Refashioned Sweater Set + Tutorial

For months now, I've been wanting to resize this green sweater set so my daughter could wear them.  Both sweaters were mine, but after having Ella, I lost a lot of extra weight from nursing her.  In fact, I got a little too thin at one point.  Anyway, the sweaters don't fit me anymore--they're too big!

So last week, after I made the Paisley Corduroy Jumper and realizing I had enough of the same fabric to make shorts, I remembered these sweaters and thought they would match.  I've been a little scared about refashioning existing clothing items, but this time, I just went for it!  I grabbed one of Ella's sweater vests (sorry I didn't include a picture of it) and started cutting away at the green sweaters.

I wanted to use the existing hem and neckline since both were finished with a bit of detailing, so I had to cut some of the extra length off of the top of the sleeveless sweater.  Just look at the following pictures for how I went about cutting it up and sewing it back together.

This is the original Size M Junior's Sweater

That's all there is to it!  I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of how I sewed the bias tape to the armhole opening, but I'm still learning how to put together tutorials.  It takes some getting used to to remember to stop what you are sewing and take a picture every step of the way!

I decided to make a bow from some of the left over scraps that were longer.  I just trimmed two of the side pieces (like I labeled in the pictures above) to the same length and width and sewed the two pieces together at the unfinished end so I would have one long piece.  I then just tied it in a bow and sewed a pin onto the back so we could remove it when we wash the sweater.  I think it added a nice touch.

The sweater fit Ella pretty good, but it is a little longer than I expected.  Still, I think she'll be able to wear it for a while, and as you can see below, we chose to tuck in the sweater anyway.  

Now, I also refashioned a matching cardigan sweater to go with the sleeveless one, but I didn't take any pictures of how I cut it up.  It's pretty easy to figure out though, and I'll try to point out some of the specifics in the following pictures.

For the cardigan, I decided to not to cut the neck binding because I didn't want to move the buttons up any higher on her chest.  I cut off the sleeves and then cut off the side seams as I did in the sleeveless sweater.  I then put the top of the sleeveless sweater even with the top of the cardigan to get a length measurement.  

Since I wanted to keep the original hem, I cut it off about a 1/4" above the detailing and then cut off the extra length of sweater before sewing the hem piece back on.  I then top stitched it down.  You can see this in the picture above.

I made the pockets out of the two pieces of neck binding I cut off from the sleeveless sweater (as noted in the tutorial pictures).  I didn't try to turn them under to hem because they were so small already, so I just sewed them on as close to the edge of the pocket as I could get.  I then made the two little bows out of the pieces I cut off the width of the sweater.

For the sleeves, I used one of Ella's cardigans to get an idea of the sleeve length I needed.  I then cut off the extra sleeve length at the top of the sleeve and then sewed it back on.

So I finally made these into something Ella can use!  Have a great day!

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