Tutorial: Turn a Jumper into a Cardigan

This jumper (sweater/pullover/knitted top/whatever you'd like to call it!) belonged to my mum but she didn't wear it any more and passed it my way.  It was barely worn.

I loved the muted colours, the soft luxurious fabric and the print but I wasn't too keen on the style of the jumper, so I decided to get out my scissors and do a bit of snipping!

First off, I measured where the centre was and cut all the way up.

I also cut into the neckline to make a V shape, which I thought would work better.  You could leave it as a round neckline, if you prefer, or maybe you've already got a V-neck pullover to cut up.

 If you have a looser knit which is likely to unravel, make sure you oversew all the raw edges before you go any further.  You can zig-zag them on the machine or oversew carefully by hand.

I then turned under all the edges.

I turned the raw edges under twice, so the raw edge was enclosed.  The neck edges I just turned under once.  It was a bit fiddly where the transition between the raw edge and the finished neckline is but it worked out OK with a bit of gentle manipulation.  On this photo below, the raw edge is on the left (turned under twice) and the neck edge is on the right and just turned under once.

I then sewed around all the edges with a blanket stitch.  With hindsight, I should have slip stitched the edges in place first with an ordinary sewing thread which matched the jumper - it would have stopped me worrying so much about whether I was catching all the raw edges properly.  It worked out OK though.

The corners are easy to blanket stitch around as long as you're careful.

I tried out the fastening with a pin and thought that just one button would be enough.

I contemplated making a buttonhole, but decided to just sew the button through both layers.  The heading on this post was a bit misleading, perhaps, as this now looks like a cardigan but it's a bit of an imposter.  I figured it's not the kind of cardi I'd be taking it off and putting it on again all day long (I've plenty of others for days like that!).

However, you could add a buttonhole (or several) if you prefer.  I think I might have made a hand stitched buttonhole, with embroidery thread which matches the blanket stitch.

I think it looks quite nice now and I know I'll get more wear out of it like this than I would have done as it was.  Thanks Mum - I'll enjoy wearing it!

P.S. The photo above, accidentally taken between shots, turned out much better than all the ones I posed for!