Pimp your cardigan

A hole in the armpit, pockets on the verge of ripping, and small stains haphazardly spread over the front. Would it be possible for me to save this cardigan from the landfill?

Step 1: Repair the armpit hole

Since the seam in the armpit came apart and some of the knitting had started to fray, the hole in the armpit of this cardigan had turned into a real eyecatcher. Something needed to be done quickly, before the damage got worse.

I started by sewing the seam back together were possible, to make the hole as small as possible. On the remaining hole, I used grey mohair yarn and the scotch darning technique (where you sew a bunch of blanket stitches on top of each other) to mend it as invisibly as possible.

Step 2: Reinforce cardigan pockets

The armpit hole was no more, but there were some pending holes on the front as well, where the pockets were attached to the cardigan.

To avoid that the pending hole would grow into a real hole, I reinforced them. To do so, I used green mohair yarn, and made duplicate stitches over and around the spot that suffers the most endurance. I followed the flow of the original stitches, making it seem as if I was weaving in ends. The result was a green circle, that reminded me a bit of a dandelion flower. Using a chain stitch, I added a stem, and with some back and fly stitches, I created some accompanying fluff.

Step 3: Camouflage the stains on the front of the cardigan

Last problem to tackle: brown stains spread haphazardly across the front of the cardigan.

To stay in theme, I opted to cover each stain with some more dandelion fluff, adding a playful effect to the whole.

Result

With a couple of simple stitches, this cardigan was pimped back to life, and ready to go on for a couple of years to come.

Do you have a cardigan lying around that could do with a bit of pimping? Feel free to drop me a line, and together we can find a solution.