Do you read {
The Chloe Conspiracy}? I totally love her blog!! I LOVE A LOT of the outfits she puts together, so much so that I often look at some of them for inspiration for what to wear in the morning. It's fun. Anyway... I recently spied this little number:
And totally fell in love with her cardigan. From her trusty blog, I found out that it's this Swift Current Cardigan from {
Anthropology}:
So cute, but not quite cute enough that I'd be willing to spend almost a hundred dollars on it!! (I probably wouldn't spend that much on any piece of clothing...) Maybe a wedding dress...haha just kidding. But seriously, I have a pretty tight budget for my wardrobe, so I try to make that dollar stretch.
So, I thought...I know how to do ruffles on a sewing machine...and I have a white cardigan...I'm totally going to make that. So without further ado, here is my Anthropology copy cat.
Ruffle Cardigan Tutorial
Materials:
cardigan
knit fabric to match - I got a yard
stretch sewing needles for your sewing machine
thread to match
Step 1: Wash the fabric and the cardigan if it's new. You always wash fabric before sewing with it!!
Step 2: Knit fabrics come in a tube...that's how they are made. You'll find them just like any other fabric - in the store, wrapped around those cardboard thingys, but once you unwrap it from the cardboard, you'll notice that instead of being a piece of fabric folded in half, it's actually a tube of fabric. The great thing about knit is that it doesn't run or "shed" so you don't have to worry about the raw edges and how they're going to hold up through washing and wearing. But, I wanted the edges to be as clean as possible so they'd look nice and neat while I wore them. So, I found a two ribs in the knit tube and cut inbetweeen those two ribs the whole way down. (so I was basically cutting the tube apart so it became a rectangle.) Cutting between the ribs made it so my edges are really clean. So, after cutting the tube open, just continue to find two ribs and cut a bunch of strips. Mine were 2 3/4" wide, but you could do whatever. I wasn't sure how many I'd need, because I wasn't sure how gathered I wanted it to be, so I just cut a bunch.
Step 3: It's important to use a stretch sewing needle on your sewing machine because the tips of stretch needles are rounded to go inbetween knit fibers, ensuring that the fibers aren't sliced in half by the needle. If you use a regular needle, you might slice a fiber which means your knit fabric would get a hole in it.
Step 4: SO, using a stretch needle, sew the strips together, end to end. I did the smallest seam allowance I possibly could because I knew the seams would show at various places on the front of my cardigan and I didn't want there to be huge seams hanging out.
Step 5: To sew ruffles into your strips of fabric, set the stitch length to a basting stitch aka a really long stitch - I think mine was somewhere between 3 and 4. Then sew along one edge of the strips. I gave mine a 1/2" seam allowance. Leave the strings on either end kind of long. Once you've sewn the edge, pull just one of the strings a little. This will cause the fabric to gather, giving you ruffles. You just gently move the ruffles along, careful not to break the thread, until the whole strip is ruffled. (If you do break the thread, as I almost always do, you can sew another basting stitch again in that area and just gather that small area by itself.)
Step 6: Once you've got your long strip of ruffles, you just pin it to the front of the cardigan. Give yourself an inch or two that you can flip under the bottom edge of the front of the cardigan. It's like you're sandwiching the bottom edge of the cardigan with this ruffled edge. Pinning it was probably the hardest part of the whole project. It took a lot of pinning and trying it on and looking at the one I was trying to copy to get it right. I ended up pinning it way lower on the back of the neck than the original neck line on my cardigan so the ruffles wouldn't go up my neck as a collar when I was wearing it. It took a while to get it right...
Step 7: Once I had it just perfect, I switched my machine back to it's normal stitch length - cause this will be permanent. Then, just sew it on making sure you're sewing the ends of the ruffle strips to the underside of the cardigan as you're sewing the ruffles to the front side of the cardigan.I sewed right on top of the basting stitch so I still had that 1/2" seam allowance. Be careful not to stretch the knit while you're sewing or you'll end up with a REALLY LONG front of your cardigan.
Step 8: Using scissors, cut the original cardigan back to about 1" from the seam you just sewed. This will make it so the original cardigan edges won't peak out underneath the new ruffle layer.
Step 9: I didn't get any pictures of the cardigan after sewing on the ruffles, but I felt like they stuck out too much and didn't lay flat against my chest like I pictured they would. I tried ironing it, but that didn't do the trick. Also, like they look in step 5, the ruffles just spread out. So, on the lower front of the cardigan, the ruffles seemed to drag the cardigan down and they fell toward the floor instead of sticking straight to the center like the Anthro one does. So, I spent a few hours while my son was napping and stitched the ruffles together with a needle and thread. The picture above is a cross section of the ruffles, trying to show you how I sewed the ruffles to each other. I just sewed layers onto layers making sure not to let the stitches show on the front. It's hard to explain, but if you just play with a needle and thread, I'm sure you could do it, too. And you can always take something out really easily if you don't like the way it looks. :) This took a while. I just kept putting it on and seeing where it hung funny, and then sewing some together so it wouldn't hang down anymore.
The result is adorable!! And my sister says it looks just like the one from Anthropology. :) I love wearing it!!
Love those dramatic curtains, and how they're on a turquoise curtain rod, flanking a turquoise desk. And isn't that chair at the desk awesome! And the lamp!!? Love the headboards!!! And how they're set into the built-ins on that wall. Love how the bedding is mostly white, with a bit of those bright colors in small areas.
Love this seating area. That wallpaper in very small areas in the room - behind the headboards, on the window wall, and here grounding the seating area - really packs a punch! Love that chandelier!! Love that ottoman, too, and the rug.
Here is a different room with the same color scheme and ideas. I love that wallpaper on just one wall. And those dramatic curtains sure spice the room up.
And here's just one more. I love that the little bathroom area is painted in an accent color. Also love the use of two very different mirrors above that vanity. It adds variety and charm to the space.
And of course, this Audry Hepburn quote that I ADORE would go perfectly in a room like this. In that frame too, please. :)
And I have to say, I really like this one best. Love how all the different fabric squares are set up in a rainbow pattern.
So many things to spy!
Stencil a design you want to use onto the fabric and then hot glue the buttons to fill in the design.
Loving the idea of dinosaur foot prints leading to their house.
They also had straws and hats for everyone. Love how they decorated the tops of these hats!
And the cutest cake ever which is just a normal cake with a ribbon and paper bunting strung around it. Such a cute idea!
