Last night I decided to make some gifts for the holidays. I had a pretty striped acrylic sweater that didn’t fit, but I loved the colors, so I decided that it might make a good candidate for a refashion into a scarf. I really like how it turned out, so much in fact that I decided to keep it for myself! Here’s how I made it, if you’d like to try one yourself:
Cut straight across the sweater just under the neck band. Cut off the sleeves, and cut across the bodice of the sweater at the place where the bottom of the sleeves were attached. Cut a second piece across the bodice at the same height as the first piece. Sew a seam along one short edge of the first piece to make one long piece. Then, cut one of the seams along the side of the second piece, again to make one long piece.
Put these two long pieces together (right sides together) and sew along the top and bottom, leaving the sides open. You will have a long tube sewn on the top and bottom long sides, and open on both short sides.
Again, with right sides together, insert one of the sleeves into one of the open short sides of the tube. I had to adjust the fit by matching up the seam of the sleeve with one of the seams of the tube, pulling out the top of the sleeve until the fit was right. Cut off the extra pointy part of the sleeve and pin.
Sew, stretching if necessary to fit. Repeat on the other side with the other sleeve.
Trim seams. Turn right side out and press. (You’ll notice that Muggles was kind enough to allow me to use the table while she napped.)
In order to get the middle part to lay flat, I topstitched close to the seam on both long sides. I didn’t continue the topstitching down the sleeves, but I suppose you could if you wanted to.
I especially like that the ends are the cuffs of the sleeves. No finishing!
If you make one of these scarves, please email me a photo at kathleen(at)refashionology(dot)com! I’d love to see how it turned out!