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.

 

Pyjama Jacket

This is my January re-purposed item. I have been irritated by a leading brand of pyjama jacket that I bought a  while back . I liked the overall finish – the padded section at the back yoke, the hook on the back, the edging around the bottom and the velvet ribbon around the cuff.  I also prefer to support UK companies, although I can find out that the pyjamas are hand made (not sure what that means) but there is no country of origin mentioned. I think this means that they are UK made so another big plus for me.

Unfortunately on wearing, it was obvious that a short cut had been taken. The velvet sleeve ribbon trim rather than being turned under as one would expect to neaten had been heated and melted to seal. This was extremely uncomfortable when lent on and to my perfectionist tendencies spoilt the garment.

So, I decided that I could do better. I had a hardly worn ‘Oxford’ shirt in a great cotton fabric in a fantastic pink colour, much brighter than my uncomfortable one! What was even better was the fact that the shirt was virtually identical in size to the pyjama jacket. So the only challenge was the cuffs. Double cuffs and cufflinks are not actually suitable.

I duly removed the cuffs, stitched up the sleeve plackets and then decided that around the sleeve edge was the proper place for my satin binding - a little touch of luxury.

So with a little thought I have a very comfortable high quality cotton pyjama jacket and no more discomfort from a top that had, in my view,  a very unfortunate short cut.