Knit Sweater Makeover
I have enjoyed this weekend so much!! After weeks of hard work (super stressful times at work), people visiting and things like ClownCon 2010, I have had zero creative time. So instead of going to the Festival of History as we had planned (while secretly hoping for rain so we had an excuse to stay home), we spent a wonderful weekend at home. Even if it didnt rain ;)
Last night, after having to watch many many hours of Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Epic Series, we watched Julie & Julia which the bf had just given me on DVD :) Maybe some of you remember my first ever blog and will remember that this movie was actually my inspiration for starting a blog. It sadly also made me realise that instead of blogging about my own stuff, I have become addicted to blogland and am creating things that have been shared on other people's blog. There are just so many wonderful things out there! This does result in the fact that my list of projects has about doubled and my steampunk outfit is nearly non-existant (let alone my new medieval dress) as many of these fabulous projects can be done in only a few hours rather than a few days or months like the Mombi dress. Not that I am complaining, but I do feel like I lost the thread of my bloglife a little bit. But not to fret (as Kaylee would say in Firefly LOL), now that I know this I will try to post more of my own creations and not just re-creations of other bloggers ideas. Somehow I have the feeling like the above didnt really come out right as I basically want to say: thank you for all your wonderful projects, my fellow bloggers! I just need to become of the creators rather than the copiers.
Anyway, now that we have this out of the way, let me share with you one of the projects that I have finally finished this weekend. Since we got to spend 2 days inside, I got so much done!
A few weeks ago (and I am still recovering from it haha), my sister visited. I took her to Primark which is a little like Target I suppose, they have lots of clothes for really cheap and I just live shopping there. As we went there mainly for her (they dont have this shop in Germany where she lives) I tried not to buy too much. Still, there was this gorgeous knit sweater in a fantastic shade of purple that I just had to have and it was only £4! Still, a little much as my budget right now requires zero spending but I just fell in love with the colour. I didnt try it on, just picked my usual size, so didnt notice untul we got home that it was way too big! And ugly too. OMG why would I ever spend £4 on this? No offence to the Primark people but as I am not yet 70, I really didnt see why I would ever buy this...
I have no idea why the picture shows the fabric all patchy but there is nothing I can do about that. This weekend, I finally decided to pimp the sweater :) I had found a tutorial somewhere a while ago that I liked and decided to use this for inspiration. Ruffles are so not my thing but what else to do? First I wanted to just stretch-hem the entire thing but that would have looked way messy.
So I cut off the collar and the bottom and arm hems. I then used this ribbed hemming to make the ruffles. It was just enough to cover the collar that was left :) I then stretch-hemmed the remaining front and bottom to make it look all frilly and girly. I wanted a cardigan to wear at work with long sleeves but the design of this sweater just made it look awful so I chopped off the sleeves to 3/4 length for a much cuter look. I stretch-hemmed (is that even a word?) these also and added a button in the front (covered by the ruffles) so I could close it. All in all, I'm quite happy with the result. It looks cute, is super comfortable and the colour is as gorgeous as ever :) Oh yes, as ruffles are REALLY not my thing, this makeover took me nearly half the weekend rather than 30 mins. It just wouldnt work!
You can really see the colour here as I tried not to use flash
Ok the angle here is awful but it was done with the self timer. I'm quite thin really ;)
Last night, after having to watch many many hours of Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Epic Series, we watched Julie & Julia which the bf had just given me on DVD :) Maybe some of you remember my first ever blog and will remember that this movie was actually my inspiration for starting a blog. It sadly also made me realise that instead of blogging about my own stuff, I have become addicted to blogland and am creating things that have been shared on other people's blog. There are just so many wonderful things out there! This does result in the fact that my list of projects has about doubled and my steampunk outfit is nearly non-existant (let alone my new medieval dress) as many of these fabulous projects can be done in only a few hours rather than a few days or months like the Mombi dress. Not that I am complaining, but I do feel like I lost the thread of my bloglife a little bit. But not to fret (as Kaylee would say in Firefly LOL), now that I know this I will try to post more of my own creations and not just re-creations of other bloggers ideas. Somehow I have the feeling like the above didnt really come out right as I basically want to say: thank you for all your wonderful projects, my fellow bloggers! I just need to become of the creators rather than the copiers.
Anyway, now that we have this out of the way, let me share with you one of the projects that I have finally finished this weekend. Since we got to spend 2 days inside, I got so much done!
A few weeks ago (and I am still recovering from it haha), my sister visited. I took her to Primark which is a little like Target I suppose, they have lots of clothes for really cheap and I just live shopping there. As we went there mainly for her (they dont have this shop in Germany where she lives) I tried not to buy too much. Still, there was this gorgeous knit sweater in a fantastic shade of purple that I just had to have and it was only £4! Still, a little much as my budget right now requires zero spending but I just fell in love with the colour. I didnt try it on, just picked my usual size, so didnt notice untul we got home that it was way too big! And ugly too. OMG why would I ever spend £4 on this? No offence to the Primark people but as I am not yet 70, I really didnt see why I would ever buy this...
I have no idea why the picture shows the fabric all patchy but there is nothing I can do about that. This weekend, I finally decided to pimp the sweater :) I had found a tutorial somewhere a while ago that I liked and decided to use this for inspiration. Ruffles are so not my thing but what else to do? First I wanted to just stretch-hem the entire thing but that would have looked way messy.
So I cut off the collar and the bottom and arm hems. I then used this ribbed hemming to make the ruffles. It was just enough to cover the collar that was left :) I then stretch-hemmed the remaining front and bottom to make it look all frilly and girly. I wanted a cardigan to wear at work with long sleeves but the design of this sweater just made it look awful so I chopped off the sleeves to 3/4 length for a much cuter look. I stretch-hemmed (is that even a word?) these also and added a button in the front (covered by the ruffles) so I could close it. All in all, I'm quite happy with the result. It looks cute, is super comfortable and the colour is as gorgeous as ever :) Oh yes, as ruffles are REALLY not my thing, this makeover took me nearly half the weekend rather than 30 mins. It just wouldnt work!
You can really see the colour here as I tried not to use flash
Ok the angle here is awful but it was done with the self timer. I'm quite thin really ;)What do you think? At first I was planning on added ribbon to cover the ruffle hems but I kindof like that everything only has one colour... Thanx Sachiko for your inspiration!
it's absolutely ADORABLE!!! I would totally buy that in the store! LOVE it! :) Wish I had the kind of talent needed to turn that first picture into this! AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteCute and astounding, this transformation! PS--I know what you mean about doing "other people's craft ideas" too, I think sometimes I get LESS creative when I spend so much time looking at stuff other people were able to make...but my wardrobe is starting to increase without shelling out much dough...
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