Handing it WAY down

This sweater has been hanging in my closet for years. Probably 3 years to be more precise. I liked it when I bought it (really, I did!), but it seemed so trendy and preppy at the time that I could never bring myself to wear it. So it hung there.

I had an itch to sew the other night, and about 45 minutes to do it in, so I went on a scavenger hunt in the house. I found the sweater and decided to make it into a sleeveless tunic that E could wear over leggings and a long sleeve shirt.

I ripped the stitches that were holding the fake button up collar on, then cut a shape I thought might work (can you tell I didn't really have a plan??). The v-neck and the ribbed bottom stayed the same. All I had to sew were the side seams, armhole seams, and the back of the neck seam.

Easy.

Quick.

Instant gratification.

And besides a bit of altering to the shape (so I can get rid of the bubble butt I gave her when I sewed this), this is totally wearable.

And it freed up some room in my closet :).

Restyle Fail

I love the concept of restyling old clothes into new ones. It's incredibly eco-friendly, but even better than that--it's budget friendly. Heaven knows budget friendly is exactly what I need right now!

So I set out to try this t-shirt to ruffle cardigan first. How hard could it be? It went pretty smoothly until I tried to attache my ruffles to the cardigan. Here were my problems:

1. I couldn't get my ruffles evenly dispersed. No big deal, I thought, because they're ruffles. And it's a t-shirt. Doesn't have to look perfect. I moved on.

2. Once I got the ruffles attached and did the top stitching, I realized that the ruffles were still...moving around (for lack of a better term). I guess I should have used a stretch stitch.. I dunno.

3. I think the biggest issue was the kind of shirt I used. Too stretchy. Too little (should have just goodwilled it!).

There will be no pictures of this project. I'm adding it to the "do better next time" pile, and will cut the shirt up for cleaning rags. We live and learn!