myself.
I mean, I went through trials, tribulations.
There was a breakdown.
I almost lost my mind a couple
of times with all of that bleak.
This is one of the looks.
This is the tide I look,
I am so happy.
I decided to do this hat.
This hat is sick, like what?
This is a coordinated fit now!
I love unique things
that are just for me that no one else
in the world would have so, yeah love this look.
I will definitely wear this all the time together.
It's just it's it's tiny, but it's it's me.
Oh my gosh I feel like a million bucks in this.
I am so happy that I found this trim.
It really set off the whole look
and just makes me feel like
this is something really high end
before I was going for a Bob Mon inspired look.
But this is definitely just Vivian.
This is a Vivian look.
It's so regal,
it's just fun and groovy.
It's good separate and also with the shorts
that I found,
I still wear this open.
Like I don't necessarily have to build it,
more bang for my buck super happy about that.
You know how parents don't have a favorite child,
but low key, they kind of do, this is my favorite child,
but don't tell the others the next line, yes.
The waist, yes.
Even the cutout that wasn't on purpose,
but I love it.
The fact that this is now formed pretty
and not a line.
Ooh, makes him feel so good,
makes me feel so sexy and curvy,
classy, sassy, little skin
and a lot of fun.
I definitely recommend if you are interested
in saving your clothes stuff you already
have in your closet,
try upcycling.
A lot of stuff I did.
Did it require sewing skills?
Get a little crafty.
I don't know, I'm so tired.
I don't know why I did that.
(chuckle)
(soft music).