Recycled Sweater

I was cleaning out my closet last week and came across a stretched out, rather frumpy turtle neck sweater. I hadn't worn it for ages because . . . well, because it's stretch out and rather frumpy looking.

It just so happened that I had recently seen a couple of ideas on other blogs about "refashioning" used clothing and decided that this sweater made an excellent candidate for my first project. Unfortunately, I was nearly finished with it before I realized I had forgotten to take a "before" picture. But here's the "after" photo.


I didn't work from a pattern or plan. I just sort of came up with the idea for this sweater jacket as I went along. Here's a condensed version of what I did:

• I started by cutting off the "turtle neck"
• Then I cut up the middle of the front.
• For the next step I cut across the middle above the waist.
• As you can see from the photo, I added a swatch of denim fabric to the waist and then reattached the bottom part of the sweater I had removed.
• I made the collar from the "turtle neck" I had removed in the first step.
• And finally I made and attached a tie closure with another scrap I had in my stash.

I wish the color had shown up better in this photo. The sweater is actually a dark olive green. I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. It's really much cuter "on" then hanging here on the hanger, but it's hard to be the model AND the photographer.

So do you have any sweaters hiding in your closet that need refashioning? Here are a few links for inspiration.
Easy-Peasy-Sweater Recon
Refashioning Sweaters
Refashioned Sweater into Cardigan

Have fun!