Too Tight Sweater

 Hello Readers. It's April and I decided to focus on florals all month. I know, florals for spring. Groundbreaking. Miranda Priestly wouldn't be impressed but let's make this sweater fit again. This is a very easy beginner sewing refashion project.

Before and after.

I really liked this sour apple green-yellow sweater. I liked the knit flowers on the front. But it didn't fit anymore. I seem to have out grown it. (Did anyone else use Covid as an excuse to snack a lot? Was it just me?) It's OK. I can fix this.

I cut the side seam open. I just started cutting at the waistband and followed the seam all the way up. The seam ends at the wristband. Once it is all open you can fill the gap in with something to make the sweater bigger.

I thought I could use this ribbon. I liked the flowers and the different shades of green together. Ribbon is not stretchy and because it is so stable it will be easy to work with. The best part is that you can pick any ribbon you like. The wider the ribbon the bigger your sweater will be.

Always measure to make sure you have enough length for your project. I had just enough to finish both sides of this sweater. Like just enough. If  I messed up somewhere I was going to be in trouble.

I clipped the right sides together. I wanted all the parts to stay in place while I was sewing.

The ribbon added some extra room in the sweater. When the ribbon was sewn into the sides of the sweater it added about and inch and a half to each sleeve 3 inches to the body of the sweater. That was just enough for me to wear the sweater comfortably again. I could have chosen a much wider ribbon and made my sweater much bigger.

I like how the ribbon peeks out from the side. It is fun but it is simple enough that I can wear it to work.

Here is one last picture of the sweater so you can see the ribbon. It is one piece of ribbon that is sewn into the side seam to make the sweater larger. It won't be any longer than it was before, just bigger.

I made a basic white woman trip to Target. Yes, I got Starbucks too. It was great. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

*Year End Note From Chickie- I really like this acid green color. It's a weird shade but I can't get enough.

A Tale Of Two Sweaters

Hello Readers. My project today involved 2 sweaters. They were both too small but I wanted to save one of them. I know what you 're thinking. (We're friends now, I know you well.) You are thinking why bother with these sweaters?

Because cashmere baby! I am a sucker for cashmere sweaters. They are so soft. It's like they were knit by little angels or something. This is a simple white sweater with black trim.

I decided to make it bigger. I cut the sides and arms and removed the seam. This is what it looked like spread out on the floor.

I had this pink sweater with black trim. It wasn't made of cashmere and it was really pink. I am not a huge fan of pink but it would be useful in this project.

It came with a big black flower pin. Under that black flower is another flower. It is stitched on and I liked it better than the pin.

I cut out the flower and saved it for later.

I cut out two stripes from under the arms all the way down the sides. The pieces were about 3 inches wide. I didn't get a picture of them, sorry. This is what the pink sweater looked like after I cut off all the pieces I needed to enlarge the white sweater.

Here are the pink pieces after I sewed them into the white sweater. They run from the waist to the wrist. It added enough to make the size comfortable for me. 

This is my "Mom's lost it!" pose.

You can see the pink piece on the side of the sweater here. I used the same technique in my last post to make a T-shirt bigger. I like this method because it leaves the neck, shoulders and outer arms intact. You can see I attached the flower applique to the sweater too. I hand stitched over the black stitches that were already there. It made the simple sweater not so plain.

It is Thanksgiving tomorrow in the U.S.

I am thankful for a lot of things in this life, thanks to you for reading this post.