Third, final and most complicated
but it is actually really, really, really easy but incredibly effective.
Now grab two jumpers or steal them off your boyfriend like I have done here.
Turn them inside out
and just do the same to each of them,
which is slice them
from the bottom of the sleeve all the way to the bottom of the side edge.
And just repeat this to both jumpers.
Right, there is one completely opened out.
Now, this is a cotton-based jumper
and the other one is a beautiful lambs wool-based jumper.
It does not really matter,
it is really the size rather than the density of the fabric
which is important with this particular design.
The only questionable thing with
combining knitwear
is how well the weaves and the fabrics will sit together.
If you’re making anything like this, always do it on something you don’t care so much about first
then make sure you can do it and you don’t have any problems with it and then
cut up your nicest best quality cashmere jumper
Right now, we’ve opened them both out
and I’m going to lay them on top so the neck holes
are both as central as possible.
If one jumper’s particularly wide compared to the others,
you can slice it down.
It is just length of the body which is probably the most important thing.
If the lengths of the body are the same, that’s fine,
any width can be sliced off the side.
Now again, this is a design that needs an overlocker to secure the edges
but before that I’m going to sew it into place.
So that is why I’ve been putting the pins this way
so I can sew straight over them.
So, I am going to sew this from the bottom edge to the edge of the sleeve
in each different …
in the four different areas around the neck hole.
I am going to leave about a centimetre seam allowance but that is going to,
kind of differ as the edges are not that big so …
I am sewing in red so you can see the stitch a bit more.
And straight over the top of that pin.
Okay.
Take those pins out as you go
and snip off the spare threads.
Right, straight over the top of that pin.
A bit of securing first.
Again, this technique could be applied to t-shirts, sweatshirts,
anything really.
Again, it is about seeing it differently.
If you do not have an industrialised machine or an overlocker
it could be stitched with a zig-zag on a domestic machine.
I do not think you want to hand-stitch this one.
The great thing about just straight stitching it together,
you might even want to do a wider stitch than this but
you can always unpick,
whereas with a zig-zag or an overlocking stitch
you can unpick it but it is laborious and it ruins the surface of the garment.
Make sure you got all the pins out.
Now, before we go anywhere near an overlocker or a zig-zag,
we turn this whole thing all the other way through.
Try not to confuse ourselves too much.
Okay.
Now we have created …
a dress or an elongated jumper or a smock.
Now you might want to go back inside and slim down these sleeves.
You might want to ruche the neck like in the first design.
And you might want to slim the skirt section of it.
But it’s again, its not about demonstrating technical genius or something that we’re together,
it’s actually about seeing things differently.
So once things are opened up flat
or turned on their heads or turned on their sides,
they become completely different garments
and wearable in lots of different ways.
I could wear the grey on the front or the stripes on the back
and you could actually,
if you’re feeling really clever,
engage the arm-hole
and turn this into a bit more of a cape back
so you are nice and warm on your back in winter.
But my preferred way of wearing it is like that …
and then you have got a nice little feature hole in the back.
So that is me done.