Parade of Projects Part 3: A Sweater for a Gentleman

As I mentioned in my Yarn Along post from earlier this morning; sometimes it can be tricky to come up with projects suitable for all the Little Men we have. It seems to me that for our sons, grandsons etc. there is more mending to be done than anything of a truly creative nature. I have seen some very nice sewing patterns and tutorials for boys out there, and perhaps it would be beneficial to gather them all here in a post for I sometimes consider to make a mission for myself to break out of all things gathered and sweet and sew something for my little gentleman to wear.....(gentleman? who am I kidding? He spends most of his days happily wandering around the house in a diaper, pajama shirt, rubber boots, upside down sunglasses and a fanny pak... I kid you not.---see what I mean, the kid needs clothes.)


So I set out to turn a half cut up sweater of mine, into something dapper for my little fellow to wear... and here's how I managed it...

I laid said sweater out flat and cut off the neckline first. Followed by the bottom 9 inches of the sleeves and the bottom half of the body of the sweater.

Here is what I was left with:

I cut about 4 inches out of the side of the neckline and then pinned it to the top of the body piece that I had cut. I used a marking pen to mark the outline of the neck and to find where my shoulder seams would be.

Then it was time to figure out where my arm holes would be. To do this, I first cut both the arm pieces that I had at the tops at a roughly 45 degree angle and measured that line. I laid it along the body of the sweater I was building, where my sleeves would go, and traced out a curved line that matched in inches with the opening of the shoulder of the sleeve. I made each side identical.

Then I cut the sleeve openings. ... at this point I considered turning it into a vest, but I really wanted to see how this whole sleeve experiment would work out, so I forged ahead.

It appears, I am missing one of the important photos that shows the attachment of the sleeves to the arm holes. First I serged the shoulder seams and then flipped the "sweater" inside out. I flipped the sleeves inside out as well and placing right sides and seams together, I pinned all the way around the arm hole and used a stretch serge stitch to sew all the way around.

Now, we'll move on to the neckline. I took the neckline off and began to pin it down backwards to the front of the shirt because I did not want it top-stitched down, I wanted a hidden seam where the neckline attached to the body of the shirt.

Once I had it all pinned down I cut out the excess of the shirt and with the sweater inside out, attached the neckline with the same serge stitch I had used on the arms.

It looked like this:

NOTE:  on the photo above you can see where I connected the neckline to itself (where I had cut the four inch chunk out of the neckline)... I decided that I would put some sort of embellishment to hide this ugly seam.

below is a picture of the sweater all but completed, with the neckline attached, as well as the sleeves.

And here's the embellishment I mentioned above; three little wooden buttons added just the right amount of charm and hid that seam brilliantly.

And I would say, other than the dirty little face; my little gentleman cleans up rather well in it, no?

Here's to sewing for our boys!

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Also, don't forget changes to the blog should be up and running tomorrow as it is the one year anniversary of the blog. Check here for a special post, a giveaway and of course a couple cool new things design wise. Bear with me if the transitions are a little groggy and remember that my email address is a(dash)winkel(at)hotmail(dot)com if you need to email me and ask what the heck is going on.