Thrifted Transformations | Ep. 21 DIY Shang costume from "Mulan"

Hi! My name is April and welcome to another Halloween episode of Thrifted Transformations. In this episode, we are transforming these thrifted items into Shang from Mulan. The first thing I'm going to do is cut the sleeves off of the gray shirt and take in the sides to make it more fitted on Eric. Then, taking the black piece of fabric I found in the tablecloth section at Savers, I'm going to lay it on top of the gray shirt and trace out the shape of the neckline and the shoulders. This part is going to be his armor. Once the front and back pieces are cut out, I serge all the edges to stop it from fraying and if you don't have a serger, you can use a zigzag stitch and sew at the very, very edge or you can just fold the edges under and hem. This all depends on the kind of material you find. I would look for something heavy and stiff so it holds its shape. Now, I can have Eric try it on so I can see where I need to trim the sides and to finish the armor, I am going to hot glue some gold ribbon down the front. Next, taking the button-up shirt, I'm going to cut off the sleeves and re-sew them onto the gray shirt. Taking the rest of the shirt, I cut straight across underneath the armhole and we're going to be using the bottom half to create an illusion of a long shirt dress. So, all I have to do is sew some elastic around the top to fit Eric's waist. To create the arm pieces, I'm going to be using the black fabric again and I'm going to create it by first measuring the length of Eric's forearms and cutting out a square of fabric. Then, I cut out a half circle shape and sew it at the middle of that square piece and I made sure to serge all the pieces before sewing them together. Next, I wrapped the piece of fabric around Eric's arms and marked how big his arms were. Then, I trimmed a little extra off from those markings so that it doesn't wrap around all the because I'm going to be sewing some elastic at the back. To finish off the arm pieces, I am also hot gluing some gold ribbon along the top. Here is the final transformation. For the pants, we thrifted a pair of windbreakers that match the color of the undershirt and we actually found them in the women's section. So, if you're having a hard time finding pants in the men's section, don't forget to check the women's section as well. The black slip-on flats were also found in the women's section. We just had to shop in the bigger shoe sizes so that they can fit Eric's feet. For the belt, you can use safety pins or sew some velcro to hold it in the back but we're just going to tie a knot since the cape is going to be covering it anyways. For Shang's red cape, we didn't do anything to the blanket. We just nicely draped it over Eric's shoulders and tied it around the neck. And for Shang's black socks or shin guards, you can just use long black socks but since we didn't have any, I just cut a big piece of the black fabric and wrapped them around Eric's legs. Thank you guys so much for watching. Give this video a thumbs up if you want to see more costume transformations and comment down below what costume you want to see next. Size 10 and a half. Oh yes, we found your Shang shoes. Check out the final costume.