Y'all know I love a good thrift-store sweater makeover, right? I troll the local Goodwills on Thursdays {dollar days -- holla!} looking for boring old sweaters and I have amassed quite a stash. I had actually started working on this one during our trip to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, but had grown weary of it and put it to the back of the craft closet -- I'll show you why. I found this sweater refashion from Two Butterflies on Pinterest a while back and fell hopelessly in love with it.
It's easy enough, sure. French knots are not that hard to do. {Here is a really great tutorial on The Purl Bee.} There are just sooooo many of them. My fingers got sore and I ran out of embroidery floss about halfway through one side, at which point I jumped ship and abandoned the project. But my desperation for new cruise clothing inspired me to pull it back out and finish that bad boy. I'm so glad that I did because I absolutely love it.
Like I said, this is really an easy project. I started by ironing lightweight fusible interfacing onto the inside of my sweater in the general area where I wanted my design. I thought maybe that would keep my sweater from stretching as I sewed and keep the knots from slipping through the weave of my sweater. It was really helpful. Next I laid my sweater out flat and used a piece of white chalk to sketch out my rough design on the front. I just drew a line straight across to mark the lowest point I wanted the knots and a curved line on each side about an inch and a half from the finished neck edge as a guide for my transition from the really-close-together knots and the just-kind-of-close together knots. After that all you have to do is make half a billion french knots while you watch three or four movies and voila! You're done.
The hardest part was getting the two sides to match. I had to lay it out flat every once in a while as I working and look at it from a distance to be sure. Even so, I ended up with a lot more knots on the second side. I had to go back to the first side and fill in some empty spots, but then that side looked too crowded so I had to go back to the other side and add a few more. I finally just had to walk away from it and I think it looks fine. And now I'm excited about having a new sweater to take on my vacation that didn't cost me anything. {OK, $1, but I paid that so long ago it's like it was free.}
I'm going to try to get another sweater done before we go, which I will share here, of course. Have a good one, folks!
Super Cute!!!! 1week and counting... GIRLS CRUISE!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI love it! I am awful at French knots though. Haha. And your cruise sounds like it's going to be so much fun! I'm jealous of you ladies!!
ReplyDeleteEep! The cute! I'm a thrift store junky also and now your newest follower!
ReplyDeleteErica
threeoclockwinds.blogspot.com
Getting up and walking away for a bit ... I KNOW that practice! I love your sweater more than the sweater that hit you with inspiration! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteShai