Little Projects: Sweater Re-fashion

 A couple years ago, I bought a really nice, unique, merino wool sweater at the thrift store. Or at least, I THOUGHT it was nice... After bringing it home I realized that a previous owner must have spilled something on the sleeves and used hot water to try to clean it out... Since I'm not a t-rex with super disproportionately short and tiny arms, it was vastly uncomfortable. 😬 I tried everything to un-shrink those sleeves,soaking it in conditioner and stretching it to dry with pins again and again, but to no avail. So it was tossed into the mending bag until such a time as I found some way to redeem it.

This fall I really wanted to make something special for my little boy's first birthday. I found that sweater in the mending pile, and decided that cutting it up into a little sweater for him was the perfect solution to the tiny arm situation.😀

Laying out one of his 18 month hoodies and tracing it off provided a basic pattern to work with. I left the sleeves extra long so they could have a folded cuff to start, and grow with him as he did. 😊

I was able to keep the selvages for the fronts and bottoms of the sweater, so all that was left raw after stitching it together was the neckline and sleeve hems. Yay! 😁 I used a few scraps from the felted sleeves to bind the neckline, since the felted pieces wouldn't ravel, and left the sleeve hems raw since they were felted as well.

After much deliberation and scouring of Pinterest for inspiration, I opted for the two button look so popular on toddler sweaters. It allows free movement and, most importantly, I only had two random leather buttons of the same size in my stash. 😜 The leather for the loops/frogs were scraps from two different projects I made ages ago.

I'm really excited about how it came out, and I'm very happy that the lovely wool sweater got a new beginning. 

He loves his sweater and it has been so useful through the thick of winter and the early spring. :)

Oh Darn!

My husband and I both love our wool sweaters an socks, and it was inevitable that at some point I must learn what felt like the very daunting skill of darning. But really it's not that bad. I first came across Swiss darning in an old needle-craft book. It's the coolest kind! It practically recreates the original knitting stitch with a blunt needle and some yarn.

Last year I acquired some quality wool yarns intending to set myself down and get-er-done... but I didn't. 😏 With baby on the way, priorities shifted and the projects and yarn sat in my giant mending bag awaiting the time I'd finally bite the bullet and learn the useful skill.

This summer I pulled the bag back out and looked up Swiss darning on pinterest. I chose my husband's "chunkier" sweaters in need of darning for my first projects, because, well... I already tried to learn on a super-fine weight merino sweater of mine, and BOY is it hard to learn when you can barely see the stitches! A whole year off brought me to my senses and I started with the larger yarn size... and the larger holes.😬

After I darned one sweater with a CLOSE colored yarn, I felt like I had the idea down well enough to make the contrasting yarn look decent on his cream colored sweater. (What are his elbows made out of, sandpaper?) The second side didn't have a hole, but it was getting very thread-bare, so I darned in a patch over-top to match the other-side. That was SO much easier, folks! I'm gonna be examining the laundry for threadbare spots BEFORE they become holes now... a stitch in time truly saves "nine", or at least a lot of aggravation.

The sweaters under my belt, I went on to socks, a bit smaller stitches, but not needing to be perfect. After-all, it's under your feet and in shoes most of the time. 😊 Once again, thread-bare spots and small holes went fairly quickly and smoothly, boosting my confidence, but the large holes in the heels had me a bit confused and nervous at times as I tried to make heads or tales of the small stitches and the heel "turn", (or whatever it's called).

I'm pretty happy with how the first projects went. They're not perfect, and I have a lot of work to do to hone the skill, but with 9 pairs of socks and several more sweaters to go I should get plenty of practice! 😉

A Foray into Men's Fashion

I got to foray into men's modern fashion a bit more a few years ago, making my brother's 3 piece suit for formal events. He took a break from being behind the camera, and submitted to being photographed so I could share that suit with all of you. :)

After scouring Pinterest for suit ideas, we kept running across this suit with the tail coat and really cool asymmetric vest. We both thought it was the perfect style for him, and only after we settled on making it did we realize we had picked a high formality white tie morning suit to emulate.

 

 

Photos were taken by me this time. ;) :P :D