Refashioned Men's Sweater

Last weekend I got this men's sweater from my neighbor's garage sale.  It is so soft and lightweight, perfect for the cool days/evenings here.  I wanted to remake it to fit me as the shoulders sagged and the v-neck was way too low.  I had seen about shirring the shoulder seams of large shirts for a smaller fit on Melly Sews.  The rest of the refashioning I just let happen.

1.   I decided to cut off the cuffs and fill in the too low v-neck. 

2.  At first I was just going to sew the cuffs straight across and layered.  It gave the shirt too much of a nautical look so I gathered the top cuff by hand and then hand sewed each one inside the v-neck.  Reason for handsewing...used blue thread on the blue strip and white thread on the white stripe.  Besides, I find handsewing very calming.

Pin bottom strip on first...keep straight across.

Gather other cuff by hand and layer on top of bottom cuff...pin

Sew the cuffs by hand to the neck edge.

(I sewed them right along the edge of the outside of the pink ribbing and also along the inner edge of the pink ribbing.)

3.  Shoulders:  only problem....did not have any elastic to use for shirring so decided to gather the shoulder seams by using a long stitch on the sewing machine...Gathered the stitch and tied off the ends of the thread.  (I will redo with shirring technique using elastic once I buy some). There are many good shirring tutorials available.

4.  Sleeves:  Wanted to have the sleeves take on a more feminine look so on outer crease, from right above where my elbow was to a couple inches from bottom of sleeve, I hand-gathered very tightly and securely that distance for a shirring effect.  Since the sweater fabric is very lightweight and delicate, I wanted to see how it worked after the first wearing before sewing a casing and elastic to permanently create the gathering. 

Wore the sweater with the new look to a friend's house Friday night.  I felt really pretty in it and liked the places of gathering.  I think this is my first sharing about a recreation for myself and am excited to share it.

The love of sewing is our common thread.