does anyone feel like coming out of a turtleneck is like birth
hello welcome back to my channel turtlenecks
i actually grew up not liking turtlenecks that much but i feel like
that's a separate story i've evidently swung
completely in the opposite direction and i love
turtlenecks i often get asked where i got the ones that you guys see in my
videos most of them are thrifted but we should just make our own i'm going to
try to cover off the whole turtleneck spectrum
you know there's differences in height as well as whether they have like a
totally finished edge or they're like a fold over
and since we're dealing with knit i'm gonna throw in some common
embellishments that are gonna make your knit items look a
little extra nice we're gonna do lettuce hem
we're gonna do like the drawstring ruche basically by the end of this if you see
a knit turtleneck-ish item on instagram you should be able to dissect how to put
that thing together let me grab my fabric this is not my
painting my mom did this bonus points if in the comments you know
what scene this is but the fabric i'm gonna be working with today
one of them is this brown checkerboard fabric
it's a two-way stretch i would not consider it a four-way stretch the
checkerboard print is quite fine so it feels like one of those details you have
to enjoy if you come up close maybe this wasn't the right
idea for covet friendly wear stay far away though
and just enjoy that it's roughly brown another
really pretty knit fabric you can get your hands on
would be a ribbed knit and what's nice is it provides that
beautiful vertical line texture both of these are fabrics that i've been
hoarding for a year now i got them from the fabric room i'm so excited to
finally put these fabrics to use let's go to help me have a starting
point i'm going to model the first turtleneck i make off of this really
popular marine stair style you've seen it on
beyonce dualipa the jenners and it's quite
fitted it's got a mock neck but basically if you
lengthened it you would get a turtleneck i'm so excited about this fabric it
might be a little bit see-through but okay a lot but
you're gonna need a front a back
two sleeves and for the mock neck you'll want two identical pieces that are
slightly moon shaped i'll put photos of the patterns that we
cut out so that you can get an idea of their layout
and i got jersey needles which are rounded on the tip so they don't rip
your fabric they just pierce through the existing knit holes
also might be good to have a lint roller handy because
it's about to get really linty with the knit fabric and with knits my
main tip is just be a little bit generous with the fabric
at the beginning because every single piece of knit stretches
a different amount and you don't want to copy your stretchiest knit
on a stiffer knit and then find out that now it's too small
so this one because it's cable knit it's nice and dense
and it doesn't have like insane stretch so i felt safe using this as a guide
since it's cut generously there will be a little bit of trying on as you go
so first let me baste the neck hole and arm holes so that when we try it on
we don't rip the fabric interjecting with a few extra
notes first always make sure your maximum
direction of stretch goes horizontally across the body and
horizontally across the arms the tighter you want your turtleneck to
fit you the stretchier the fabric you should buy
because it has to be stretchy enough to make it over all the widest parts
of your body before it can contour to the narrowest parts of your body
and finally the upper collar is the hardest part to cut
your two rules that you have to stick to is that the top edge of the collar
should be able to go over your head when it's fully stretched and the bottom edge
of your collar should be able to relax naturally around your neckline
unstretched take those two measurements give it a
little bit of a curve and you should be good to start
i know this is like shoveling while the snow is still falling but
all of the holes where my body is going to stick out of this object
have been basted so i'm going to sew the front and the back
together along the shoulders and the sides i'm going to use a stitch that
i've never used before on my machine it's recommended as the best one to use
for lightweight stretch which i believe this is so that's the stitch i'll be
using but if you don't have a whole bunch of
crazy stitch options on your machine just use a zigzag stitch
perfectly fine on knit
ah it retains some stretch [Applause]
i should have read my sewing machine manual a long time ago
this number four is the standard zigzag stitch that i always use but my
sewing machine manual told me to try number three
and it's great she's like a little lightning bolt
all this stuff when will the day come where i use these all right trying it on
for a quick fit test everything is resting
flat and comfortably i think i will take the shoulders in just like a
centimeter it seems to hang off the edge obviously
if you want it to be like that you can just gonna cut back a centimeter but
then slope it down so it all smooths out at the armpit i need all of this to join
with the sleeve this is very close but it is crawling
and like cutting the hair off just a little bit
so i may scale that down a little bit too yeah otherwise this is like
i'm i'm i'm good with that fit i don't need it to be
skin tight
i'm recording now dan next up is the sleeves
right sides together along the straight edge
my lightning stitch that's what i'm calling it now i know it has a formal
name but it's lightning here
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it's juting down
you don't need a judy for this step but i do find
the dress form to be a little bit helpful personally and making sure i
visualize everything correctly but i've got the sleeves pinned to the
body right sides together making sure i lined
up the side seams as well as a little notch
in the sleeve fabric with the shoulder and then everything else gets
distributed pretty evenly lightening stitch all the way around
she's got arms for the collar i first sewed the inner and outer layers
together along the top here and then i sewed the short ends together
to form that complete collar donut this is also a good time to
test that this actually fits over your head if so
then pin and sew it to the neck hole just like we did with the sleeves
unfortunately i actually was a bit disappointed with this first attempt the
collar was a bit too floppy for me and i should have under stitched it for
a crisper top edge so i did re-cut it for a second try does
anyone feel like coming out of a turtleneck is like
birth tell the color have a crisper edge i added an under stitch to
the top here and then i also under stitched it
here where it joins so that it stands up and the raw fabric
always points down but as you can see it's still a little floppy
maybe a lining would have knocked that out of the park but i
also i don't know i was hesitant if it would make the
texture and structure look a little mismatched and funny i'm gonna figure
out an easy little addition to just make it
like that because i feel like that looks so much
nicer and for the edges here just going to use an elastic band
zigzag stitch turn it in twice that will give it a nice clean
edge and then it's done okay future wendy just jumping in here to explain
what i decided to do with the back there's a two little snap closures right
here these outer ones are snap closures as
well and then once it's worn all of this is
flush across the back of course you can see a
little bit of a fold but i feel like this was a
pretty fast and easy way to make this fabric work given that
it just doesn't have like that insane amount of stretch that could have made a
super skinny neck possible because of reasons
i will wait until the end this time to show you how all the turtlenecks turned
out so the other way you can make a
turtleneck collar is that it's one single layer instead of double layered
like the previous one and that gives you the option to scrunch
it down if it were a softer fabric following the exact same guide as
the brown turtleneck julia helped me cut out
these pieces from this beautiful blue rib knit
also from the fabric room love this fabric so excited to finally use it
to mix it up i used my gray knit dress that i own
as a guide this one hits i think like just above the knee but honestly it's
literally a tube so as long as you give yourself enough
breathing room to be comfortable you should be good to show a diverse range
of options going to try a lettuce hem edge on this
dress and gonna give it a drawstring ruche
adjustable up the side i tried it on after the front the back
and the sleeves were all attached you should always do this because every knit
has a different amount of stretch so you just want to be sure how
exactly this one is lying on your own body there is some extra fabric at the
underarm armpit inside so julia helped me
slim that away just by pinching it in from the inside
and the first stab was a little bit long i kind of wanted to go for something
just below the knee i found a tutorial online that
shows how to do a lettuce hem on a regular regular
sewing machine so let me give that a test run
if it works well i'll put the link in the description
okay this is my first attempt it's not bad i want to decrease the
stitch length just a little bit the blog says to use a
satin stitch if possible i'm using number eight which is an
overcast for stretch fabrics i had it at 2.0 stitch length but i've
knocked it down to 1.0 and you're supposed to be sewing over a
folded edge ideally pressed but since this is just a trial
i've just got it folded we're gonna be applying maximum tension as we sew
and the finishing touches to cut away the excess at the place where you
folded it they say to fold in about an inch
so they're basically saying you would lose approximately
an inch of fabric and it really is a clean
edge this is just to show the finished clinical trials
and i'm going to through from top to bottom and as you can see
and bouncier curls are down here which is great
got my pressed edges let us hem wow
what a success it's also seriously an arm workout
now i just gotta trim these and also not accidentally nick all the
way through that would be very sad
okay i feel like there's a world where i would be very happy with just
this dress but i'm trying to show you guys some
diverse personalization options out here because what is the point of sewing
other than putting your own spin on it i mean
there's a lot of other points too but that's the one that i'm leaning on
today to take your dress up one level of drama
you gotta make these two long ties it's just a strip of this blue fabric
sewn right sides together and then flipped inside out
feels like i'm in the chinese restaurant making pulled noodles for you but
anyways not edible these are roughly the length
from my armpit to the bottom of the dress if
it's longer more drama fancy tails i'm going to sew
these two to the armpit under the right side after
that take one last long rectangular strip you're going to
sew it on the inside of the dress that you're completely covering the two
strings but then you add one more stitch down the middle so that they all stay in
their own lane that way your drawstring is done
and i'm ready to show you how it all came together
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[Music] i've been hinting for a little bit and
we have some changes and then i tried to throw you
off the scent with our little kitten i mean she has been a
pretty significant change too i don't really know what else there is
to share about this but if you guys have any questions or you're keen for some
maternity slash baby types of diys slash kitten types of diys
let me know in the comments i am going to start putting out a couple of vlogs
which will also include how i've been really honing my ability to
cook chinese food over the last year but otherwise sewing and learning as usual
if you make any of your beautiful knit creations
hashtag made with wendy so i can find it and love it i'll have more photos of
this sweater and the blue one on my instagram
at with wendy and don't forget to subscribe hit the bell notification
and i'll see you all in the next video [Music]
bye