(December) Refashion Challenge #4: Lydia

Well. A month and a week later, here's my final sweater refashion for Fall. As I'd mentioned earlier, my inspiration for this came from the yarn ... that, and a memory of this great pattern I'd spotted on Ravelry, Joplin. Add in some mismatched buttons and an oversized ivory cabled pullover sweater, and you have the recipe for one bona fide granny chic refashion.


I started with an oversized turtleneck that had once been my mom's. My mom likes to wear her sweaters loosely fitted, but after wearing this a couple times she decided it was too much white for her, so into the Goodwill pile it went (I've mentioned this before, but a good number of my "thrift" finds are actually from my family's pile of goods they're intending to donate. I'll say it again, we clearly need better communication on this front).


Generously sized, as you can see. I used Sigrid's excellent tutorial as a guide, winging it slightly when I got to the sleeves. I wasn't quite sure how long to cut them and erred on the side of too long, which does make them and the sweater body a tad longer than I'd like, but certainly nowhere in the realm of ridiculous. This was my first time using a narrow zigzag to reconstruct an entire sweater on my sewing machine, and it was so trouble free that I can't believe I'd been scared to try for months now. What was I thinking?


This collar pattern (Joplin, link above) is fantastic. It's such a great vintage look that also works up well in a heavier yarn (I used a light worsted weight brown with slight variegation), though if you stuck with the fingering weight yarn called for (which would make a thinner, less oversized collar), it would really hit that sweet spot between vintage, retro and modern. In fact, I'm hoping to do that with some ivory yarn leftover from these and a brown tee somewhere down the line.


I think that my sewing goal for 2011 is to work on my fitting issues. I get close, but not close enough that I'm really happy with the end results. This sweater, I'll definitely wear. But I've had some duds in the dress/blouse department which tells me - if the only garment you can reliably sew is an A-line skirt, it's time to get serious about learning to fit clothes! I'm wondering - could I learn what I need to know through books, or would it be better to take a class? Sometimes there's nothing like getting immediate feedback from a skilled professional who really knows their stuff and can spot your problem areas [and offer helpful solutions!] in a flash. Then again, there's so much great stuff floating out there on the Internet. I wish there was some central site where you could post muslims or photos of garments that have fitting issues, and then others could offer feedback and suggestions. Or IS THERE, and I am just missing out???

Obligatory overjoyed photo. I have to say, I think I do really well with these challenges-on-a-timeline. They push me to try new techniques and expand my comfort zone, and it really stimulates my creativity, too. I still remember the night (October 1st, probably!) that I dreamt up this mini personal challenge. I could hardly fall asleep, as all these random ideas kept clinking around my head, disparate components clicking into place. September 30th, I had some vague notion of a stack of sweaters that had been sitting around for 2 or 3 years, waiting for my skills to catch up to my Refashion Pile, and a color vague notions of color combinations that might work. October 2nd, I was getting to work. And it's been so much fun. I'm definitely doing more of these in the future!