transform your cardi {tutorial}

I'm so very excited about THIS book I pre-ordered on amazon for $11.46 (such a great deal! get yours now!!), I decided I couldn't wait until the May 6 delivery date - I needed to give my cardi a transformation NOW. My mom and I had already planned to sew yesterday so I was glad she didn't mind my little project switcheroo. I cheated a bit and selected an old Old Navy cardigan that already had some fun embroidery (and that I only paid like $5 for - gotta love ON sales!) and then lucked out that some of the fabrics in my stash went perfect with it - love it when things work out that way! :) So here's a mini tutorial from someone VERY new to sewing (thanks for helping me so much and for being so patient, mom!), with lots of photos because honestly it's as much for me (as a reference) as for anyone else who might benefit from it!

And if you want the professional version, then wait another couple of weeks and pick up Sandi Henderson's new book - I just know it's going to be fabulous!

So here it goes...

We started by figuring out how wide we wanted the finished ruffles to be and then FOLDED the fabric (we wanted the ruffles to be finished on both sides) and cut 2 strips 22" x 3.75" (seam allowance included). Then with the right sides of the fabric on the inside, sew the 3.75" sides together and press the seam flat. Turn the fabric the right way and fold it like you originally had it and it should look like a circle, with one closed side and one open side (in my photo, the open side is resting on the ironing board). You could use a ruffling foot to gather the fabric on your machine and make the ruffle for you, but we did it by hand. Proof that I did some of the steps all by myself - ha, ha, ha! Baste stitch it gathering the ruffle to your liking, then pin it to your cardi sleeve at the desired length, distributing the ruffles evenly (Note: my cardi was already 3/4 sleeve so that made it even easier.) When pinning, make sure to match the fabric seam with the sweater sleeve seam. Then TRY IT ON! - be careful with all those pins! Why try it on? To make sure that you haven't gathered it too much! Your sweater sleeve will stretch to accommodate your arm (knit fabric) but once you attach your decorative ruffle (cotton, not knit) there won't be any give, so make any necessary adjustments NOW even if it means unpinning, stretching your sweater sleeve a tiny bit, widening the circumference of your ruffle to make it a little loser, and pinning the ruffle in place once again.

You're almost there! Because there were so many pins, we decided to baste stitch the ruffle onto the sweater prior to serging it. Your sweater sleeve should now look like this: Starting to look pretty, huh?

Time to add a little decorative finish! I chose a coordinating fabric print, but you could choose a number of other trims, like ribbon, premade trim (Hobby Lobby has some cute ones right now, like pre-ruffled grosgrain ribbon), ric rac if you were embellishing a little girl's sweater - you name it!

So for my trim, I cut two 16" x 2" strips of fabric, folded it in half lengthwise, right sides of the fabric on the inside, and sewed it into a little tube closing one end and leaving one end open to be able to turn it the right way. Using a very professional tool, aka one of Grace's skinny paintbrushes :), we turned the strips inside out so that the pretty side of the fabric would now be on the outside once again. Pin it in place matching the sweater and ruffle seam. Cut off any excess trim, but leave a tiny bit at the end to fold under and make a nice finished edge along the sweater seam on the back of the arm. Baste stitch...or not - we did because there were so many pins and it was such a narrow strip that it would have made it a bit difficult to sew, say 1/2 inch, then stop, remove next pin, sew another 1/2 inch, and on and on! Then sew your trim on, tucking under that last little bit of trim when you get to the seam on the back of the sleeve. Top stitch both the top (sweater side) and bottom (ruffle side) of the trim. Optional: Hand tack the trim seam to reinforce it a little bit more. Things just look prettier when they're finished all the way, don't they? :)

And you're done! Your sweater has undergone a CinDEreLla TrAnSfORmaTIon! Seeing the sleeves stacked one on top of the other makes me think that even a double ruffle might be cute on a plain cardi - the possibilities are endless! So go dig through your closet or pick up a cheap cardi and make it tres chic! Not bad for a $5 cardi, huh?

Transform Your Cardi is linked up at








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