After spending over four weeks transforming a bridesmaid’s dress into a chiffon blouse, I decided to give myself a bit of a break by carrying out what I thought would be a couple of straightforward transformations. Ha! Transformations are actually never that easy. You are constrained by the industrial construction techniques of the garment, the limited fabric and often the poor cut of the original design. It is, in fact, much easier to start from scratch with a fresh bolt of cloth.

This striped sweater started out as a knitted dress. I wore it often, especially to work during the winter. It looked good with boots and big red scarf. With time, however, it started to ‘seat’ in the way that knitted dresses inevitably do. The baggy bottom and hanging back hem was not a chic look so the dress disappeared into the back of a drawer. It was destined for the bin (not good enough for charity) but I thought I’d try to eek a sweater out of it. And success!

Of course, it took much longer to do than I’d expected. Doesn’t everything? I struggled to put the new hem through my sewing machine without horrible stretchy puckers so I did the whole thing by hand. I also removed the beaded lace at the neck. It will look fine with jeans and sits nicely at my waist. I’ve even given myself a couple of brownie points for recycling. #Everylittlehelps.