Cardigan Upcycle

I am back from vacation today and in the process of doing numerous loads of laundry. As I put away all my clean summer clothes I started to weed a few things out of my closet to make room for some new fall clothes. I have been picking out the items that I did not wear at all this summer to put in the donation pile, when I came across this cardigan that was destine for the pile I decided to give it a new life for the fall.

Then I took a old t-shirt that I had practiced silk screening on as well as ruining the collar with hem tape and cut it up..

Next I cut three sizes leaf patterns from cardboard to use as my templates

Then I traced a few of each on to the brown t-shirt material with tailors chalk.

I then cut the pieces out and this was  was left with.

Next I threw them in the dryer for a few minutes to make them curl up a bit. They turned out like this.

Then I pinned them on randomly to see how they would look. Picking the cardigan up and shaking it a little to see how they would lay and curl.

I determined that more needed to be added to make them look more full.

Then I sewed them on. The petals at the top I sewed completely down since I did not want them sticking up on  my shoulder. The others I just sewed in the middle hoping them would curl up on themselves.

They pretty much did and look more like a ruffle than leaves, but next time I will sew completely down and see how they look.

On my model ,who is somewhat shy, it looks great with a brown cami underneath.

And the finished product. Super Super Easy and cost me $0.00 since I had the t-shirt and the cardigan. I plan to make more since there is a ton of the t-shirt leftover! Enjoy!