Sweatshirt to Romantic Cardigan

There is really nothing like a nice comfy sweatshirt. 

Nope...nothing like that at all...sigh. 

Truth be told, I loved this sweatshirt. It was so warm and comfy and awesome. It was such a shame though because it was so very unflattering. I puttered around the house in it in the evenings when it got cool, but I would never have been comfortable wearing it out. Besides, I bought it with the express intention of turning it into something fabulous. 

And...

I did! Click "Read More" to find out what I did and how I did it. 

This was a 3X sweatshirt. It was absolutely huge! I couldn't even get a picture of the whole thing without folding the sleeves over:

First things first: I cut away the sleeves, collar, and the ribbing along the bottom, then snipped a nice straight line up the center front. That's right! Another cardigan. 

Last time I made a cardigan from a sweatshirt the cut wasn't quite right. I didn't want to have that problem again, so I took a nice loose-fitting tee I already had and laid it on top of my sweatshirt. 

I made marks with my chalk on either side at the shoulder seam and the place where the sleeve met the underarm on the tee:

Then I drew a line down from the underarm point straight to the bottom of the sweatshirt. 

Then a slightly curved line from the shoulder mark to the underarm mark 

Then I cut just outside the lines I drew. 

I tried it on for fit. 

Looking good so far!

I hemmed the opening in the front and along the bottom for a nice clean edge. 

I liked the contrasting white thread, but you could use matching thread if you preferred. 

Now to tackle those sleeves:

I didn't want to cut them because I sort of liked the looseness of them. Plus, I had a new technique that I wanted to try. 

I pinned the sleeves to the armholes, starting at the bottom, then when I reached the top I pleated the excess sleeve fabric into the armhole, then sewed it in place. I think it gave the shoulder a little volume and interest:

But there was a problem. The shoulders were too wide and it just looked goofy. 

So I took the collar I had cut away before:

And pinned it around the neckline. Directly in the center back, as I was pinning, I made another little pleat in the top of the back panel:

Then I sewed it down. It brought the shoulder seams a little closer together which fixed the problem very nicely!

(I used the ribbing I'd cut from the bottom of the sweatshirt as a tie. I liked the effect!)

I could have stopped there, but you know me better than that. :) I had to keep going. 

I took a scrap of vintage floral fabric I had in my stash and carefully cut around a bunch of the individual flowers. 

Then I positioned them onto the front of the cardigan until they were right where I wanted them, and pinned them down. 

Appliqué time!

The result was a lovely, romantic cardigan that I can't get enough of!

It's super warm and cozy and I love the colors!

It goes with everything!

Here's a silly picture my son took of me at the school fall fair this weekend:

This was a super fun reconstruction! At the rate I'm going now, I will never need to buy another cardigan!

XOXO