In 2011 I swore off traditional clothing shopping b/c i wanted to 1-get out of debt and 2-learn to sew and explore my fashion creativity. I chose a sweater because baby its cold outside!! I found a sweater I wanted to redo, from a thrift store. And wow was it a beauty. Not only was it big but it was there was a slight discoloration so its got to get covered with something.
Take a look at this cardigan... (the Before pic!)
Yeah there isn't much to say about it other than the color was really pretty! I love this teal color.
Now it is a women's size large caridgan. Again way too big. Too long in the length and too long in the sleeve length. Too big in general. Time to cut it up!
Yeah there isn't much to say about it other than the color was really pretty! I love this teal color.
Now it is a women's size large caridgan. Again way too big. Too long in the length and too long in the sleeve length. Too big in general. Time to cut it up!
I first deicded the elastic bands around the sleeves and the waist (can you really call it a waist- no woman deserves it regardless of what size or shape you are!). Cut cut-buh bye!
Wow it already looks better!
Now i used another cheat to take in this cardigan, sorry i thought i had a picture of this but maybe my cat ate it :) I turned it inside out and used my good old sharpie to trace an outline. I left room for a seam allowance. :) Pin. And sew! I tried it on and yay it worked! LOL I still don't know why i am so excited that I can alter. Maybe its b/c I have really never altered before. And I am suprised it is working.
Moving along. I still needed the length to be taken up (but at least the elastic band is gone). Turned the cardi inside out and put it on myself. I decided where i wanted the length to be and I pinned up the hem. Warning doing the backside by yourself can be a bit of a challenge. But at least i got monkey arms on my side, nevertheless, I still got pins in my bum. :(
Sewed the hem up. Tho the part where the button and the hole meet i did not finish since I have to make sure i don't loose the hole. I will work on that later.
Now to the fun part. Here is where I get a point for using material from my stock. I had some remnants of teal fabric, wonderful polyester. But it will work perfectly for what I want to do next. Now its time to practice some ruffling! I had several sequares of this polyester. I cut 1.5 inch strips using my rotary cutter (which i love!). Then down the center of each strip I sewed down using the longest stitch of my machine on a 0 tension. Once that was done I pulled the bobbin thread and we have ruffles.
Wow it already looks better!
Now i used another cheat to take in this cardigan, sorry i thought i had a picture of this but maybe my cat ate it :) I turned it inside out and used my good old sharpie to trace an outline. I left room for a seam allowance. :) Pin. And sew! I tried it on and yay it worked! LOL I still don't know why i am so excited that I can alter. Maybe its b/c I have really never altered before. And I am suprised it is working.
Moving along. I still needed the length to be taken up (but at least the elastic band is gone). Turned the cardi inside out and put it on myself. I decided where i wanted the length to be and I pinned up the hem. Warning doing the backside by yourself can be a bit of a challenge. But at least i got monkey arms on my side, nevertheless, I still got pins in my bum. :(
Sewed the hem up. Tho the part where the button and the hole meet i did not finish since I have to make sure i don't loose the hole. I will work on that later.
Now to the fun part. Here is where I get a point for using material from my stock. I had some remnants of teal fabric, wonderful polyester. But it will work perfectly for what I want to do next. Now its time to practice some ruffling! I had several sequares of this polyester. I cut 1.5 inch strips using my rotary cutter (which i love!). Then down the center of each strip I sewed down using the longest stitch of my machine on a 0 tension. Once that was done I pulled the bobbin thread and we have ruffles.
I began to pin to each ruffle to the cardigan. Then just sewed down the center to anchor it on to the sweater. I did not have anything in particular in mind I just wanted vertical ruffles. After adding a few i decided to go all the way up the sweater. WARNING NOTE: if you plan on buttoning the cardigan (rather than keeping it open) and if its a V-style cardi like mine. a straight line laying flat is a diagonal line on your body. I learned that the hard way. So I removed the suspect pieces and added it while i was wearing the cardi. Which is fun, I pinned myself so many times my poor chest!
Here is the end product!!! I love my new cardi! Its great for work! Sorry you don't get the finished shot of me 1- b/c i was having a bad hair day and 2- my boyfriend wasn't home to take a pic. maybe one day...
with a belt.. don't know if i like this belt or not!
Yay this was seriously a LOT of fun! Who would have known the frumpy cardigan could turn into something so fabulous!
My only beef was I wish I had a ruffler foot! Now I will just bug Sonja to use hers until I get my own :)
Ok stay tuned I have more refashions coming along in the pile! :)