I have a really great post
for you today, a very easy sweater upcycle project I stitched up in just a
little over an hour; you have to try this! In the last couple of years I have
fallen in love with cardigan sweaters, they are great over blouses, tank tops,
dresses, other sweaters and misc. tops.
Lately I have been seeing a number of open knit orange sweaters and
thought, wow, I need one of those. Two weeks ago while doing a closet re-org
project I came across an orange open knit sweater just like the ones I saw on
Pinterest except mine was a pullover with a hood and not a cardigan. It was a sweater I rarely wore because it
just never fit right and drove me nuts because the hood was heavy which pulled
the top backwards, it was fairly expensive so I never got rid of it thinking
someday I would do something with it.
Off the shelf and out of the closet it came and into the dryer, set on
air, to knock out the dust, no need to wash it since I knew it was already
clean just dusty. Once it was dust free
it was time to thread my sewing machine and get to work, here is what I did.
This is my pretty orange
sweater, an open weave semi cable knit, as you can see it is open enough that I
always had to wear something under it or show off all my goodies. If I made it into a cardigan I would not have
to worry about that since it would always have some kind of top or dress under
it, problem number one solved.
The first thing I did was run
pins down the front of the sweater to indicate where I wanted to stitch and
ultimately cut open the top, the pins would be my guide line. I chose the
center cable as my cutting and stitching point.
The first thing you should
know about working with any kind of open cotton knit is they quickly ravel if
you cut them or if you get a hole in them due to their chain stitches. To prevent that from happening on my sweater
I knew I had to stitch down a line of thread on each side of where I wanted to
make my center cut. I could have chosen
to just use a straight stitch but I knew a tight zig zag stitch would give
extra stability and keep the knit intact when I cut it. The only drawback is that it does cause the
edges to ripple a bit and pucker up; you could try larger straight stitches and
see what that does, I may do that next time.
Time to cut hoping I did the
right thing, if not I just trashed an expensive sweater. I chose to put the sweater back on my dress
form to keep from accidentally cutting anything other then the front of the top.
Once I cut the top it released the tension of the stitches and I got a slight
ruffle down each side of the new cardigan.
I could either leave the
slight ruffle down the front or turn it under about half an inch on each side
to give it some weight and lessen the wave.
I chose to pin it back and stitch it down for a bit more substance
in case I wanted to add buttons. I was
very happy I chose to turn it under and give it a more polished finish, I love
how it looks.
Almost all of my cardigans
have buttons so I pulled out my rather large button collection to see if I had
enough of any one kind of button to use all the way down the front. Not just any button would do, I did not want
brown or tan or white or black, I wanted orange to match the sweater, that way
I could wear it with anything and not have them clash with my outfit. I only found two orange ones so I decided I
would put one on each side so I could use a fabric loop to close it if I wanted
to. All done and ready to wear, how cute
is that! I know the sweater will now get
lots of use all winter long. I have one
just like it in black I have not been wearing; I think it will get a makeover
too, only the black one will have a bit of a romantic twist. I guess you will
just have to keep checking in to see what I am going to do to make a hooded
sweater more feminine and romantic.
Thanks for letting me share
my newest tutorial with you, what a great way to re-purpose an unused item of
clothing and stretch a dollar, no shopping needed here for a new cardigan
sweater or two.
See you soon.
Laurette
