Thursday, January 19, 2012

Mastering the Separating Zipper and Then (Finally) Refashioning My Sweater

Ben's coat zipper died.  Last year (I cringe) I threw away a coat with a broken zipper


This year, I found a good tutorial online and went for it.  This was after I kept eyeing that dang zipper and thinking, in my naive way, that it didn't look that hard.  Guess what?!  It's NOT HARD - in fact, I would say putting in a separating zipper is easier than a regular zipper!  It's much more intuitive, for one thing.  There's also much less chance of sewing on the zipper teeth accidentally and breaking a needle.


So I fixed Ben's coat.  Then I took a deep breath and cut up my lambswool crewneck sweater.  I've been all talk about this project for close to 2 years now (scaredy-cat).


The sweater is a lovely material and color, but I hate to commit to crewnecks because what if I get too hot?  Then I have to wiggle out of it, and by this point in winter, I'm getting tired of putting on all those clothes and I want easy layers.


I cut off the sleeves and slit the sweater up the middle.  I expect I'll use the cutoff sleeves as filler for hotpads.  I finished the newly-raw edges with bias binding.  I treated the sweater as if it was made of woven fabric; this was not successful with the armholes, which sagged out quite a bit.
So I made darts under the the armholes, to pinch in the excess.


Then I put in a bright green separating zipper.  I am so pleased with how this turned out!  Especially with my hefty Gap  men's flannel shirt from the thrift store.



13 comments:

Tracy said...

YOU'RE SO BRAVE! I love how the sweater turned out, and that you were able to save a very nice coat. Well done!

Deanna Beth said...

That looks amazing! I really love the outfit in the top pictures of it. The color combination brings out the red in your hair, which I'd never noticed before.

Unknown said...

Perfect job on the zippers! Love the outfit. Nice colors together ; ) The plaid looks great, but I also love the pink and the little scarf is the perfect touch!

Lisa said...

Great, Margo - that is terrific!

Rebecca said...

Oh, how lovely everything is! The pink and green! The zippers! I would never have been able to tell that Ben's zipper was a re-do.

Anonymous said...

Very clever and looks good! Have you ever felted wool? You could felt the sleeves and make something from them...

BLD in MT said...

You are amazing! They both look superb.

Margo said...

Anon, I felted 2 sweaters a few years back and they've been in my stash, waiting for inspiration to hit. Do you have some ideas...? In the meantime, I need filler for hotpads.

Jennifer Jo said...

Amazing!!!

Nessa @{Casa Braaflat} said...

super cute idea. my mom would love this as she always gets hot in sweaters! will share with her. thanks!

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

You make everything seem so simply and easy! After reading this post I almost think that I could repair a zipper. Most of all, I love the sweater transformation. I love warm vests.

Polly said...

You clever thing!! I love the sweater transformation, and salute your zipper-replacing abilities.

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

Fantastic, I love the sweater, it is so pretty with the plaid shirt..Looks great on you..
And fixing your son's coat..yea.yea.. GREAT job.