My First Tutorial! - How To Turn A School Cardigan into a Cushion Cover

Now that my girls are back at school and the little one has started 'big' school I decided to have a clear out of old uniform and clothes.  Being big on upcycling and a tad sentimental I decided that I could not just throw out little ones old school cardigans not just because I am a soppy old fool but also because the school that she went to no longer exists.  The local authority in their wisdom decided to bung two schools together and change the name.  So I thought I would make her old cardigans into cushion covers which would give her a cuddly reminder of happy memories.  Making this ......

Into this.........

So this is how you do it....

1)  Wash and iron your cardigan.

2)  Button it up and chop off the sleeves from the under arm point to the shoulders.  Don't throw these away because we are going to use them in a bit.

3) Cut up the sides of the cardigan along the seam line up to the sleeve opening.

4) Open up the cardigan length ways. 

5) Cut open 1 sleeve and lay it flat on the table.  Place your cardigan over it so that you can see it underneath the neck hole.

6) Pin around the collar, pinning in place the sleeve piece, like this....

7) Sew around the collar line, don't worry about bunching at the top of the collar where the label normally is when you are finished you won't see this anyway.  Just go easy with your sewing machine over the bumpy bits, your machine won't be too keen on it but if you go gently it will sew, if you go quickly it will scream and your thread will snap!

8)  When you have finished sewing and turn over the cardigan you will be left with a teardrop shape like this.

 

9) Cut around the excess fabric not going too close to the stitching.

10)  Next put the right sides together and pin all the way around. Don't worry about opening the buttons you will be able to do that even when sewn together.  If you are a bit picky like me you will also want to make sure that the seams match, like this ....

11) Pin all the way around and starting at one shoulder start to sew all the way around.  Again taking care sewing over the bottom button area.  You should have about 1 1/2 cm to play with if not remove the button and tack a stitch to keep it together and then sew over with machine.

12)  Pin the top part (collar area) neatly you are aiming to sew directly across from shoulder to shoulder.  This will basically cut out the bunched up area we talked about earlier and will end up looking like this when pinned.

13)  Then remove all pins and unbutton and turn right way around.  At this point it is up to you how you finish it off.  I had two impatient kids who wanted to know 'had I finished yet?', however, if I had more time I would have sliced across the top part and neatened it off, however, you cannot see it when it is the right way around anyway.  Also, I would have put a lining in it like I do with my bags.

So let me know what you thought of my first tutorial I picked an easy one for my first one.  Also, let me know if you make any yourselves I would love to have a nosey!