More Than One Way to Wear It

Whenever my friend's daughter is cleaning out her closet, I can't resist rushing over to her house (like I really need more refashioning projects?). On a recent trip, I got two tops, a dress, some pants, and a long cardigan.

I love horizontal stripes, even though they’re not the most flattering for my body, but, oh well…….So, naturally, the item that jumped out at me for the first restyle was a long red/navy striped cardigan.

I wanted to leave it long-sleeved, to keep the contrast between the wide and narrow stripes. I cut a big chunk off the body length, to make it waist length.

Oops...then I recut it straight :)

I decided to reverse the cardigan, and wear it backwards – something I often used to do with thrifted 50s cardigans in my college days.

Of course, wearing things backwards often looks like you’re wearing things backwards (duh!), so I lowered the front neck a bit. (I wish I had lowered it a little more but it’s OK.)

I had cut the rib edge off when I lowered the neckline. A more open neckline meant the original edging was too short, so I used a navy stripe (from the chopped off body) as a new neck trim. I also had to be a little creative at the shoulders, using some hand-stitching and buttons.

I reattached the original rib at the new shorter hem, and stitched up the back, leaving the (formerly plastic/now metal) buttons just as a detail, not functional. I used some of the spare fabric to make two thin ties for the V-back…..and done! 
More refashions on my blog