I am alive.

so I've taken a little bit of a hiatus in the past couple of months from this blog.  With going back to work and the holidays, I've found that I haven't had tons of time to sew AND post on my blog.   I have been working on projects - some of which I can't share because they're for Christmas.  Much of what I've been doing has been fixing up some clothing I found at Thrift stores that have needed some modifications.  Mostly just boring stuff like taking in sweaters.  This one I actually embellished a little bit and liked the way it turned out, so I thought I would share it with you.


I saw this sweater at Hollister a while ago, and have kept it in the back of my head for a while.  Not willing to spend 40+ bucks on a simple cardigan I can make myself, I have just been keeping an eye out for a similar cardigan on the less expensive side.

Here's my take on it:

I took this old ruffly shirt on the left, which was a little too small (it cost me about 3.99 when I bought it, if I remember), and this J.Crew sweater I found at the Goodwill for $4, and combined them to make something similar to the Hollister sweater.

Here's the How-To:

First, I cut off the ruffled front.  They were pretty much the perfect size for the front of my sweater, so I didn't have to do too much trimming.  You could also make your own ruffles and attach them.  For a tutorial on how to make ruffles, check out this tutorial at Tea Rose Home.

 Next I pinned it in place along the front panel where the button holes/buttons are.

   I wanted to make sure that I could still button the sweater afterward, so as you can see in the picture to the left, I pinned it underneath.  On the side with the button holes, I top-stitched straight line all the way down as close to the edge of the sweater as I could get, and then trimmed the excess material to get at the button holes.

(Showing how buttonholes are still accessible)
On the side with the buttons, I sewed to the right of the buttons, because my presser foot couldn't fit on the outside edge with the buttons in the way.


The only other thing I did to this sweater was take it in on the arms and sides.  I found a fantastic tutorial on Grosgrain a couple of weeks ago, and have taken in several sweaters since then.  It works perfectly and only takes a few minutes to do.  The only difference is that I don't put it on and pin it up, I just lay a sweater that fits me on top of the sweater I want to take in and use it as a guide.  It works great!


Also, Grosgrain has been doing an "embellish your knits" month on her blog.  Some of them I am not really crazy about, but I love that she is being creative every single day and making something different from old clothing.  Definitely check her out for inspiration and tips if you want to change up your own wardrobe on the cheap!


Hope you are enjoying your Holidays and I'll be sure to share some more things as I finish up some Christmas gifts and probably work on some more clothing refashions!