Hey you! Yeah, you! 

Do you want cool alternative clothes can't buy them because we live in a capitalist hellscape?

Yes?

Then you are in LUCK because this blog entry is...

All about DIY

As I said earlier, we live in a capitalist society, and as we all probably know by now, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

But how do you get cool unique clothes if you can't buy them? Easy! (Kind of)

You DIY them!

DIY stands for "do it yourself" and it is the beautiful, versatile, resourceful, ethical, and extremely useful art of... makin shit.

But everyone probably knows that by now. What a lot of people don't know is HOW to DIY the clothes they want, which is what I'm gonna help you with today!

This guide will include instructions (or links to tutorials) on how to DIY commonly desired clothing items and accessories like graphic tees, various kinds of jewelry, platform shoes, all for as cheap as possible.

So, without further ado, let's get into it!

How do I make graphic tees?

(FYI, all these methods work for other pieces of clothing too, not just t-shirts)

1. Fabric paint

For this, you'll need a t-shirt of course, and some fabric paint / fabric medium from any craft store, OR some regular acrylic paint and fabric softener to make your own fabric paint.

Making your own fabric paint

Premade fabric paint will last longer and work better, but it also costs money. If you want to make your own fabric paint, you can combine

1 part acrylic paint

1 part fabric softener 

(make sure it's just the softener, not mixed with detergent or any other chemicals)

and mix!

Okay, so now that you have your paint, lay your shirt out flat and slide a piece of cardboard (or any other hard, flat thing) into your shirt to make it easier to paint and to prevent the paint from getting on the other side. Then, paint your design!

Once you're done with that let it dry. It should be dry enough to touch without getting paint on your finger. Then once it's dry, turn the shirt inside out or put a towel on top of it and iron it to heat seal the paint in (or use a pot with hot water in it if you don't have an iron) and you're done!

If you use premade fabric paint or fabric medium you should be able to wash your shirt like normal, but you should be more careful with the DIY paint. I recommend handwashing in the parts that get the dirtiest or washing it inside out with cold water.

2. Acetone transferring

This is my personal favorite. You can transfer printed pictures and it gives your design a really cool faded look. If you want a bright design though, this isn't the method for you.

For this one, you'll need a printed image of whatever you want on the shirt (Tip: Use magazine cutouts. Easy to find and no color printer needed!) and some acetone. You can find that in the nail polish section of any grocery or convenience store, since it's usually used as a nail polish remover. Make sure it has a high percentage of acetone. 100% is best!

Okay, now that you have your acetone, image(s), and shirt, lay your shirt out flat and put some cardboard inside of it to flatten (that'll make the rest of it a lot easier,) then lay your image down onto the shirt where you want it. It should be image-side down so the ink will transfer onto the shirt.

Now get your acetone and put some on a cotton pad. Make sure the pad has a good amount of acetone on it but not too much, if there's too much you'll dissolve the paper and it'll get really messy and annoying.

Then, press your cotton pad onto your image to transfer it. This part takes a while. Get the paper real wet with the acetone, wet enough to sort of see the image underneath, then press down on it to transfer (Tip: use a credit card or something similar to scrape across it and it will transfer better!)

When you've done that very thoroughly, peel up a corner to see how well it's transferred. If it's too dull for you, keep going with the acetone and the scraping process. If it looks good, peel the image off, heat seal it with an iron, and you're done!

Sadly, this one comes off in washing machines. I learned that the hard way. You have to handwash these.

3. Sharpie

This one is quick and easyyyyyyyy. All you need is a sharpie and an iron! A lot of people don't know this, but sharpies will stay on fabric nearly forever. You don't need any fancy fabric markers!

All you have to do for this one is draw your design on the shirt with a sharpie, then heat seal it with an iron for like 5 minutes. Then it's done!

You can wash this one to your heart's content. Honestly I'd still do it in cold water just in case but it stands it's ground in hot water too.

Those are all the graphic tee methods I have under my belt, now let's get into...

How do I make accessories?

This is probably the most versatile category. I could keep you here all day if I gave you all my DIY accessories, but I'll keep it short and sweet and give you my top 5. First...

1. Studded bracelets / chokers

This one is pretty easy but it does require some special materials and some simple sewing. For this, you'll need some denim, some softer or smoother fabric (this is the fabric that'll be touching your skin,) studs or spikes of your choice, a button, and a needle + thread.

First, cut your denim to size. You can make it a bracelet or a choker. Wrap it around your wrist or neck to measure the size, but make sure to leave space for the fabric to overlap so you can make your button closure.

Then, apply your studs. Here's a good tutorial for making DIY spikes out of soda cans if you don't want to buy any. Those DIY studs and most other ones will have little spikes on the bottom that you poke into the fabric and fold to secure them in. If you have a studded belt, chances are you've seen these little spikes before and also been poked by them many times. It isn't easy being emo. When you're putting in your studs, make sure to leave some room around the edges for a seam. (BTW, studs are a great thing to have for DIY. You can literally put them on anything.)

Once you have your studs in, trace the bracelet onto your soft fabric and cut it out. Then sew it onto the bottom of the denim. This will cover the spikes and keep them from unfolding and poking you. I'd recommend using a whip stitch for this.

Then sew your button onto the end of the bracelet and cut a slit in the other end to put the button in. Then you're done! Enjoy your cool new studded bracelet or choker!

2. Slit weaving

Weird name, I know. Get past it though because this one is really cool. You know those cool t-shirts with intricate cut-out patterns on the back that everyone was really into in the 2010? That's what this is. There's lots of ways to do this to get different patterns, so I'll just link some tutorials. Sorry! Gotta outsource this one.

Easy cage-style pattern

Spine pattern

3 different patterns for leggings / tights

Long sleeved shirt

You can find lots of other tutorials if you don't like these patterns, these are just some ones that I like. Now get to weaving!

3. Can tabs

A lot of people don't know this, but you can make almost anything with can tabs, from bracelets to chainmail.

All you need is some string and a butt ton of can tabs.

This is the most common way to weave them together, and you can make simple bracelets, chokers, and skinny belts with it.

There are other ways to weave them too if you want a thicker string or if you want to branch out into more complicated shapes, but I'd recommend starting with this simple weave. Once you've got it down, the possibilities are endless.

4. DIY pins

This one is pretty well known, but it's really useful for making your own custom pins!

All you need is a bottle cap, a can tab, a safety pin, pliers, hot glue, and paint OR a picture and mod podge.

First, bend your can tab a little bit with some pliers. It should stick out so that you can slide your safety pin in easily. Then glue the can tab into the bottle cap, and fold the sides of the bottle cap inwards to flatten it. This is mostly optional but it will make it nice and flat and it will really secure the can tab inside it.

Then slide the safety pin inside the can tab and spin the whole thing around so the pin will work once the tab is in the cap. That part is hard to explain but it should be pretty intuitive, just slide it around until the pin side it out. It should function correctly and you should be able to pin it to something.

Then either paint your design on the cap, or mod podge your image on.

Then you have your pin! The instructions sound surprisingly complicated but it's really easy and definitely better than buying overpriced pins from the Hot Topic pin bucket or spending $50 on a pin maker.

5. Hot glue sealed images

I wasn't really sure what to title this one because it really is basically just a reinforced image, but you can use them as pendants, pins, hair clips, whatever you can think of.

So what you'll need is a printed image, hot glue, packing tape, parchment paper, and some scissors.

First, get your parchment paper and trace the shape of your image onto it. Then fill in that shape with a layer of hot glue. Put some extra glue around the sides so you have margin for error.

Then once your glue layer is dry, peel it off the paper and lay your image down onto it. Cover the image with a layer of packing tape to secure it onto the glue and make it more durable.

Then cut off whatever hot glue is left around the edges and you have your image! You can use this for anything. Hot glue a pin on the back to make it a pin, punch a hole in it to put it on a necklace or bracelet, glue it onto a hair pin, glue it onto a headband, glue it onto a belt buckle, whatever your heart desires. They're very versatile and it's a good trick to know!

So those are my top five DIY accessory hacks! Now, let's learn...

How do I make fur leg warmers?

1. Fur leg warmers

All you need for this is some fur fabric, elastic, a measuring tape, a big sheet of paper for your pattern, and a needle + thread.

First, measure the circumference of your leg, wherever you want the top of the leg warmer to be. Make sure it's really snug so your legwarmers stay up. I recommend making them right below your knee so the curve of your calf will help keep them up. Then measure the length from your chosen height down to the ground.

Then you're gonna use those measurements to make a pattern. Draw a line at the top that's the circumference length of your leg, then a line down that's the length from there to the ground. It should look like a big T. Then draw lines down from your top line. These lines should go slightly outwards as they go down to make the shape of the leg warmer, but not too much or else it will come out weird. Then close off the shape by drawing a line connecting the bottom of those lines. Your pattern should come out like a really tall trapezoid shape.

Then cut that pattern out and trace it twice onto your fur. Cut your fur trapezoids out. Make sure to slide your scissors really close down to the fabric to avoid cutting off too much of the actual fur.

Then sew your elastic to the top of the trapezoids.

Then you just fold the fur fabric with the fur side in and sew along the edge to finish off your leg warmers. Then you're done!

How do I make platform shoes?

This one is the last one I have for you guys today, but it's pretty dang cool if I do say so myself.

You'll need a pair of shoes you want to make into platforms, hot glue, shoe glue, some duck tape in the color that you want the soles to be, a sheet of paper, and a bunch of those foam floor mats that lock together like puzzles.

First, trace your base shoe onto a piece of paper. That will be your template for your platform sole layers.

Then trace that template onto your foam mats. You'll stack these up to make your platform sole, so I'd recommend stacking up the mats under your base shoe to visualize the height and counting how many mats are stacked. So if you want it to be 5 mats high, trace your shoe template 5 times for each shoe (so 10 times total) and cut them out.

Then hot glue your layers together. Once you have both your platform soles ready, use your shoe glue to glue them to your shoes.

Then cover the soles in your duct tape and you're done!

They should be generally as durable as a normal pair of platforms, but I'd be careful with them since they are sort of sketchily constructed... That's the tradeoff for cheap platforms though.

Well that's all I have for you today! I hope you find these helpful and have a great time making cool stuff to wear.

Now go forth and CRAFT!

(P.S. I'd love it if you'd comment if you're making any of these and post your results so I can see. You don't have to, but it'd make me happy...)