Old men's sweater to a cute sweater dress!

I found this gem at goodwill for under $4. I had a great idea for it! Its a men's XL sweater- very long and baggy on me! Now its time to start learning some tailoring skills.... which I need to develop. Since sweater was soo large on me there was no way i could put this on and take it in easily. So many inches needed to come off this sweater!

I had a sweater dress in my closet that i used as a template. Turned the sweater inside, flattened, and laid it on the sweater and got quite a giggle. I used a sharpie to then cut out a basic design of what the sweater needs to be. I didn't use any temporary markings like a disappearing marker or chalk b/c I couldn't see it. I said to heck with it sharpie it is. its on the inside of the sweater and should I just likely mark it, it should not go thru the material. I left some room to spare when i traced b/c 1- its a stretchy sweater so i will need some room and 2- sewing allowance for them. I just eye balled it. I then pinned everything together to keep the sweater from moving when I go to the sewing machine.

I followed the line on both sides. Then I cut the excess fabric away off. Turned it right side out... Tried it on. Tada!!! Wowswers! It actually worked. It was not that hard to sew. No special adjustments were needed on the machine (standard needle, standard tension, universal sewing foot) though I did use a long stitch (the longest stitch I had on my machine) since the fabric was quite thick. I was in such shock!

Sleeves: as you can see in the first pic, the sleeves were really long. Like really long. I have very long arms. I hacked off 5 inches from the get go. Still too long!! No pics on this but I just folded the sleeves in side cut off the excess. Simply sew it down.

Here's the finished product! I love this sweater dress and it fits like a glove!