Pardon me a moment while I pat myself on the back.

I’ve got  a new sweater that I really love.  Only it’s not a new sweater, it’s an old boxy oversized men’s pullover that was sitting in the Goodwill bin.  Then I saw these tutorials on Angry Chicken (also this one) about restyling sweaters.

Since I had no cute trim in the house (it’s been so long since I sewed anything), I nearly despaired of fulfilling my urge to spruce up some knitwear.   Then I remembered seeing a tutorial on “Sewing with Nancy” about making a lettuce-edge on knits with a zigzag stitch.  (See, zoning out to PBS in the middle of the afternoon when the children are sick DOES come in handy!  I knew it would someday!)

Here’s pretty much how the sweater looked before: (I didn’t take this, but it’s the same brand and almost the exact style)

I cut up the middle to create a cardigan, chopped off the sleeves to leave a 3/4 length with a large cuff, fitted the sides and sleeves a little more (zigzagging over the cut edges inside), and lettuce-edged around the front neck, all the way around the front and bottom hem back to the neck, then the cuffs.

And here’s the finished product!

The ruffly edge is insanely easy - you just use a really small tight zigzag and stretch the fabric as it goes under the needle.

I like to wear this around the house to dress up my “mommy uniform.”  If I can pull together the right outfit, I might even wear it to church!

Total time from finding the sweater and threading the machine to putting it on:  2 hours.  A nice Saturday afternoon project.  Restyling old clothes saves money, and it is a good way to “reduce recycle reuse”.  Cheap, fast and good - that’s hard to find in this world!