How-to: Make an Asymmetrical Wrap

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I really wanted to call this “How to Make a Repurposed Sweater Wrap from an Ugly Sweatervest Thing That Made You Look Like You Were Pregnant,” but that seemed a little long for a title.

Do you ever pick something up at the thrift store that is less cute at home than it seemed at the store? This happened to me with a sweater vest thing that I bought. I thought it would make a nice extra layer without being too warm to go from outdoors to indoors. Unfortunately, the sort of odd cut of this thing made me look like I was pregnant. Seriously, I wore it out once, and 3 people asked if I was expecting. Ack!

I’m sure not all of you have a weird sweatervest thing laying around, but you could totally do this same tutorial with any oversized sweater, and I’ll include instructions for that below!

Materials

• Oversized sweater or ugly oversized sweater vest
• Fabric shears
• Seam binding
• Buttons
• Sewing machine, thread, and pins
• Iron

Directions

1. Lay your sweater flat on the table, with the bottom facing you, then use your shears to cut horizontally across the body, from armpit to armpit.
2. If your sweater is not open in the front, find the center of the fabric tube you just cut out, and cut the top layer only to open it up. You should now be left with a single piece of fabric.
3. Try it on to see if the length is OK – if it’s too long, trim it down at the top until you get it to a length that works for you.
4. Grab your seam binding – it’s time to finish some edges! Encase your unfinished edges (the top that you cut, and the two front edges, if you had to cut it open) in seam binding, and don’t be shy with the pins! Use your machine’s straight stitch to sew the binding into place.
5. Now, you’re ready to wrap. Grab your wrap and your straight pins, and get in front of the mirror. Put on your wrap, and arrange it just how you want it to look when you’re wearing it. Pin like crazy to keep things in place while you carefully take off your wrap and get ready for the final step.
6. Sew buttons! I only used two, because my buttons are super big – 2″ apiece. Sew a 2-5 buttons in a row down one side of the wrap (like in the photo at the top), to secure it closed.

Voila! You’re ready to bundle up!

This was so simple and fun to make, I sort of want to raid the thrift store to see what else I can make out of old sweaters! Have you guys done any fun sweater crafts?

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