The Eddie Bauer sweater refashion, part 3

As you can see, there isn't much left of our nice gray sweater after having made it into a hat and a scarf already. I'm determined not to let any of it go to waste, though, and there are still the two sleeves left! Happily for us, these sleeves are rather roomy, and they will make nice warm mittens for Son's man-sized hands.

The first thing I had Son do was put the sleeve on his hand and determine how far down his wrist he wanted the sleeve ribbing to be. The sleeve ribbing would become the wrist ribbing on the mittens. He positioned his hand on a piece of paper with the edge of the paper at the place where he wanted the ribbing to end on his wrist. Then he traced around his hand:

I added a half inch all the way around his outline for comfort, and another half inch for a seam allowance (one inch total all the way around), giving myself a new outline to use as a pattern:

Notice that the pattern doesn't have a distinct thumb piece. That's okay, I'll be cutting on the pencil line between the thumb and hand. You can click the photo to see it larger if you can't see the pencil line. Once the seam has been sewn, I will clip that area right down to the seam to give the thumb separation. I also intend to use the folded top edge of the sleeve - the part opposite the underarm seam - as the outside edge of the mitten. That's why there is no seam allowance or ease added to that side. I cut out the pattern and pinned it to the sleeve, matching the pattern's wrist edge with the sleeve's wrist edge, and the fold line of the pattern with the folded edge of the fabric. Then I cut out the fabric.

Turn the fabric right sides together, and pin it.

I used a three-step zigzag to sew the seam, in order to give it some stretch. Sew the seam and trim the seam allowances, being careful not to cut into your stitches!

Turn the mitten right side out and try it on!

It's a good fit, so go outside and make some snowballs!

See also: The Eddie Bauer Sweater Refashion, Part 1 and
  The Eddie Bauer Sweater Refashion, Part 2.

The Eddie Bauer sweater refashion, part 2

It's time to revisit the remains of the thrift store sweater that was first used to became Son's earflap hat. There's really not that much left, just the tummy part and the two sleeves, but I can get a lot more good out of that old sweater! This time around, I'll be making a keyhole scarf out of the tummy part. (Yes, I took the photo upside down. Sorry.)

Why a keyhole scarf? The main reason is that it doesn't take as much fabric to make one of those as opposed to a long scarf that has to be wrapped around the neck and still be long enough for the weight of the ends to hold the scarf in place. A keyhole scarf has a slit cut in it (the keyhole) that the other end of the scarf is passed through, which keeps the scarf in place snugly against the wearer's neck without a lot of extra length.

I forgot to take a picture of the scarf when I trimmed off the little bit of excess sweater, but I just cut on the dotted line Son drew in for me. That trimmed off the ribbing around the waist, and gave me a piece of fabric about 6" wide. Son asked to have the back of the scarf left a little longer to insure it didn't leave a gap for the wind to blow down the back of his shirts. Which is really a good idea, come to think of it. I cut open the fabric at the side seam (see the dotted line), wrapped it around Son's neck, and determined the place to cut the keyhole slot, and then cut that out, too.

I blanket stitched around the cut edges to match the blanket stitching on the hat. I did that while watching tv, and it didn't take long at all.

Here's Son, wearing the scarf.

And a view of what it looks like in the back:

It will even keep faithful old dogs warm!

This was my favorite part of refashioning this old sweater, and even Husband wants one. I'll have to go back to the thrift store for more old wool sweaters!

See also: The Eddie Bauer Sweater Refashion, Part 1 and The Eddie Bauer Sweater Refashion, Part 3.

The Eddie Bauer sweater refashion, part 1

I found this slightly-felted Eddie Bauer sweater at my local Salvation Army store. It's 85% wool and 15% nylon. Nice and thick, and only $4.75. I think I can make something new out of this...

Son likes gray for his winter outerwear this year, so I thought he'd appreciate a refashion from this sweater until I can get around to knitting him something special. After consulting him and giving it some thought, I think I can get a complete set of hat, scarf and mittens from this one sweater. He said he'd like the hat first.

I threw this sweater (along with some others I bought at Salvation Army), into a washer load of towels, washed it in hot water and then threw it in the dryer so that it could felt up even further than it was when I bought it. It originally measured 23" long and 20" wide, and shrank down to 21" long and 18" wide. It got thicker and sturdier, especially where the red band has extra yarn in the fabric.

That red band with the snowflakes on it was just too pretty to waste, so I decided to make the hat in such a way as to preserve it. I've seen lots of refashions where hats were made from sleeves or from bottoms of sweaters, but I haven't seen one yet where the hat was made from the neckline. So I'm going out a little on a limb here and we'll see where it leads me. First, I had Son try on the sweater upside down, as if the neck ribbing were hat ribbing, to see if I could keep that ribbing on. Nope. Too small by about an inch, so I cut it off, leaving as much fabric at the neckline as I could, just in case I needed it. I can trim it off later if I want to, since the felted fabric won't unravel.

I measured Son's head from front to back, and from the bottom of his ear to the top of his head. Using those measurements as a starting point, I cut out an oversized semi-circle from the sweater (making sure to line up the pattern on both layers), cutting through the front and back at the same time. I now have two pieces of sweater. I got carried away and cut waaaay too big a semi-circle, so I trimmed it a bit. Son and Husband are both, shall we say, cranially endowed. I had to leave enough fabric so that I could cut some off if need be, rather than wish I had more.

I pinned the layers together, wrong sides facing, and making sure that the pattern was lined up.

Then I had Son test-fit it. Basted it together, had him test-fit it again, and basted it again until I had it just the way he wanted it. During this time we discovered that not only was this going to be a really warm wool hat, but it would cover his ears, too! Brownie points to me for deciding to use the neckline, huh?

This is what it looks like finally sewn together. I also sewed a small seam going from front to back at the crown of the hat, to help it conform to Son's head.

All that remains is to blanket stitch the border of the hat to make it look more finished. While I was doing that, Son and Husband went out to chop wood for the stove. I looked out the window and noticed that Son was bare-headed. Can't have that. So I took him the hat as it was, and he wore it for the first time before it was even complete.

Here's an action shot. By the way, I made Husband's hat, too. His is a wool-blend double-knit that took me something like three weeks to finish!

And here's what the hat looks like with the blanket stitching and the flap ties. Not that Son ever intends to actually tie the flaps down, so they're short and purely decorative.

Here's Son on our balcony, overlooking our snowy lake, holding his puppy and wondering when I'm going to get around to making the rest of his refashion outfit!

What would I do differently next time? I'd leave the back a little longer than the front, but since I'm about to make a scarf out of the same sweater fabric, I won't stress over that. I'll just change that little detail for next time!

See also: The Eddie Bauer Sweater Refashion, Part 2 and The Eddie Bauer Sweater Refashion, Part 3.