Things to Try Thursday-Sweater to Cardigan

I have been going through my closet and coming up with clothes I just don't wear anymore.  I really don't want to get rid of everything I have purged from my closet,so I decided to try out a tutorial I found on line a while back.

I love all the pretty ceations that Sachiko from Tea Rose Home comes up with.  She shared this great tutorial on how to turn a sweater into a jacket.  I thought I would attempt something similar with a sweater my Mom bought me when I got my first job out of college....7 years ago.  So this is no spring chicken of a sweater and I thought it needed a little umph.
I started with my sweater and an old t-shirt.

I cut the sweater up the middle.  Since the sweater was ribbed I picked the middle and cut a straight line in the ribbing.  If you choose a garment that doesn't have ribbing or an easy way to find the middle, then you will need to measure the total width of the garment and divide by two.  This will tell you where the middle of your garment is and thus where to cut. 
**Side bar:  I like math so this measure, divide, multiply, take derivative stuff is just easy for me.  I know that most people don't like math (i.e. my hubby) and freak out when they see numbers that they have to do something with.  All that being said, I hope you don't find it too simplistic that include these instructions.

Okay, back to our sweater.  After cutting the sweater up the middle I took a piece of ribbon and pinned it to the cut edges of the sweater.  Then I sewed the ribbon in place.  This will prevent any fraying from the cut edges of the sweater.

Now take your old t-shirt and start chopping it up.  I cut up the side seams of the shirt. 

Then I cut the neck seams so I had two pieces of the shirt.

I used the back piece of the shirt and cut off the excess pieces of fabric to create a rectangle.

Then I cut the rectangle in half.

And in half again.  These two pieces will  be the embelishment I add to the edges of my sweater.  You can measure this fabric to be whatever width you choose, just make sure you have two equal pieces of fabric. 

Next, I pinned the fabric to the sweater with little pin tucks.  I made sure I matched both sides of the pin tucks so that the sweater looked symmetrical.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step)

Finally I sewed both sides of the fabric to the sweater.

And your done!!

I can't wait to wear this sweater with a black tank top this fall!

Happy Sewing!