DIY Sweater Dress

So warm and comfortable!

The photos after the jump show how to turn this:

into this....

 

 But first, some tips:

• Sweaters don’t come unraveled the minute you cut them.  Good news for this project!
• Unlike more typical fabric like cotton, you cannot gather fabric or fudge mistakes very well.  You can stretch sweater fabric more easily, but then you get bumpy seams.  Ergo your measurements must be careful and you can’t sew one  piece to a slightly bigger or small piece!
• Design your dress to take advantage of finished edges of your sweaters.  Hemming isn’t possible.  Your only option would be to finish an edge with your serger, which isn’t going to look as nice.
• Check for stains and tears before you measure and plan.  Problem bits of fabric can be planned around.
• Choose your serger settings carefully.   This will reduce the bumpiness of your seams.
• Do NOT tug, pull, or stretch the fabric as you feed it into the machine!  Your seams will not lie flat.  They will resemble hills, or even mountains!
• Like jersey (T-shirt material), sweaters have some give.  I should have taken more advantage of this and made a narrower waist.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments!  (This isn't a tutorial--although I have some nice, step-by-step tutorials elsewhere on the blog.  Start at the gallery page.)

I had to scrap my original design when I found this:

It's just part of working with discarded materials.

So I adapted.

Here's the final result:

I think it still came out pretty well.  

Questions and comments are welcome!