Refashion #8: Cantaloupe cardigan

It should be obvious: I'm really getting into this refashioning business! Those of you who saw me through the Great Canning Frenzy of 2008 know that when I set my sights on something, I don't stop until I've throttled the living snot out of it. Last summer, I didn't just learn to can. Oh no. I started modestly enough: applesauce, bread and butter pickles, a little tomato sauce. Pretty soon I was fastidiously compiling recipes, buying pectin by the quarter-ton, and inviting myself over to my parents' friends houses just long enough to load their unwanted canning jars into my car, slam the trunk and drive away. I exaggerate, but only a little.

But this post isn't about canning, it's about refashioning. It's about how, in the space of six weeks, I've doubled my bobbin supply, halved my fabric supply, and purchased no less than six different kinds of elastic. Oh, and three new books, eighteen spools of thread, snaps, a zipper foot, and a covered button maker.


That's where this project began, right there with the instant the covered button kit touched itself down into my cart. Visions of sweet little flower-covered buttons danced in my head, thanks in no small part to one Amy Karol.

This is the first project I've done where I actually used two thrift-store items. (Ooooh, do I get extra refashionista points or something?) The sweater (obviously), but also the fabric I used to cover the buttons and trim the bottom of the sweater. It was a cotton/spandex-blend skirt from American Eagle, and let me just say emphatically that after 1+ hours hunched over the thing with my seam ripper, I am never de-constructing an American Eagle garment again! Triple-seamed madness. Yeeps.

The covered buttons were ridiculously easy to make. And exciting. So exciting I felt the need to dance back and forth several times between my craft room and Patrick's studio saying, "Look, honey, covered buttons!!!" I'm sure he was thrilled.

ANYway, this is the before shot, just for reference:

(The funny red line down the middle is my tailor's chalk.)

Don't worry, pretty soon this phase will wind itself down and I'll move on to my next fixation. Any guesses? Paper mache, maybe, or mosaics? Candle dipping? Welding? Your guess is as good as mine!