How to Create Your Own Hooded Sweaters
Create your own hooded sweaters by refashioning old sweaters into a new, stylish shape. Use a hooded sweatshirt or sweater to create a pattern for your new hooded sweater or start with a commercial pattern. Combine your pattern with an oversized thrift store sweater or one from your own closet to create something new, practical and wearable.
Things You'll Need
- Oversized sweaters or sweater knit fabric
- Pattern or hooded sweater that fits
- Sewing machine with zig-zag stitch capability
- Thread
- Scissors
- Paper
- Pencil
- Fabric marker
- Sewing pins
Instructions
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Develop a vision for your finished hooded sweater. Expect to combine two or more sweaters to create a hooded sweater or use sweater knit to sew a hooded sweater from scratch.
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Assess your materials. Plan to add a hood and matching trim to a sweater that fits well or use sweaters as fabric to construct an entirely new hooded sweater. Choose sweaters of the same weight and similar fiber for a successful result.
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3
Trace a hood shape onto paper using a hooded sweater or sweatshirt you already own, a commercial pattern, or even just experimentation and a tape measure. Make a simple hood with a long rectangle of sweater knit fabric or create a shaped and curved hood. Copy your pattern shape onto the sweaters using a fabric marker. Do the same if you are reconstructing an entire sweater from sweater knit with a self drafted pattern, a pattern traced from ready to wear or a commercial pattern.
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Use a narrow zig-zag stitch on your sewing machine to sew the along the cutting lines on the sweater knit fabric for your sweater reconstruction. Cut outside these lines with sharp sewing scissors. Use the machine stitching to keep the fabric intact and prevent raveling.
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Work slowly and carefully when sewing together sweater knit fabrics. Use a zig-zag stitch, a three-step zig-zag stitch or a serger to assemble your new hooded sweater.
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Tips & Warnings
Experiment with ribbon or other trims to cover any rough or unfinished edges left in the construction process.
Loosely woven sweaters will be hard to use to create your own hooded sweaters and are difficult to sew.
