
I don’t write much about using my serger as she’s not doing terribly exciting work other than finishing seams. Today I will try to give her some equal time. Here’s a lightning fast project that only uses the serger.
Fitted cardigan
I’m not much for finding used clothing and turning it into something else…partly because it’s not really my aesthetic, but mostly because I have bad luck finding used clothing with bones that are good enough to rescue. My dilemma is that I have this black cardigan…which is really more like a shrug given how I can’t button it because it’s made for someone whose chest is a lot smaller than mine. No bother–I love my black sweater and wear it with nearly everything. It has a hole in the sleeve seam and the sleeves themselves are getting a bit stretched out but I still can’t bear to part with it.
The more practical, less-sentimental part of myself realized that the old gray mare just ain’t what she used to be and went looking for some sweaters to refashion. I hate spending money on big chunky sweaters because I look like a gnome in them and they are so terribly expensive. I wanted cardigans or something that could easily be a cardigan with a fine sized knit. As luck would have it, I found 3, each for about $2. The other 2 are sitting in my closet ready to be dealt with, but I decided to fix this one today. It’s a lovely Scottish lambswool (a bit itchy, so I’ll have to line the sleeves somehow to make it more wearable for me…this is one reason why I’ve hung onto my dear sweater, which is a non-itchy viscose blend for so long).
The original sweater was really baggy in the arms, but my favorite sweater fits really well in the sleeves, so I used it as a template. I took my favorite sweater and lined up the top of its sleeves with those the big sweater underneath it, which I had turned inside out. I drew a rough chalk line around my favorite sweater, leaving a good amount of seam allowance. I pinned a good 2″ inside of my chalk line and cut on my line (Repeat this process on the other side). I then used the serger to sew a new seam along the cut edge. I buried my thread tails and that was it! You almost can’t get more instant gratification than this.

(pay no attention to the pajama bottoms)

















