Repairing a grey cardigan

Well this creative activity was repairing. I have a cotton leopard’s print cardigan that I always go to when I need to wear an extra layer in the house. It is surprisingly warm and quite thick – I bought it in a sale in an exclusive ladies shop in our village.

I have been meaning to make a replacement as it is a good size and shape although it has the same problem as all my ‘bought’ jumpers and cardigans do. However, I put my finger through the sleeve just above the bottom of the cuff whilst taking it off one evening. Fortunately for me the problem with bought jumpers is that the sleeves are always far too long!

Another lucky thing for me was that there was not a traditional ribbed cuff on this cardigan; it was just turned up into a hem. So the repair meant stitching around the sleeve just above hole with my fantastic Elna overlocker. This cut off the waste for me. Then taking it to my ‘normal’ sewing machine and turning up a hem. I stitched this in the same custom zig zag stitch that I use for constructing my machine knitwear. It produces  a slight give. I stitched it from the right side and used my magnetic measure so that I could ensure the line of stitching was exactly the same distance from the edge of the sleeve – on both sleeves!

So, I have a cardigan with a little more life in it and a mental note to get on with designing and making the new one.