Honey, I Shrunk The Sweater

Hello Readers. Have you ever done something stupid, careless, clumsy? Yep, that's a big yes from me. I mess up often and all over the place. It would take and entire separate blog to record it all. But that's not why we are here today.

 I had a laundry accident recently. I washed a favorite sweater with a load of towels. It was a hot water wash and the sweater came out about half it's original size. I was really bummed. What was I going to do with this tiny sweater?

 

I loved this sweater because it was black, it went with everything, and it was cashmere! I was not going to throw this away.

 It was still soft and because it shrunk, it was even thicker than it was before. I cut off the body and saved the sleeves for later. I stitched the front closed and cut off the excess material with the buttons.

Here is a look at it inside out. I used the side seams and the front seam I had just made to make it smaller and more tapered at the top. I didn't measure, I just tried it on and did my best to make it fit comfortably. I took a little off each side to keep the seams evenly spaced around my head. It wasn't perfect, but that's OK.

When I had the size right I folded the top end in on itself and tied a piece of leather cord around it to hold it closed. I thought the leather would be strong and have good grip. It did hold well, I cut off the excess from the top.

I turned it right side out and I had an head shaped shaped hat. I had this furry pom-pom in the sewing stash and decided to add it on top. I used thick embroidery thread and sewed it on by hand.

The pom-pom made it more fun and this is the softest hat I have ever felt or worn. It is really warm and cozy too. I am not taking it off until the polar vortex weather has gone back up to the north pole where it belongs.

That's not all we can do with a shrunken sweater!

Now what to do with the sleeves? I decided that because Valentine's Day is coming,  I would make a mitten for two. I know it sounds weird, stay with me.

I cut the sleeves in half and took the cuff halves for this project.

I found some red fabric scraps and cut out two heart shapes. I stitched the two hearts together around the outside edges.

(This fabric doesn't look red, but it is.)

I left two openings so I could insert the little sleeve pieces. I had to sew them in by hand. I added some big white embroidery stitches around the edge for decoration. 

The idea is that I will put one hand in and my 3 year old will put one hand in and we can hold hands when we go for a walk. He is smaller than me so his hand would be lower than mine. 

If you want to make this for two adults, you could put both hand openings at the top sides of the heart.

(See I told you it was red.)

Here is my little guy and I holding hands in the heart. It is so bitterly cold we couldn't go outside for a walk though. He thought it was funny that we both put our hands in the heart.

(I may have bribed him with a plate of cookies to get this photo.)

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
Authors Note: The cold polar vortex is over. I went for a walk with my 2 little buddies. The mitten was a hit.

 

 *Year end update-I wear this hat all winter and my little guy still likes this mommy and me mitten. Win-win.