sweater to cardigan upcycle

remember this dress?



guinevere’s vintage pattern dress from a couple of months ago. we decided while working on it that some pops of yellow—a belt, buttons, and cardigan—would look super cute.
finding the perfect yellow cardi, however? not so easy. after trying one or two stores i just gave up and headed to the thrift shop, where we found this:



a basic lightweight short sleeve sweater in a pretty pale yellow. done. i think it was maybe $2?
next we headed to joann’s, where i grabbed 1/4 yard of matching yellow cotton, and a $1 pack of yellow buttons.

i used the fabric to make some bias tape…



next--take a deep breath and go for it…



slice that baby right up the middle, top to bottom, just through the front (obviously)
i did a tight zigzag stitch on the raw edges, just as a preventative measure, then sewed the bias tape on to the raw edges, folding the excess under at the top and bottom to make a clean edge…



for closure (and i mean literal closure, not some existential relationship-gone-sour type of closure) i just tacked the buttons on the top, and then sewed some hook and eye pair underneath. that way i o1) didn’t have to mess with making all those buttonholes and o2) didn’t have to worry about the sweater unraveling on me.

so the buttons themselves are just decorative, and the hooks and eyes are what do the heavy lifting.





you can see the hooks and eyes a bit in these photos…i probably should have sewn them over just a smidge further, but…meh. ;)



i also took in the side seams just a bit—simply sewing a new seam from the armpit down. just to make a fit a little better.

and the belt was made with the same cotton used for the sweater binding.

easy!