Men's Sweater to Toddler Cardigan Refashion

So you may have seen a button similar to this image on my sidebar.  It is lovely little thing courtesy of A Beautiful Mess.  Rachel and Elsie are starting a weekly segment called Project ReStyle. So what is Project ReStyle?  You can read their full post here,  but to use their own words, it is "Project Restyle is a just-for-fun creative group focused on ReStyling damaged, unwanted or unusable goods into fresh, beautiful pieces." I love restyling pieces, and I have a heap of unwanted goods that need to be turned into something beautiful. 

You can join in on the fun.  While I'm not sure that I'll be doing restyled projects on a weekly basis, I am going to make an effort to work through that pile that I mentioned earlier.

This men's sweater has been sitting in our basement for some time.  My husband doesn't seem to remember it, and I surely didn't want him wearing it, so I decided to turn it into something sweet for my lil' man.

I'm very fond of cardigans, but Clark didn't have any.  I thought that this sweater could make a decent little cardigan for him.

 I used the same pattern that I created for the Argyle Pull Over that I made in the fall.  I simply modified the pattern pieces, and utilized the built in beauties of the sweater.  I cut the sleeves so that the cuffs were put to their intended use.  I also cut off and saved  the original waistband. It was sewn to the bottom of the bodice pieces, once the seams were sewn.

 I didn't have any ribbed sweater knit, so I just used standard  ribbed knit (unfortunately I didn't have any black or charcoal).

The buttons were plucked off of one of my brother's old suits.  The smartest thing that I did with this cardigan was sew the buttons to the ribbed knit.  No button holes.  I seriously almost attempted sewing button holes through 4 layers of ribbing.  I'm sure that I saved myself lots of button hole frustration, and sweater buttoning frustration for that matter.

I sure do love a little boy in a cardigan. I'm pretty pleased with how the sweater turned out.  In my opinion it was a successful refashion, and it didn't cost me a dime.

One of my goals for this year  is to sew my way through my stash of fabric and old clothing.  You need to get after me if I start showing pictures of new fabrics.  I certainly have enough material to keep me busy for the next few months.

I'll be linking here.