Men's Sweater To Chic Sweater Dress

Sexy has rarely been this comfortable!

Posted by J. Pario

About

I turned a pile of discarded sweaters into a cute sweater dress in a weekend.

(It was supposed to be longer. But I really liked it the way it was, so I just won't wear it to work after all.)

NOTE: A serger is a must. A sewing machine just isn't going to cut it.

This project originally appeared on my blog "Painting on the Ceiling" and I wanted to shared it with my CO+K community. Enjoy!

And thanks to everyone who posts projects here--you brighten my world with your creativity!

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You Will Need (4 things)

  • Serger
  • Scissors
  • Thread
  • 2 Discarded Sweaters

Steps (11 steps, 360 minutes)

  1. 1

    Here's what I started with. My husband had "done a purge" and dramatically reduced his wardrobe.

  2. 2

    I loved the color of this one, but it was much too big.

    (You can just barely see the tips of my fingers.)

  3. 3

    I found a sweater of a complimentary color and cut off the sleeves.

  4. 4

    I added the sleeves from the orange sweater to the mix.

  5. 5

    I cut pieces for the waistband, deliberately making them of varying sizes.

    Serged seams add bulk. Therefore, I didn't use many pieces for the waistband.

  6. 6

    I serged them together.

  7. 7

    Putting right sides together, I made the waistband loop.

  8. 8

    I cut the top to fit the waistband.

    I remembered that when I serge the sides of the top back together I would lose about half an inch at least. Therefore I accounted for that when I cut the sides.

  9. 9

    I serged the edges of the top to finish them.

    You can't sew darts in bulky sweater material. Don't even try. Just go for a snug fit and trust in the stretch of the fabric.

    (But not so snug that you can't get it on!)

  10. 10

    I cut the bottom half to match, again remembering that I would lose some material in the seam.

    The safety pins are there to keep everything lined up and straight.

    Then I sewed the bottom half on.

    Why the wavy seam? My friend Carla explained that a more gathered stitch will help. If you have a Baby Lock brand serger, this means "push the level all the way to the 2 at the top." I'll remember that for next time.

  11. 11

    Finished!

    Note that you can see what I mean about no darts when you look at this photo. If you started with a sweater of your own that fit you could obviously avoid that problem.

    Happy creating!