Welcome to Day 2 of the Sew Along!

On Day 1 we discussed fabrics and got our pieces ready if you need to catch up 🙂 There’s also a pretty fun giveaway you won’t want to miss!

Today I have a fun sweater up-cycle to share with you!

I didn’t have any fabric that paired well for the neck binding so I ended up doing a pull-over style instead and I have a quick tutorial on how to sew up a v-neck.

Today I’m also participating in Refashion Month over at House of Estrela!

Head on over for my tutorial for this quick sweater headband

Now back to the sweater 🙂 If you’re not doing a pull-over version just scroll on down. We’re working on Steps 1-3 today from the original pattern

Your front piece should be cut out on the fold with a v-neck. I made my “v” quite a bit higher than the original pattern but a deep v would work too. First I went ahead and sewed up the front and back and added my sleeves. Since I kept my sleeves to their original width I did set-in sleeves and added them after my side seams were sewn up instead of before.

It’s a bit hard to see but next you want to sew some staystitching right along the bottom 1″ of the point of the “v” about 1/4″ in from the edge. Then snip right down the center stopping just short of your stitching line.

For my sweater I used the original neck binding. The chunkier side is what I used as the raw edge. First you sew one short edge of the binding to the neckline. The raw edge (or edges if your binding is folded in half like the original pattern) should be right at the point of the “v”

Then you’ll pivot the binding around the “v” and sew the long edge to the neckline stretching it just a bit as you go. I used a narrow zig-zag stitch to prevent the sweater from unraveling and all my seam to still have some stretch.

When you’re just about all the way around you can trim off any excess binding. Then bring the other short end over and sew in place.

Now flip the binding up and admire your work 🙂 I went ahead and topstitched it down with a narrow zig-zag stitch to further re-inforce that seam..

Now back to the original pattern 🙂

In step 1 you’re going to do the shoulder seams. In step 2 we put in the sleeves. Knits have a tendency to slide around a bit so make sure you pin the center of the sleeve to the shoulder seam and the ends to the end of the arm opening and then pin the rest in place.

Next is the sleeve inseams and side seams. If you are using stripes you’ll want to pin carefully to make sure you have everything lined up. Assuming you cut your pieces out so that’s possible 🙂