I am soooo excited to have Rachel from Maybe Matilda over to play today! I LOVE everything about this girl and know that you will too!
Hi! It's me again, Rachel from Maybe Matilda. It was a very exciting day for me when I was on Whipperberry a few weeks ago as part of the Who I Am series . . . and I think being here again today, with a tutorial for you this time, just might put me over the edge!
If you read my little mini-bio from the Who I Am post, you know that I love to crochet (enough to fill up an etsy shop and still not be tired of it!), but it is, admittedly, a bit of a slow craft. And sometimes you really just want to have a project started and finished within a few minutes so you can sit back and bask in the warm glow of instant gratification. With that in mind, here's a cute winter cowl for the lazy crocheter!
Although I'm planning to crochet myself a winter cowl (as part of my crochet along that's happening right now on my blog–whether you know how to crochet or not, you can hop in and work along with us, and enter your finished piece to win some great prizes!), when the opportunity arose to make this quick and cute little scarf, I couldn't let it pass. I think it's a really fun piece for fall, and adds so much personality to an otherwise boring outfit (translation: all my outfits are boring, so I'll take all the cute accessories I can get my hands on).
And here's the best part–it's made from an old, unloved cardigan. Don't we all have a few of those lying around?
My sister gave me this sweater that she bought a few years ago but hasn't worn in a while:
It's so cute–I love the big buttons, the chunky cables, and the beautiful aqua blue color–but there were a few problems. First of all, it was kind of short and very boxy . . . the feminine figure I'm shooting for doesn't involve any squares, so I doubted I'd ever wear it. Also, it's a size XS . . . that's a size or two away from what I normally wear, so I really doubted I'd be able to wear it as is. I thought a little button-up cowl would be the perfect way to repurpose this sweater! Just grab a cardigan you don't expect to wear again (the smaller size, the better!) and button it up, then slice it to the length you want it to be as a cowl:
(The poor thing never saw me coming.)
I cut my sweater off about two inches below the armpits. Now, if you have a larger sized sweater, you may want to taper the sides in so it's a bit more fitted toward the top–just turn it inside out, pinch the side seams together, and sew a new side seam, angling in towards where the neck used to be. Since my sweater was pretty small to start with, I just took the sides in a teeny bit, and even that probably wasn't completely necessary (and I of course forgot to take a picture of this step).
Set your sewing machine to a zig zag stitch and sew close to the cut edge to prevent it from fraying or unraveling with wear–as you can see, I didn't sew directly along the cut edge, just pretty close to it to seal the cut side of the knit:
Now fold the cut edge over towards the wrong side of the sweater about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, and sew it down with a straight stitch (if your sweater is a thinner knit, I would suggest folding it twice before sewing, to hide the cut end–unfortunately, the sweater I used was extremely thick and it was difficult enough to sew through just two layers, much less three if I folded it again!):
That's it! I told you it was quick! The trickiest part about this project for me was maneuvering the very bulky sweater through my machine–do your best not to pull or tug as you sew; you don't want a big stretched-out neckline on your cowl.
It's even got some versatility to it . . . you can wear it partially unbuttoned to keep your shoulders covered:
Or button it all the way up to keep your neck extra cozy:
You've not only cleared out some closet space, but you've got a cute new fall/winter item to wear. Thanks for having me, and I hope you'll swing by and visit me at Maybe Matilda!
Dare I say… BRILLIANT! Thanks so much Rachel, I can't wait to make one of these for myself.
Don't forget to enter this weeks fabulous WEST ELM gift card give away hosted by Hometalk. Come on over, learn a little about Hometalk and then enter to win this great prize. We need to hit 500 people so tell all of your friends!!
155
This is gorgeous! What a beautiful piece to have in your wardrobe! Rachel is pretty amazing, such a lovely post!
EEEeeee! It’s so exciting to be on Whipperberry 🙂 Thanks again for having me, and I’m glad you like the cowl!
This is awesome Rachel! I’m totally making one (or 4) of these for myself
LOVE Rachel! This cowl is gorgeous! Headed to Goodwill to find a cardigan to do this to!
Wow that turned out fantastic! Love the color! Great idea, Rachel!
Oh, that’s brilliant! For a little bit more effort, you could carefully unravel one row of knitting and crochet the stitches together (or bind off, if you knit).
AND what’s left of the sweater can become a shrug! (Maybe to give away?)
You could also make some fingerless gloves out of the sleeves.
Ack! I just took a bunch to Goodwill!
I love this. What a great way to repurpose a sweater. I threw mine out because of the same issue…short and boxy. 90’s Eddie Bauer, LOL.
This looks so cute, Rachel. You’re adorable!
Simply beautiful..TFS
Even I can make one of those! I love it!!!
This is so unbelievably great! Now I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for something like this the next time I’m out on one of my thrifting adventures! Thanks so much for sharing!
~ http://www.billiemonster.com ~
I love this idea and can’t wait to make my first one. I am so doing this!!! Thanks for sharing, sparkleize
Gorgeous!!! Gonna have to make this for my girls for Christmas! Thanks for the great tutorial!