Friday, January 6, 2012

Sweater Re-fashion

When I first got into DIY blogs I started saving links to tons and tons of "simple" sewing tutorials, refashions, and what nots. Let me tell you...I had high expectations for myself and what I was going to be able to do.  

If I ever mention a sewing project again tell me to run far far away and to just FORGET about it!! 

I am HORRIBLE at sewing. Did you see the word horrible? I can't use a sewing machine correctly, I make crazy dumb mistakes by hand, and something always happens to mess me up. 

Needless to say all of my saved links of sewing tutorials are still sitting there waiting for something that won't happen unless I find an amazing sewing buddy. 

But before this epiphany came I had decided I was going to remake some sweaters that I had taken from a bag of clothes my sister was going to get rid of. Let me just say thank God for whoever invented the steam hem stuff. Whoever you are....you rock! 

Once again, I did not take a before picture. I'm sorry! I just get so focused one I have scissors in my hand and cut without thinking. I have a picture wearing the sweater from a few years back but I couldn't find it on my external hard drive so you are just going to have to imagine it without the cut down the middle. Okay? Good. 

This sweater was a v-neck ribbed sweater from Old Navy. Probably circa 2007 or 2008. I found the middle and just cut it as straight as I could. I followed the line of the ribbing to help. I did try to use a sewing machine but with the thickness of the material it was pulling through and the stitch was crazy. Then I tried to hand sew it and I'm not even going to try and explain what I did there. So I decided to try the steam hem stuff. 

I folded over the the edge to make a hem. I had to fold it over a little more because of some mess ups with taking out my previous seams. 

Then I took my steam hem stuff (man, I really need to find out the real name of this stuff). Cut it the length of my hem and then ironed it all. If you have never used this stuff you put a damp cloth between the iron and material so nothing sticks. 

And after that you have a brand new cardigan to wear made out of an old too short sweater! Yay! I love the concept of re-using things like this. Sweaters shrink so easily sometimes you only get a season or 2 out of them as pull overs. I did this same process to another old navy sweater but with a rounded neck for my sister to wear. 

And the instagram picture. I want to do a belt around the waist next time I wear this. I just have to play with color combinations. 

Happy Re-fashioning!!!!! 


If you have lots of sweaters or a great thrift store with amazing deals here are the links that were part of my inspiration and what I originally tried to follow then failed. :) 







1 comment:

  1. I am so impressed! Great job! Love the sweater "then" and love your new look too. : P

    ReplyDelete