Annika:..so it's Bryan: [Blupblupbrrrbropblipp!]
Annika: [shocked laugh] That was terrifying!
Bryan: [laughs] it's so - Annika: That's going to be my intro!
Just you doing that - Bryan: [Blupblupbrrrbropblipp!]
Just me just freaking out!
[8 bit video game music plays]
HELLO!
Today I’m going to be doing a DIY challenge with my friend, Bryan, from the Youtube channel
"SHMOXD".
Shmox-ded?
I don't know how to pronounce it.
Sorry Bryan.
Anyway, we wanted to collaborate on a DIY project together, so we set up a Skype call
and figured out what our project should be!
[Skype Noises]
Bryan: Good, don’t mind me – I just have chopsticks!
Annika: [laughs] Why??!
Annika: Hi, "Shmox-ed-d!"
Bryan: "Shmox-ed-d"!
Hey, Annika Victoria!
I keep on saluting you.
Annika: So - what are we doing here today?
Bryan: So, we've been talking about this forever, and I'm glad that it's like finally happening,
basically, what we decided on is like a collab where we're going to do the same, like, embroidery
project, right?
Annika: Mmhm.
It's going to be DIY vs DIY!
... Bryan: Oh, cool.
A: *laughs* I've just decided on the, that's what it's going to be called.
B: Just decided on the name - it's cool!
I'll roll with it!
A: In this first episode, we're both going to try and tackle the same embroidery project.
I am a beginner, at embroidery, I would say, and I would say that YOU are a little bit
better?
B: ---- A: ...at embroidery?
B: Okay, that's fair.
I'm definitely no expert, but - we'll see.
A: You're a level above, at least.
A: Okay, so we're going to do the same project, and see how both of us approaches it, and
how they both turn out.
We've chosen a clip art image as our reference.
You choose that - it is a... "peony"?
Pee-ony?
Pe-ony?
B: Peon- I don't know how to say it.
"Pu-ny".
It's a puny?
It's a real puny flower.
Google translate lady: "Pe-ony" A: Pe-ony.
A: Sooo, we're both going to try and embroider a peony, a peony -
B: Yes.
A: From our reference image, and we're both going to do it on some denim, and then when
we've done it we're going to come back and compare, and see how we went, and we're going
to take you guys, watching at home, through the process,
B: Right here.
A: Um, of what we do! *laughs* B: Cool!
A: Alright - good luck!
B: Should be good!
A: Alright!
B: Cool!
A: Bye!
B: Bye.
Okay, so the item that I am going to attempt to be embroidering with this peony image are
these grey denim shorts.
I think I'll place the peony like, just underneath one of the pockets here.
I think that'll look pretty cute.
Now this particular pair of denim shorts has been on quite the journey - when I first met
them, they were already second-hand jeans, that then became my "Clear-Knee-Mom" jeans,
and then, later, my dirt-covered jeans.
By the way, if you're new to this channel, if you've come from Bryan's channel - I didn't
make those up, I have a series where I try and recreate other "fashion" trends from the
internet, and that was 2 of them.
Anyway, they've then got washed, so they weren't dirty anymore, but they still had dirt stains
on them, so I also dyed them - I tried to dye them black, and go impatient and took
it out too early - but they ended up this nice grey colour, which I actually like quite
a lot, so I'm going to keep it like this, and I'm going to use them to do some embroidery
so let's get started!
Okay so first off I thought I’d be all fancy-like and make a stencil that would show the different
sections of the flower a bit more clearly, so I brought the image into photoshop and
I used the threshold function to get the outline of the flower.
I layered the original image temporarily on top and I used it to draw the different sections
of leaves and petals where the colours change, and I ended up with this.
A more simple stencil that shows all the different parts clearly.
I had planned to use embroidery tracing transfer paper and trace over this image, which is
WHY I made the simple stencil… but it turned out that the embroidery transfer paper didn’t
show up well enough on the grey denim fabric.
So I ended up just going around the shape in a water-soluble fabric marker -
and then eyeballing this stencil design to copy the different petal and leaf sections
with my pen.
So this is the outline to show me where I’m going to be embroidering!
OH and one more thing, I also cut out a square of interfacing, which is this, and I ironed
it to the inside of the shorts, behind the peony design that I’d just drawn on, which
will just help keep the finished embroidery design stable, and keep the fabric more stable
while I'm stitching.
Then I set this outline design in an embroidery hoop, and then I picked out a variety of green
and pink embroidery threads, and then I began stitching away.
Oh and I think I should mention, I was able to access the back of my design through the
leg hole of the shorts - obviously, I don't wanna sew through two layers of fabric here
because that would sew the leg hole closed.
Time for a… timelapse!
[music plays]
So I started out with the green sections of the peony, so that’s the leaves and the
stem, because… well, I had to start somewhere!
For the leaves, I threaded an embroidery needle with 3 strands of embroidery floss – which
I did eventually change to 6 strands because it was taking so dang long.
That 10 seconds of sped-up footage that you watched just then?
[sad music] That was 4 hours of my life.
[happy music resumes] You might also notice that I didn’t fill
in the leaves all the way to the ends of the outline here… this was partly because I
thought they looked a bit too big and partly also to save time, 'coz as I mentioned, it
was taking a long. Dang. Time.
Anyway… the pen I was using is water-erasable, which means it dissolves in water, and it’s
just a guide so I can get rid of that line later on, it doesn't matter...
So, onwards and upwards!
I eventually moved myself to the couch to embroider, because if you’re going to spend
hours of your life doing needlework, you might as well do it in front of some Netflix!
And that was another 3 hours of my life just over in a short 15 seconds.
Such is the fleeting nature of existen-
Okay so I wanted to show you the type of stitch that I used for all the leaves!
The stitch that I used is called Satin Stitch, and I’m doing a slightly modified version
here to help me save on thread and make it less messy at the back as well.
So, to do this satin stitch I brought my needle up next to the previous stitch, at the edge
of the shape, and then I pulled the thread all the way through.
Then I brought the needle over to the other side of the shape, next to the stitch I did
previously, and I pushed the needle through, and I brought all the thread through to the
back.
And then I repeated.
And repeated.
Annnnd repeated.
Now, some things to note: There is a quicker way to do this stitch by running the needle
up and down in one swift move, but I’m not good enough at embroidery yet, so I’m showing
you the most beginnery-version possible.
I’m also doing this without an outline stitch - often a lot of people will do an outline
stitch around the edges and then fill it in with a satin stitch - but hey, I so do whatever
works for you!
I continued doing this stitch all the way up to the top of the leaf.
At the very top of the leaf, I started angling the stitches towards the pointy bit, the top
of the leaf, and then I finished it off with a stitch that runs vertical, like this.
And then it’s a simple matter of satin-stitching back down the other side of the leaf, keeping
inside the lines of that leaf shape that I drew on earlier.
So with the leaves now done, I decided that I would just outline the stem of the flower.
To do this I used a "Stem stitch".
A stem stitch is done something like THIS: After I’d completed a simple stitch, I brought
the needle up half-way along the previous stitch, and then I brought it along the outline,
to half the length of the last stitch, and I brought my needle down through this point
and pulled the thread all the way through.
And I continued doing this for the rest of the stem, and also finished off a sneaky little
bit of a leaf there too.
By the way, I’ve included links to some much more clear and easier-to-understand tutorials
for all of these stitch types that I'm mentioning, which you can find in the description box
below.
ANNNND – after about 9 hours of my life, the green bits are all done!
Yaaaay!
So, next I got out a bunch of pink threads, and I began on the flower.
I stitched each different section, so, each petal, a slightly different shade of pink,
moving from lighter shades at the top of the flower, down to darker ones as I moved further
down the flower.
I also stitched the different sections using really small stitches, all going in the same
direction, and I blended the different sections across each of the section’s line.
I did all of this using just one stitching technique which is called a “Long and Short
Stitch”, which I’ll show you how to do in more detail in just a second.
Congratulations.
You just watched another 6 hours of my life pass by.
…This video is becoming way more existential that I intended it to be.
But… it was at least at least good to know that...
I wasn’t the only one struggling.
Welp, Bryan just sent me a progress message that says...
"Kill me"... so, moral is real high all round at the moment *tired laugh*.
Well, this is a good a time as any to show you all how to do a long-and-short stitch!
I’m obviously halfway through it here, but you can notice that all the stitches that
are next to each other are of different lengths.
This is what helps blend the different sections and it also gives the petal’s filling an
organic look.
All the stitches are approximately the same length once I've finished with the first row
- the first row is the only row where the stitches are long, then short, then long,
then short.
And then stitches of the same length are stacked upon each other in each subsequent row.
Because I didn’t make too much sense there, I’ve linked a very helpful video of how
to do Long and Short Stitch in the description box below, but this shows you how it looks
once you've filled in a whole shape using this technique.
...I just put this down to have a little break... and this is 16 and a half hours in.
I thought that this would take maybe, 6, 7 hours at the most to do... and it is not even
done yet.
I had NOT anticipated how long this was going to take.
And finally, I’m up to filling in the last petal, which I did with this dark red colour.
This part only took 2 more hours… wooo!
And this is the final stitch!
Being!
Stitched!
The last thing that I have to do is to gently handwash these shorts, to get rid of that
water-soluble outline, and then I just wanted to make nice cuffs for the bottom of the shorts,
so I rolled the ends up once, twice, and I put a couple of small hand-stitches through
each leg to hold those cuffs in place.
AND I am finally done.
So, before I show you the final results, it's time to check back in with Bryan and see how
his project is going.
[Skype call sound]
Annika: Helloooo again!
Bryan: What's up!
Annika: Hi!
Bryan: How's it going?
A: So - I have finished my shorts!
Umm, it took...
18 hours!
So that's fun!
B: God that, that's like where I was at A: How long did yours take you?
B: I think I total it to...
28 hours?
A: Whoooooooa.
Okay.
*Laugh* B: But, I'm think I'm just slower.
A: Sooo - we're going to do the final reveal... this is what mine looks like!
[music plays]
B: This is what mine looks like - A: Whoa!
Yours is gigantic!
No wonder it took so long!
Like - look - compared to the size of my hand!
B: What if - what if you just have really big hands?
And I just have really small hands?
A: Maybe?
B: You wouldn't know!
A: *laughs* maybe!
A: So, what did you do?
B: Well no, it's funny 'coz I did the long-and-short stitch as well -
A: Ohh yeah!
B: But like, differently I think.
A: Whoa it's so nicely blended!
B: Oh, thank you!
Yeah, that's like, so I did really, I guess like "wide" lines?
Does that make sense?
A: That's kind of like the "Long and Short Stitch" combined with a "Satin Stitch".
B: Well I did that and I did a "Chain" stitch - I think that's what they're called?
I did that for like all the - A: The outlines.
B: Yeah!
All the green outlines.
A: Yeah, that's cool!
I think mine would have taken 28 hours had I outlined everything, but I was just like,
no, I'm not going to do that, 'coz I was gunna go over all the different colours with an
outline afterwards, but at 18 hours - I was just like, I'm done.
So - yeah, when we decided on doing this project, we specifically were like: let's do embroidery
'coz embroidery is easy!
We wanna choose an easy project!
B: Then, 20 hours later...
A: Mmhhmm! [laughs] A: But, it was a good challenge!
I wouldn't have ever stitched - this is the biggest thing I've ever stitched before!
I don't think I ever would have finished it if I didn't have someone else that was kinda
relying on me to finish it for a video project.
B: I don't know if it's the same for you, like I've always wanted to like, have a big
flower stitch on my jean jackets and so, but I've never had a reason to?
But it was really good.
There's so many stitches - like - have a guess, how many stitches do you think you did?
I would say easily a 1000, you know?
I don't know.
A: Yeah, I would say a few thousand stitches, at least.
Definitely.
Oh yeah!
What does the inside of your garment look like?
A: So this is what the inside of mine looks like...
B: Oh yeah - A: I've got some big old knots down there,
but I think I did alright.
B: Look how much less thread you have there.
A: Yeah!
B: Like mine is like, almost the exact opposite on the opposite side - what am I trying to
say?
But yeah - you get it.
A: Even though we called this a challenge, I don't know, I don't really think we have
a "winner"... do we want the audience to vote?
B: No, well like I think that the idea, like when we were doing the DIY vs DIY, wasn't
really to pick a winner?
But rather to see two different ways of doing the -
A: Yeah!
There's two different ways of doing it.
B: And that's like, the beauty of art, I think.
You know?
A: It kills me, because part of me is extremely competitive so I really want a winner -
B: [laughs] You know, we can - A: But it's okay.
We don't need a winner [laughs] A: Everyone's a winner!
That's the beauty of DIY and art, everybody wins.
B: Everyone wins!
A: [laughs] A: Nah, yours - yours definitely has a different,
like... yours is more like a "street style" aesthetic?
I would say!
B: Yeah!
I can see that!
A: They have different aesthetics.
BUT everyone wins.
Don't even worry about it.
B: Everyone wins!
A: Everyone.
[whispering] But if you wanna say that I won... like... you can say that I won -
B: [whispering] No.
A: [laughing]
To see how Bryan made his embroidery, 'coz we both did it differently, and to also see
the jacket he embroidered in full-HD-glory, then check out his channel at... *sighs*...
SHM-OX...D..D?
Alright, I gotta ask him how it's pronounced.
Bryan: "Shmood".
Annika: Shmood?!
B: Yeah, it's a little - but however people pronounce it, it's good.
Shmo-X-D, Shmox-d - there's a weird long story about it, but -
A: Okay! [laughs] So go subscribe to...
"SHMOOD"!
A: He also just has awesome DIY videos in general, so you should go and subscribe to
him!
Uh - A: Go do it!
B: Is this gunna work?
A: HIGH FIVE!
A: Cheeeyah!
Insert high-five sound effect... powww!
Bye!
B: See yah!
So, that's it for this collaboration!
Give us a thumbs-up if you'd like to see us try some more challenges!
I hope you enjoyed this video, and 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!