Sweater Refashion

I continue to scour the opshop for coloured items to add to my too grey winter wardrobe.

So when I came across this rather bland, but fabulously red jumper, I couldn't pass it up.

Winter crop tops seem to be my latest wardrobe fad.  So to make this a crop I measured about 21cm up from the bottom hem.

And cut off the bottom.  But don't fret, that offcut will be used.

This top was acrylic and I wasn't sure if it would fray or not so I zigzagged the cut edge just in case.

When I hemmed this I used a zigzag stitch (because the fabric was stretchy) along the cut edge so the inside would have a tidy finish.

But as you can see in this photo, the bottom edge was bulgy.  So I ran another zigzag stitch along the bottom of the hem to flatten that bulgy edge.

Because of the stretch of the fabric, once I had sewn the new hem, the top flared at the bottom.  I didn't mind the flare at the back, but at the front it looked a bit odd, so I added these little pleat thingies to make it sit better at the front.

You can't really make this front detail out in the other photos - I think its a nice feature.

Then, too give this crop a more tailored look I also decided that the arms needed to be narrower.  I turned the jumper inside out and drew a line where I thought the new arm seam should be.

I pinned the arm flat before sewing along the chalk line.

Then I chopped off the excess fabric. 

You can also see here that I didn't take any width from the body of the sweater as I wanted it to be a wide fit.

The jumper was now complete, but what became of that bit I chopped off the bottom?

Well, I finished the cut edge of the offcut off in exactly the same way I did the bottom hem of the jumper - to create what I guess would be described as an 'infinity' scarf.  My thoughts behind this idea was that the original neck line was a little boring, but I didn't want to cut into it because of the way this fabric stretched once it was cut and hemmed.   So to add interest to the neck line, I just popped on my matchy offcut infinity scarf while wearing my new jumper.

I try not to use filters on my photos, but for some reason most of my 'after' photos on this one were washed out, so I couldn't resist brightening this photo up.

I don't know why I'm looking at my feet.

Sometimes once a 'refashioned' item is finished I realise they aren't actually very comfortable.  That was not the case with this one, which stood the comfort test of a full day out and about at kids activities, grocery shopping, and then a family dinner out.

I like this splash of colour with my winter greys and blacks.

Refashioned Jumper/Sweater: Thrifted, $4; Dress: Thrifted, $8; Singlet: Wardrobe item; Boots: My trusty Gumtree Dr Martens, $30.