13 May, 2010

KCWC Day 2 and 3 redux

And Day 4 too, I did the last of the flower finishing this morning and that's all the time I've had today - lecture writing tonight unfortunately! But the cardigan is now finished and here it is:

Cardie refashion


Originally it looked like this:

Original cardigan


I see that the original photo was taken way back in October last year so it's taken me awhile to get around to it!  I was inspired by a clever cardigan refashion by Tiny Happy who told me it wasn't that hard and actually it wasn't! This is what I did:
  1. Cut off the sleeves and tried it on Hazel and pinned where I thought the shoulder seam/side seams would be.
  2. Unpicked the neck facing or whatever it was called. I managed to get the overlocker seam to unravel by pulling random threads (is there a trick to knowing which one to pull? I only ever find it by accident or when it's unravelling clothing I want to wear in which case it's very easy).  This meant that, except in a couple places where I nicked it, the edges didn't unravel.  I undid the facing along the back and on the front just past about where I thought Hazel's shoulder seam would be.
  3. Found a shirt pattern for a V-necked button-front shirt and matched the pattern pieces for the arm area and arm to the pinned positions as best I could. I do wish, however, that I'd had a good cardigan pattern to work from that was designed for knits as this one ended up being too big and the cardigan needs taking in.
  4. Cut the pieces out and resewed with an overlocker.  After I tried it on Hazel I discovered it was fine along the neckline despite being too big around, so I went ahead and attached the neck facing and added the ruffle and buttons.  I sewed the ruffle on with a twin needle to give it a bit of stretch along with the knit neckline.

Cardie refashion details


Mat thinks the buttons are a bit OTT but the originals were so... late '90s know what I mean?  The only problem I ran into was that the original facings overlapped more than I'd assumed they would so I had to shift the buttons over to the edge quite a bit so the right ruffle there wasn't covered over!

The flower was made from a tutorial at Pink Paper Peppermints that I found via a lovely little dress on My Sewing Circle.  It's on a bit of felt attached to a pin.  This is the one I prefer; but I had made a smaller one from the stripy fabric that Hazel likes best so she can have that one on it (too matchy for me!) and I'll have the photograph and the memories...

Cardie refashion details

8 comments:

  1. I love Kids Clothes Challenge Week. I work away on NOT sewing work and every now and again I get to come here for a treat and you have something cool and new up. great stuff!

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  2. LOVE IT
    definitely NOT ott... and, i think i'd prefer the non-matchy-matchy flower... but have found that my girl's fashion is just different than mine! :D

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  3. Super sweet! I'm with you on the flower. Dots might be fun, too!

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  4. I have three cardigans in my bin to refashion for Veronica. So excited now!!!

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  5. I think not being matchy-matchy is a sign of growing up, Hazel's still fully
    in the 'everything should match and preferably be pink' camp :) Part of the
    problem with that flower is it's orange and not pink. :P

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  6. Yes they would! I obviously need to make a few more flowers just for
    variety.

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  7. I know! I've just set aside another cardigan of mine but it's black so she
    might not be so keen on it.

    ReplyDelete

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