Friday 13 July 2012

Refashion Friday Inspiration: Contrast Shoulder Panel Sweatshirt


Here's a few variations of a style of sweatshirt refashion/remake that I came up with a few months ago. In the way that most my sweatshirt make-overs tend to go, it takes a large men's sweatshirt and transforms it into a more feminine garment with a closer fit.  The sleeves are re-cut to have a slightly gathered sleeve head. The sleeves finish just above the elbow to make it a trans-season garment for when you need something warmer than a T-shirt, but not as warm as a full-length sleeved sweatshirt. This reworked garment can also work well with a long-sleeved T-shirt worn underneath. 


The garment pictured at the top of this post used the materials in the picture above: a lovely soft secondhand sweatshirt, some stripey jersey for the contrast shoulder panels, red satin bias binding and some gold buttons. I cut the front and back pieces to include the hem ribbing so that didn't require reapplying. The sleeve cuff ribbing came from a piece of hem ribbing I harvested from another stained sweatshirt. I cut the harvested ribbing in half and then folded it in half again before attaching to the sleeve hem to make it narrower than a typical sweatshirt cuff. The neck binding is made from the original sweatshirt's neck ribbing. Once the contrast shoulder panels had been formed, I stitched together one of the shoulder seams, then attached the neck ribbing along the raw neckline and finally stitched the second shoulder seam to complete the neck hole. Next the sleeves get set in, then the sleeve seams and side seams of the body get stitched closed in one long single seam. 


The red version pictured above has slightly shorter sleeves and silver ribbon folded in half instead of the satin bias binding to form the piping. I was aiming for a nautical look (if you can believe it) but I only had silver ribbon to hand rather than gold which I would have preferred, so I kind of feel the resultant look is more Wonder Woman than nautical!


The final version I made uses some zebra print double knit and neon pink bias binding to create the contrast and has 3/4 sleeves for a warmer alternative. The shoulder panels are made by cutting away the  sweatshirt fabric in the shape I wanted and using those cut-away sections as a template from which to cut the contrast fabric (remembering to add seam allowances). I pressed the bias binding open, folded it in half and re-pressed it with an iron to make flat piping. I basted the bias strips to the curved edge of the contrast shoulder pieces before attaching both to the front sweatshirt piece.


If you find a window in your weekend to do some sewing, may the gods of successful stitching be with you!

16 comments:

Kirsty said...

I love this Zoe. Thanks for the post.

Masustak eguzkitan said...

Cute! It´s a great refashion, I love the contrast shoulder panels! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this Zoe! I saw your sweaters and they are so cool, so now I can try and make one too :)

niddetissus said...

It goes without saying that I love this! But now I've gone and said it. ;)

Scruffybadger said...

You are incredible...I have never in my wildest dreams thought that an old baggy sweatshirt could be transformed in something so stylish...there is something very 40s about it, I guess helped along by shoulder pads...fabbo thanks for all the details

Anna | Mormor hade stil said...

Very elegant. No one would believe these stylish shirts started life as men's unwanted sweatshirts.

velosews said...

May they be with you too?
Nice detailing.

Anonymous said...

Really, really cute!

Sew little time said...

wow - who knew a baggy old sweatshirt could be made to look to great? love it!

Anonymous said...

hello!
I have been trying to get my head around this for a project myself but have been thinking about the neck ribbing.
If want to lower the neck line a little I won't be able to reuse the original neck ribbing will I?
I think I'd appreciate any other tips you can supply or maybe a tutorial for generally manipulating the ribbing.

Thanks
Amy
:-)

Zoe said...

Thanks everyone, I'm so pleased that this post has proved inspirational, which was of course the aim!

@almondrock, yes indeed if you are going to lower the neckline consideraly, you won't be able to use the original neck ribbing. You can usually lower the neckline a little though and use the original ribbing by stretching it somewhat as you apply it. If you want to lower the neckline more, I'd recommedn harvesting some ribbing from another old sweatshirt and cutting a longer strip.

All the best!
Zoe xxx

Marie said...

I totally love the sweatshirts you make...must give it a go someday. The shoulder detail and buttons are always my favourite touches, they make the tops look so cool and unique. Thanks for sharing!

Allie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Allie said...

What a clever idea! I definitely plan on giving this a try. Thanks for sharing (:

Unknown said...

Cute cute cute! What great inspiration!

Agy said...

Cute and very clever! Love your sewing skills too1 :-)

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