Thursday, November 06, 2014

Vested Interest

We all know I love to knit and I love to refashion thrift store garments. So why not combine the two passions? I picked up this little pullover a couple years back (it may have been at one of the first clothes swaps I attended - I can't recall). I adore argyle, but sadly, this was only worn once, maybe twice.

Sweater Vest Refashion - Before

It's the short sleeves. They're weird. If I'm going to wear a sweater, I want an actual sweater. Like, one with long sleeves. Plus, the ribbed band at the bottom always turned up, no matter what I did. I do like to layer up in the winter though, so an argyle vest would be perfect!

Sweater Vest Refashion - Before

Luckily, this sweater was ideal for a refashion. If you look at the seams, they aren't cut and serged like some store-bought sweaters. Those are the original selvage edges of the knitted fabric. For you non-knitters, here's the gist. Instead of a machine knitting a big rectangle and then cutting out the pattern pieces and sewing them together, it knits the pieces in their appropriate shapes, as a knitter would, and then they are stitched together with no cutting. This means they're easily disassembled.

Sweater Vest Refashion - In Progress

So disassemble I did.

Sweater Vest Refashion - In Progress

Then I unraveled the sleeves and wound the yarn up to be reused.

Sweater Vest Refashion - In Progress

I grabbed my tiniest needles - size US0/2mm - and picked up and knit stitches all the way around each armhole.

Sweater Vest Refashion - In Progress

A few rounds of ribbing later, I bound off my stitches and my armholes are nicely finished.

Sweater Vest Refashion - After

An outside observer might not even be able to tell this vest has been altered.

Sweater Vest Refashion - After

So much more wearable now! And I plan to do just that now that it's getting chillier.

Sweater Vest - Before & After

14 comments:

  1. I'm blown away. It looks better as a vest, and the workmanship is excellent. Carissa, how long did it take you to learn how to knit as well as you do? Also, how did you learn sewing (lessons, from family, videos, etc.)?

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    1. Thanks! I've been knitting for about 10 years now, pretty obsessively too. :)
      My mom taught me the sewing basics when I was a kid, and I picked it back up in college for a little while. I didn't really get into it until I lost a lot of weight a couple years ago and had to re-fit my entire wardrobe! Mostly I learn from trial-and-error, but the occasional internet site or YouTube video helps if you want to learn a specific technique.

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  2. This is one of my favorite refashions from this blog yet :) I don't even understand why people bother with buying new clothes ;)

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  3. Hi Carissa!
    UAU I just thought that you were going to sew!
    But what you did is even better!
    I coudn't do that because I don't know how to knit!
    Kisses from Portugal!

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    1. Thanks, Helena! I don't know why it never occurred to me before this to tweaked knitted thrift store finds too, and not just sewn garments.

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  4. Perfect Vision! Perfect execution of your vision into a Perfect piece!

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  5. Nice work! How did you deal with the bottom band that kept turning up?

    -christina

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    1. Oh, I meant the bottom band of the sleeves, as seen in the second picture, so obviously, getting rid of them fixed that. ;)

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  6. This is awesome!!!!! I crochet but don't knit or I would totally try this<3

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    1. I bet you could do something similar with crochet too. Can't hurt to try!

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  7. I love what you did. And with some yarn left over, too!

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    1. Thanks! And that yarn has already come in handy on another project!

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