Easy Cardigan Alteration

You've been there. Shopping, I mean. You're in the Lucky Brand store and feel quite frenzied because they're having the holy grail of all sales, a "50% off the lowest price" sale. You find this cute little item for a song, take it home only to realize that it really doesn't look that great. You try to take said item back only to realize - duh - this was a "final sale, no return" item.

Time to get creative if the item is to be salvaged along with my pride and good graces with the hubby. I got the following idea for a super easy cardigan alteration after viewing this tutorial on the Angry Chicken blog. After tweaking, this is what I did.

This is the item. A cute little jacket which, unfortunately, hung a little boxy.

Before:

notice the sleeves, wasn't too crazy about them either.

I know, apparently there wasn't much that I liked about the jacket once it came home.

So...

I cut the band off of the sleeve. This is a knit fabric, so no raveling.

I cut about 1/4" above the band, creating a tiny ruffle. Hmm....

Must be something I can do with this.

I gather the back of the jacket into little pin tucks and basted.

Then I pinned the strip of the sleeve band across and zig-zagged.

(perfect for hiding unsightly seams)

End result - a cute little fitted cardigan. Now I'm loving it,

even the sleeves, which by the way, I don't have to hem. Added bonus.

Must say, I'm feeling a little Anthro :)