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.