We tried a TikTok tutorial for DIYing '90s style front tie tops — here's everything TikTok doesn't show you

• According to influencer Brittany Xavier's TikTok tutorial, you can DIY your own trendy front tie top.
• All you need is a fitted shirt, scissors, ½ inch ribbon, a ruler, a pencil, fabric tape, and an Iron or hair straightener.
• The TikTok tutorial seems simple, but we had an extremely difficult time making the tops.
• We styled our three different looks for a photo shoot and final reveal.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Irene Kim: We're turning these fitted crop tops into '90s-style front-tie tops.

Nico Reyes: Cute! I like this idea.
Irene: So, Brittany did Nava Rose, who makes a bunch of DIYs on TikTok and YouTube. This is, like, Nava Rose's tutorial. I'm excited to see how everyone's tops come out. I'm nervous, but I'm excited.
Nico: I'm fully nervous.
Kyle Kerchaert: I'm just, like, I'm remaining neutral.
Nico: Dua Lipa woman is telling me to fold this in half and mark it. It actually has creases from when it came here in the bag, so it's kind of already pre-folded, which is nice.
Kyle: I feel like this is so dangerous. Like, if this isn't half, it's already gonna be really F'ed up. Irene: I'm supposed to mark the half.
Nico: I'm gonna try to go at it at an angle, like this, because I feel like doing it up here is gonna make it uneven. I'm going with my gut. I'm not listening to this girl. [singing] Working 9 to 5!
Kyle: I think this one is, like, more centered.
Irene: If I'm measuring from the back and not here, 'cause if you go from here, it's gonna be way too low. Need to go from top of the shirt. That makes sense.
Kyle: Marked seven inches from the bottom. That's so far down. Are we sure about that?
Nico: I'm a little bit more modest. [whispers] Insecure. So I'm going to mark it at, like, the six-inch-down mark. Also, as I'm looking at this, this looks not perfectly centered!
Irene: And then we're gonna turn out and we're just gonna do that. [laughs] The pencil did nothing! I am not having a good time with this. I really don't think this is centered, but we're just gonna do it. This shirt was so cute before. Now it's being butchered!

Nico: I learned from the last time, when we were making those pantyhose crop tops that my scissors suck, and I'm just gonna use my haircutting shears because they are insanely sharp.
Kyle: Why am I getting so confused about, like, do I cut it all the way up and then cut the sides?
Irene: I guess if I don't cut neatly, it'll be covered by the ribbon.
Nico: This is honestly coming out pretty good. Don't wanna toot my own horn. I'm liking it so far.
Kyle: OK, now that I've drawn the lines on 20 different times, now we're finally gonna cut.
Irene: I guess I'm just gonna chop this off. It's so awkward. Ah! That looks so bad. Oh, my God. This is so uneven. Oh, my God, OK. It looks like this.
Kyle: It's really uneven, but it's cut.
Nico: These hand acrobatics I'm doing right now. Pop! There we go!
Irene: The ribbon is supposed to go all around this and around the collar, so should I cut off the collar too? 'Cause it's gonna be kind of fat. I feel like it's gonna be really hard to get it on otherwise. This may backfire, but I guess we'll find out.
Kyle: Measure the ribbon! Measure it. So I guess to measure it, you really just, like, lay it around. I simply don't think this is possible. I think if you're watching this TikTok, you're like, "I get it." You think it looks easy. And you think you at home can do this better than I can. You realize all these little intricacies that don't really make sense. This is me reaching the breaking point.
Irene: We're gonna eyeball this, 'cause we are lazy. That looks right.
Nico: And then this is when she starts using the ribbon in half. So we're gonna fold the ribbon first.

Irene: OK. So I have to fold this in half, and then what? Gently straighten it? This is just, like, painstaking work. I think you literally need to do this, like, inch by inch.
Kyle: OK, we're skipping. We're just skipping. There's no following the rules anymore, 'cause I've lost the patience. Irene: I feel like you don't need to do the ironing part. This is not working. We are sacrificing.
Nico: We're gonna start on this side right here. Yeah, that looks good to me. OK, so I got my first piece down, and I'm not gonna peel up the top until I'm ready to apply the ribbon.
Kyle: Now I'm gonna do something really, really, really fun, which is cut alongside the tape. Now I'm gonna try to, like, cut this even. Like, an even strip.
Irene: I am really not doing a neat job with this. Oh, my God. I'm stressed. No! Oh, my God. I'm just so stressed right now! So, like, it's not perfect. Like, I should maybe trim it, but I'm not going to.
Nico: And I'm basically gonna start applying it halfway from the top. Oh, no. Oh, my God. It definitely would be easier if you did it her way. She knew what she was talking about, and I shouldn't have gone rogue, but I've made my bed, and I'm ready to lie in it. I find it very hard to believe that she only used a one-fourth-inch ribbon. This does not seem wide enough for me to fold it over in a way that's actually nice and even.

Kyle: I think I made my life harder by selecting this rainbow trimming because, like, it's more obvious where it doesn't line up. There's actually tears in my eyes. Like, I just really, I want this [laughs] I want it to be done.
Irene: I kind of wanna do the bottom, but I don't want to get too ambitious. Like, this, I think this was enough. Kyle: I can't really think of a good way to do, like, where the holes need to be.
Nico: Then we're gonna just plop it through here, basically, right?
Irene: We're just making a little snip. Snip, snip. Nico: I literally am going to do this top by any means necessary. Kyle: I cut too big a hole. I messed up. That's way too big.
Irene: On the count of three, two, one, go!
Nico: It's just me! Oh. [laughs]
Kyle: Why is yours, like, good and polished?
Nico: I literally sat there with an iron after we stopped talking to make sure that this was gonna lay, like, as flat as possible, 'cause it was doing that thing that Kyle's is. It's like, it lifts, 'cause the tape is stiff and weird.

Kyle: Not to, like, ruin your success or anything, but I'm gonna say it's giving me major, like, Sunday school vibes. Nico: [laughs] Yeah, like sweet angel girl. But, yeah, this gives me very much me at 8 years old, so.
Irene: But I wanna see what your photos look like.
Kyle: Let's do that.
Nico: Let's see these pictures. Cute! It's not terrible. It's really not.

Kyle: I just like this outfit. The pants!

Nico: My plaid pants.
Kyle: The pants, the bangs. It's all good.
Irene: I like the photos. I don't like the tops knowing what we went through for them, but I like the photos. I mean, this was traumatizing for me. I don't know how it was for you guys.
Kyle: Um, I cried. [laughing]
Nico: You cried?
Kyle: Let's just be honest, I cried. Tears of exhaustion, frustration.
Irene: All right. So, what's our vote on this hack?
Kyle: I don't think it's a super-accessible or, like, user-friendly type of DIY hack.
Nico: I didn't like this at all.
Kyle: It's not worth the effort and the emotional journey for the result. Not even for the photo.
Irene: Yeah.
[Kyle groans]
[all laugh]
Nico: She ripped her top off!
Irene: I would do the same, but then....