Monday, October 25, 2010

Sweater Conversion

Update! I made the Top 10 on the Iron Crafter! Go here to vote for me... pretty please?


There are fewer things that I love more than refashioning, or as my husband puts it "cutting apart perfectly good clothes... blah blah"

I knew he wouldn't mind this project though, 
because he {hates} this cardigan!


I'm a redhead, and I'll admit that it's not my best color, but his dislike of this sweater seems totally irrational to me!


anyways...

I love, love, LOVE sweater dresses on babies! 

and I have a baby girl...

I saw that the Iron Crafter's "Secret Ingredient" was sweaters... 

and I am so in love with the end result I could {die}!!!

First I got a knit shirt that is a bit big for my girl to use as a pattern


I cut out 2 pieces to use as the front and back, the whole length of the sweater.


Then I sewed them together along the sides and at the shoulders

the sleeves of the original cardigan had this super cute button detail that I totally wanted to keep

so I lined up the sleeve of the baby sized shirt, with this along the top
and cut out the sleeves.

I sewed the sleeves into a tube, and attached them to the dress

here it is inside out...

Lastly I made the neck. I took the last piece of trim from around the bottom of the sweater and sewed it into a tube


and sewed it to the dress to make a little turtleneck!




I hand-sewed a few of the buttons from front of the old sweater onto the turtleneck to keep it from rolling up

I had to restrain myself from waking up the baby to try it on her...


(she woke up on her own eventually...)





I think this is my favorite refashioning project EVER!


p.s. I used a women's size Large for this project, and the end result is about 9-12 month size with very little left-over. If you make a sweater dress from this tutorial, please link it to our flickr group; I would LOVE to see it!

<3 AmberLou



sharing at a few of these parties

and

23 comments:

  1. This is wonderful! Great job! I love your blog. :)

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  2. I am with you, little girls in sweater dresses are just too precious. I love it.

    http://www.littlebluechairs.com/

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  3. Oh my gosh this is adorable!!

    This week is my blog anniversary and I'm hosting a week's worth of great giveaways. Feel free to stop by if you'd like!

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  4. That is sooo cute! Great job on the design. :)

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  5. Adorable and clever. What a cute model you have for inspiration!!

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  6. Really cute! i'm also an iron crafter this round- following you now!

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  7. very cute! Reminds me of the ones I drool over from Gymboree or Hanna Andersson.

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  8. I love this!! I also have a baby girl and I will have to try this !!

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  9. This is precious and your baby girl is gorgeous! Such beautiful eyes! I have a sweater I loved that has a teeny little hole in it that I can't get rid of because I just knew I would find something to do with it and now I have! Thanks for the great tutorial!

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  10. This is so sweet! I love the darling pics of your daughter--looks like she may be teething :).

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  11. OMGoodness! That is absolutely precious. Great idea!

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  12. No Way! That is completely adorable. I would have never guessed anyone could do that to a sweater! You daughter is just a doll and the sweater looks lovely on her! Nice job!

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  13. I am SO in love with this sweater dress. Just AMAZING! Lovely lovely! I'm featuring this tomorrow night on my Topsy Turvy Tuesday's. Thanks for linking up again.

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  14. that is way cute!!! she looks all warm and toasty... and most importantly... STYLISH!

    ~selina

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  15. OMG! Too cute! What a great recycle!

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  16. I really love your sweater dress. And I voted for you over at Iron Crafter!

    Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites!

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  17. This is super cute! I can't wait to try this.

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  18. She looks precious! She almost looks like a Charlie Brown Character. And I mean that with all the love in my heart. Adorable.
    I am just getting starting blogging - began a couple of months ago.
    Stop by and say hello!
    cookieandclaire.blogspot.com

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