The Sweater That Went Wrong

Hello Readers. I made a sweater recently. I had the blue silk blouse and the gray sweater and they each had a problem. I decided to put them together and see if they could help each other out. It didn't work out as I thought it would.

The blue silk blouse was delightful with this fluffy collar. It looks like flower petals to me. If you look closely it has a couple small stains right in the front below the fabulous collar. They stains won't come out and it doesn't look nice.

I also had this basic gray sweater. It fit well and it was comfortable but the neck is a bit too low to wear alone. It needs a shirt under it. The waist band always flips up for some reason. I don't know why but it is always like this. It makes it a little shorter and I don't like that either. (I am a little picky.)

Here is what they look like together. I love it. The blouse fills in the neck line and the length of the blue blouse that hangs out from the bottom makes it longer. Perfect right? Well, no. The blue blouse rides up when I wear it and I always have to tug it down. I thought I could easily fix that.

 I was wrong. 

I started by basting the collar onto the sweater. (That was the only smart thing I did.) I went over it with my machine to make it really secure.

A brief  moment of vanity, my ring finger looks really fat there. 

I used pins to hold the blouse in place. I thought I could just stitch it in place with my machine. I thought the pins would keep the sweater from stretching out.

(I was wrong.)

What I ended up with was some kind of tutu looking attachment at the bottom of my sweater. It looked absolutely ridiculous. It puffed out more in real life when my backside was under it. My backside doesn't need a huge ruffle over it making it bigger.

 I tried to make some tucks to make it lay smoothly. I didn't think it would work but I had to try before I gave up on this sweater.  They didn't work, the sweater was to misshapen. 

Well, I gave up and cut the whole thing off. If I unpicked all the stitches I might have damaged the sweater anyway. And I was mad, it felt good to just cut it off and throw it away. I was really bummed. I loved that blue fabric. I couldn't dwell on it for too long, I had to move on with my life. (That is a good life lesson.)

The sweater sat for a while and I sat and thought about what to do. I decided to use this blue trim. I had always liked it and now it would cover the rough cut job at the bottom of the sweater. The sweater didn't fray at all so I didn't need to worry about it. 

The trim is not machine washable, but neither was the silk blouse.

Here is my finished sweater, It wasn't what I had planned but sometimes things don't go according to plan, you have to improvise and make the best of it. (That is a good life lesson too.)

The blue trim doesn't lay perfectly flat but it is much better that the tutu I had before. 

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

*** BONUS THOUGHT ***

I think I should have left the shirt in one piece and just tacked it down on each side at the seam. That might have kept it from riding up and it would have kept the sweater in it's original shape.

 Live and learn. (Last life lesson of the day.)