— whollyKao

my 2nd salvaged sweater

Happy Friday everyone! Looking for something to do this weekend? How about a sweater revamp?

I have a blue sweater that Jeff calls my ‘default’ sweater because I wear it so much. I got it years ago at forever 21, and wear it because it matches a lot. Well, I finally got tired of it. Instead of retiring the sweater, I upcycled it. This is the 2nd sweater I’ve done. Read about the first salvaged sweater here.

Ever since seeing the embroidery on this sweater at Allsaints Spitalfields, I’ve been itching to do something similar to one of my own. I love the subtle texture the yarn accents give.

Here’s what I started with.
After shortening it and spending some time on it with a needle and yarn:

I didn’t have any navy yarn at home, so I used light gray yarn. It was thin and lightweight, so I had to double up the strands when I was stitching. Plus I liked how the contrast stitching showed up on the navy sweater.

I knew I wanted to do leaves and flowers up and down on the sweater. So I googled pictures of flower and leaf illustrations, and freehand-stitched based off them. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can always sketch out what you want on your sweater and use that as a guide when you’re stitching.

Look familiar? It’s supposed to be a lily.
I stitched all the flowers and leaves first, then used a triple-strand of yarn to connect them on the sweater.

Not too shabby, right? Now it’s your turn. Have fun!