Cropped Girls Boyfriend Cardi

Love Notions #sewBackToSchool challenge is helping me get some needed sewing done for Lilli’s school wardrobe. How are you with sewing challenges?

Day 5 is Snuggly Sweaters – and I decided to make the Love Notions Girl’s Boyfriend Cardigan. But I wanted to make something Lilli would wear. And she hasn’t been wearing her previous store bought cardigans.

She’s finally at the point where she understands her feelings and can articulate them well enough and told me she didn’t like how cardigans covered up her pretty dresses! 💡 I asked her if she would wear shorter cardigans and she responded with yes. Yaaay! 🥳

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Fabric

This is an upcycle from an old sweater I had. So in the end, there were a few more modifications based on the fabric available.

The biggest challenge was making sure the whole thing didn’t unravel as I was sewing it up. I used some wash away tape to tape the seams together and keep them secured until it was time to sew. Threw it in the wash afterwards and it was done.

Modifications

Length: I literally cut 1″ above the shorten/lengthen line and cut it out, removing the same amount at the neck band. Lilli doesn’t like shawl collars so I straighten out the collar to just a 2″ strip.

Width: The back fabric was 3/4″ too narrow, but I went with it because it was super stretchy.

Sleeves: the old sweater arms weren’t wide enough and I ended up removing 2″ at the armscye grading to nothing at the wrist. Again, it wasn’t a problem because the fabric was stretchy and the pattern is a bit oversized.

Sleeve finishing: Instead of hemming the sleeves, I added a cuff using the ribbing from the sweater.

Hem and finishings: By some miracle, I was able to use the old neck binding as the binding all the way around the sweater. Wanting to use the existing ribbed hem, I cut the fabric short of the hem. And used the binding to finish off the seams in a nice and clean way.

Once it was done, Lilli asked if I could add swirls to it all over. Using my favorite hand embroidery stitch, the chain stitch, the front was swirled up!

Then, she asked for two tiny A’s.

She loves it and wears it even when it is not cold. I have a couple more sweaters to upcycle … 🙂

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