Thursday, October 29, 2009

Another Sweater Refashion


I made this out of a thrifted large man's "grandpa" cardigan and some pieces of an fine gauge cashmere sweater I had already cut up for something else.

It's very comfortable and warm and I like the basic idea as I saw it in my head, but the over-all effect of the actual end product is not terribly becoming. I'm a bit frustrated because it took me forever to make and I'll probably never wear it out of the house.

At least, I did learn some new things sweater refashion-wise, which I will now pass on to you:

  • Taking in sleeves. Hugely too big sleeves can be cut a few inches below the armhole. The lower portion taken in (and length taken off as necessary), the upper portion gathered or tucked and the sleeve sewn back together. I think this would work better with a finer gauge knits.
  • Mixing knits of different weights. Don't try to mix structural parts of vastly different weights (or gauges) together. The waist band on this would have worked much better from a scrap more similar in weight to the main sweater. Limit lighter weight knits to cuffs/collars/decorative trim and other parts which will not effect the hang of the whole garment.
  • Sweater sleeves transformed into a collar. Two sweater sleeves (squared off at the arm hole area if necessary) stitched together make a good collar.
  • Adding tucks. Hand stitching tucks on a larger piece to make it compatible with a smaller piece (just like in sewing with regular fabric) actually does work.
  • And last, but not least. Don't make one big gathered area in the back (unless you fancy the Victorian bustle look...see my mistake and don't repeat it).


Click to make bigger.


12 comments:

  1. Another great project, new and unexpected! Brava!

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  2. I love seeing your sweater refashions :-) I like the idea of this one very much. I also think it's great the way you are so willing to share the not-so-good bits and to give such good advice on how to rectify what you are not so keen on :-)

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  3. Thanks for the tips! I bought a couple of sweaters to refashion a few weeks ago and have dragged my feet about working on them, partly b/c sweaters are a big mystery for me to cut into and sew back together! I have more confidence now, after reading your post.

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  4. Thank you for the nice comments! I am going to try the sleeve idea again, for sure.

    I do have a bit of a twinge when taking the scissors to a perfectly functional sweater. So far I've limited myself to $2 thrifted ones or those so damaged/ugly no one else would want to wear them either. That helps a bit.

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  5. i really like the idea, and i think it looks great from the front. have you tried washing and blocking it? i've heard that's the magic solution for hand-knit things that turn out a funny shape, so it might help with re-fashioned knit things too.

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  6. Wow, I love what you've done! I'm still waiting for inspiration and braveness to hit me enough to have a go at cutting up jumpers. As I was looking at the back, it hit me that if you shortened the length right where is starts to narrow again, the extra fabric would flutter out, like a peplum. Now I'm going to have a good look araound ... Thanks for sharing!
    Vicki

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  7. Rachel and Vicki: Those are both very good suggestions. I may have to do a refashion of a refashion...

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  8. There are always going to be hits and misses with refashioning but I think the best thing is the learning that takes place. When you follow a pattern, it mostly works because you are doing what you're told. When you refashion, you explore!

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  9. You are so creative! That looks wonderful. I love reinventing clothes.

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  10. It's cute!

    Did you have to serge the seams to prevent unraveling?

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  11. I didn't serge them. The finer gauge sweater knits don't seem to ravel much. It's probably a good idea, though.

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  12. May I suggest considering slashing the back at the very bottom of the centre section to see what happens to the pleated area below the waist?

    This is a really interesting project that I will certainly be making, but am unsure about that central gathering flare below the waist.

    Thanks for the tutorial!

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