Sweater Recon Tutorial

Step 1Choose the Sweaters

You’ll want to find sweaters that are made with a similar fibre content and are of a similar thickness. Although it’s not necessary, you’ll make it easier on yourself if you choose sweaters with a similar texture, too. Personally I prefer using sweaters with a predominantly natural fiber content (especialy wool), but anything will do. If your sweaters are quite large and you’re not, you may be able to get away with using just two sweaters. Otherwise, you’ll need three. Don’t confine yourself to the Ladies Department, either. Men’s sweaters are great to use, too! The sweaters shown here are what I started out with.

Step 2Disassemble one Sweater

Decide which sweater you’d like to make up most of the front and all of the back. Separate the front from the back, and off with the sleeves! You don’t have to be extra-careful at this stage, as you’ll be doing a more precise cut in the next step. But do try to preserve as much usable fabric as possible. You may want to leave the ribbing intact for the front and back pieces as I have done—this will save you the step of finishing the bottom hem later.

Step 3Measure the Front

Decide whether to use the front or the back of the sweater you cut up in Step 2 as the front of your new sweater. I decided to use the front, because it had a neat argyle pattern on it. Measure all the way around your waist (the narrowest part of your torso, usually across your belly button), and divide the measurement by 4.

Decide how tight or fitted you want your final shirt to be. We’ll be working with a seam allowance of ½ inch, so keep that in mind. For a tight-fitted, stretchy shirt, subtract ½ inch from your measurement. For a looser-fitting shirt, add ½ inch to your measurement. I subtracted ½ from my measurement. As shown in the photo to the left, fold your piece of sweater lengthwise in half, and from the folded edge use a ruler or tape measure to find the measurement you ended up with. Mark with a pin. To be extra precise, take this measurement once or twice more along the same edge so you get a nice straight cut in the next step. Me, I like to live dangerously so I just measured once.

Step 4Cut the Front

Take a deep breath, we’re diving in! Using the pins you placed in Step 3 and keeping the piece of sweater folded, cut a straight line up the side. Decide how long you want the sweater to be, and cut the side accordingly.

At this point you’ll need to decide how open you want the v-neck to be, because you’ll be cutting the arrow-like angle at the top of the front piece. If you want a small v-neck opening, make the angle at the top shallow. If you want a wide v-neck opening, make the angle at the top pointier. You may have to experiment with this a bit to get it right.

Step 5Get the shape for a Top Piece

Decide which sweater you want to use for the pieces attached to the top of the front (the dark grey pieces in my example). Now mercilessly cut apart that sweater like you did the first one. Lay the front or back of the sweater under the front piece you just cut, under one of the sides of the angle at the top, as shown in the photo. It doesn’t matter how you line it up; I chose to angle it like this because I thought it would look nice with the striped design following the edge of the neckline. You can make yours go straight up and down if you want to, or choose any angle that works with your sweater.

Step 6Cut a Top Piece

As shown in the photo, use the angled edge of the front piece to cut the bottom edge of the top piece. Beginning at the point of the front piece, cut the neckline of the top piece. Cut at any angle you like—the angle you choose will help determine how open or closed the finished neckline is. Don’t worry about how tall to make the top piece yet; you’ll try the sweater on and adjust the length later.

Step 7Cut the Other Top Piece

Use the top piece you just cut out as a guide to cut out a second one. Lay down the top piece wrong side up on the same sweater (pin it down if you like) and cut around it like a template. You should now have two top pieces, a left and a right.

Step 8Pin a Top Piece to the Front

Step 9Sew the Top Piece to the Front

Sew along the pinned edge using a ½-inch seam, being careful to not stretch the edge as you sew, or you’ll end up with puckered seams. Remove the pins as you go. Press the seam down with an iron. Set the temperature of your iron to match the fiber content of your sweaters—when in doubt, use a lower temperature, or use a silk organza press cloth to protect the sweater.

Step 10Pin and Sew the Other Top

Repeat Steps 8 and 9 to pin and sew the other top piece to the front.

Step 11Try it On, and Adjust

The front is almost finished! Just hold it up to yourself to figure out how much to lop off of the top pieces. Hold up the front so that the neckline sits where you want it on your body. You’ll have to cut enough off of the top pieces so that they end about two inches below your shoulders. I ended up cutting off about four inches from mine.

Step 12Cut out the Back

Use another piece from the same sweater you cut the front out of to make the back. Place the finished front onto this piece as a template to cut out the back piece, but cut straight across the neckline instead of cutting a V shape. Use the photo to the left as a guide (I ended up cutting off the ribbing at the top).

Step 13Measure the Sleeve Width

Take the last sweater remaining and cut it apart like the other two, except leave the trim at the bottom hem intact (you’ll use it to finish the neckline later). Take the front piece of the sweater you just cut up and fold it lengthwise in half. Measure around your bicep, just under your armpit. Divide this measurement in half, and add ½ inch. Mark this measurement from the folded edge of the sweater with a pin as shown in the photo to the left.

Step 14Shape the Sleeve

Place the marked and folded sweater from Step 13 under the completed front. Angle it as shown in the photo so that the pin meets the bottom of the top piece, and the top of the sleeve-to-be is about 2–2½ inches away from the top of the top piece.

Step 15Cut out the Sleeves

Cut the sleeve out along the angle defined by Step 14. Cut the top of the sleeve perpendicular to the fold line and meeting the top of the finished front. Cut the bottom of the sleeve perpendicular to the fold line and about ½ inch longer than the bottom of the top piece. Use the finished sleeve as a template to cut out another. Unfolded, your sleeves should look similar to the photo.

Step 16Sew on the Sleeves, and the Front to the Back

Sew the sides of the sleeves right sides together to the angled parts of the front and back. Sew the front and back together at the sides. Fold up the bottom of each sleeve by about ½ inch to form a hem, and sew using a medium zigzag stitch. Your sweater is almost complete!

Step 17Finish the Neckline

On the right side of the sweater, pin the trim salvaged from the last sweater all the way around the neckline starting from the tip of the V, as shown in the photo. Sew all the way around using a ¼ inch seam allowance. Overlap the trim at the V as shown in the second photo. You may also want to sew the overlapped edge on the inside of the sweater to keep it from flapping out.