I’ve been dreaming of owning an oversized sweater to throw over my bikini after a swim in the ocean. I love the easy going look and also how flattering it looks, regardless of your body type. Unfortunately, most of theses beautiful sweaters are always quite expensive as they require, among other things, much more material than the classic fitted top. As I love to up-cycle and re-purpose, I decided this dream could become a reality by refashioning 2 sweaters into one fabulous piece.
The 2 sweaters to be upcycled
When I pulled out my summer bin a few weeks ago, I came across this cotton cable/lace sweater that my teenage daughter had thrifted in order to turn into a cushion. Although the lace detail in the front doesn’t make it the ideal contender for a bed accessory, It does however, have the ideal amount of transparency I want for an oversized sweater for summer. I decided this would be the perfect starting point for my project.
As I mentioned before, oversized sweaters require quite a bit of fabric. For this reason, I used an additional sweater which has been a staple in my younger daughter’s closet for a few seasons. Until, that is, the unfortunate event when food stained the front of the sweater. Despite my best efforts to remove the stain, it stayed and my daughter’s love for it dissipated. I’m hoping that these little stains become a bit less conspicuous where they fall once the piece is reassembled.
How I refashioned the 2 sweaters into 1
Now unfortunately, in my excitement to unravel and remake, I forgot to take a few pictures of the process but here is an overview of what I did:
I first took apart the seams of the stained top in order to use the front an back bodice only. The side seams are relatively easy to undo as they are a chain link. The shoulders are a bit trickier as they are cut and sewn together with a serger so I cut the seams and unraveled the knit until the back bodice was a square block.
Once I unraveled the back shoulders until it was one continuous row, I then put all the open stitches on a needle and cast them off so that I had a knitted rectangle. I repeated the same process with the front piece of the sweater. Because the front neckline was a bit lower, I had to knit up a few rows with the unraveled yarn so that I had the same height as the back piece. Although I managed to use up all the discarded yarn this way, I think next time I’ll start with the front and match the back piece to save time.
After I cast off the front piece, I ended up with two identical rectangles. These would become my side panels.
Once my side panels were ready, I opened the side seams of the main sweater as well as a part of the underarm seam. Using leftover yarn and a crochet hook, I then added one rectangle panel to each side of the sweater and voilà! super size complete 🙂
Finding a new way to hide stains
As I mentioned above, the extra sweater I used to make the width extension had a few stubborn stains on the front. After playing around with a few options, I discovered a wonderful way to camouflage the stain by adding a faux cable detail around it. Although some of the stains are still showing, the eye tends to focus on the cable detail a opposed to the stains. I unraveled the collar piece that was leftover from the extra sweater and chain-stitched the yarn directly on the knit, in the same pattern as the front bodice. I find it looks wonderful and also ties in the added panel to the main bodice.
Yarn of neckline used to create the cable detail 
Now the stains are barely visible 🙂
The perfect upcycled summer sweater
I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Although the side panels are a bit shorter than the main sweater, I find the asymmetric detail to be an added design feature. Even though the sweaters weren’t the same colour, the two tones off-white are also a great added colour-block detail.
Now taking custom orders
Do you have a few sweaters that are collecting dust because the cuts have lost their charm or are a bit too snug? Send me a message and I will refashion 2 sweaters into one perfect oversized top just for you.