Fixed Knits

As you can see by the sweater's tag, I did not make this. But I noticed recently that I have been looking at sweater patterns to knit for myself that are very very similar to this design. I bookmarked this pattern in particular a month or so ago and fantasized about making it. (Yes, embarrassingly, I have fantasies about knitting). It really has become a sickness.

Anyway, it finally struck me that I had this purple sweater upstairs in my closet. I love these easy, drapey cardigans because you can mindlessly throw them on with a casual outfit, they allow you to stop sucking in your stomach 24/7, and they're as comfortable as wearing a robe. This purple sweater rarely got worn, however, because it didn't just feel like a robe; it looked like a robe, mainly because of these wing-like, kimono-style sleeves:

I have held on to this sweater--every so often taking it out and putting it on, somehow thinking it would look different--because I really wanted to wear it. It would be perfect if it weren't for those sleeves. As much as I like the knitting pattern I've bookmarked, I feel it's too ambitious for me right now. Again, I'm having a hard time concentrating on reality TV; there's no way I can concentrate on a lace chart. So, I thought I'd give it a shot at altering this existing sweater. If I destroyed it, no big deal (I never wore it anyway b/c of the elephant-like arms). And if it turned out then I could stop thinking about knitting one.

It should be noted that the only reason why I even thought to do this was because of an extremely creative and talented sewing/designing blogger, Kathleen Frances of Grosgrain. She devoted an entire month to sweater alterations/ embellishments recently. I saw her cut up and sew a ton of sweaters (something I never thought to do before) during her Embellish Knit Month tutorials.

What I did was super easy. I put the sweater on inside out, pinned along my arm and side (to get rid of the elephantitis), took the sweater off, sewed alongside the pins, then cut the piece away.

I worried that there would be a lot of fraying (I don't have a serger or anyway to enclose the seam), but it has not been an issue after all. I know there is also some glue-like thing you can buy to prevent fraying, but I don't know the name of it.

This was so easy and vastly improved the sweater. It's wearable now!

Because this project went so well and I had the sewing machine out, I thought I'd finally hem the new work out pants (yes, I'm still in my sweatpants rut) I just got. One leg went fine. The next leg I had to rip out and sew three times because I kept hemming them backwards. I'm not exaggerating either. Three times. I'm still shaking my head about that one.

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Other knits that were fixed this past week:

I sewed in Little C.'s zipper--a navy blue one. I sewed it in by hand this time and that worked out better than the machine.

And here's his completed striped cardigan with the buttons on. Also hand sewed by yours truly:

After sewing some buttons on my husband's clothes this week too, I'm totally over sewing; the sewing machine has been banished to its corner in the spare bedroom once again.