DIY Embroidered Cardigan | The Style Pile #7

There is a box, in the corner of my sewing
room.

It is a box whose contents have not seen the
light of day for many a month.

Many crafters will be familiar with this box,
in all of its forms:

There’s the ever-growing amorphous lump
that lies underneath your desk…

The monster underneath your bed…
The stuff you vacuum-packed in a fit of organization

and stuffed into your garage in the hopes
that you’d never have to deal with it again…

This, my friends, is the UNFINISHED SEWING
PILE!

The item that I pulled out of the box today…
well, I actually did a bit of digging through

the box because I wanted to find a particular
item that was right at the bottom – is this!

A plain, beige cardigan. It’s not a particularly
interesting – or flattering – item, and

it’s also missing a button down the bottom.
But, I really like the colour and I think

that it could definitely be turned into something
cuter.

SO the first thing I wanted to do was to change
the length. As you may have noticed by now,

I really like cropped stuff.
So first, to crop the cardigan, I sliced off

the bottom with my rotary cutter.

Then, on this bit that I sliced off, you’ll
notice how the knits are a bit different – it’s

all ribbed along the bottom here, and I want
to keep that ribbing for my new cardigan.

So, with this sliced off bit unfolded, I cut
the ribbing off.

And now I’m going to attach this to the
bottom of my cardigan as a quick way to deal

with the raw edges.

So, I place the ribbing onto the cardigan,
right sides together, with this original BOTTOM

of the cardigan pointing UP.
And then, I pin it on, making sure to match

up the side seams on both the pieces.

And then, once it’s all pinned on, I sew
the new bottom of the cardigan on like this.

To sew the two pieces together, I’m using
my overlocker – also called a serger – mainly

because I’m working with a knitted fabric
and I don’t want the knit to unravel!

Zigzag stitches on a regular machine would
work okay, but it would be wise to use a very

short zig zag stitch over each raw edge first
to prevent any unraveling of the knitted material.

Also – to finish off my serger seams, I
usually just use a zig zag stitch over the

ends and this stops them from unraveling.
However there are other methods to finish

off serger seams, and I want to know – what
method do you guys use when overlocking?

Anyway – now cropped, the cardigan looks
like this! Which is much more to my style.

Now it’s time for some granncy chic embroidery!
I recently learned a really quick and easy

way to embroider roses thanks to this blog,
Kmac-DIY – an embroidery goddess whose technique

I am reproducing here with her permission!
And just by the way, her blog is also full

of other really cool embroidery techniques
and DIYs for beginners, and I highly recommend

checking it out!

So, to embroider these roses, the first thing
that I did was pick out my colours – 3 reds

and a green for leaves!

Then, using this washable fabric marker, I
drew 3 small circles on each side arranged

around the neckline. It’s hard to see the
lines with the camera – but they’re there!

The three circles that I drew onto the cardigan
look like this!

Then, I put my embroidery hoop onto one side
of the cardigan, with the 3 circles in the

middle of hoop – or, about as close to the
middle as I could get them!

Now, I’m going to draw 5 lines radiating
out from the middle of the circle like this.

Next, with my embroidery thread and needle,
I brought it up through the back like this,

and back down at the centre of the circle,
creating a straight line.

And then I repeated this for the other 4 lines!

Next, I brought my needle up HERE, in between
two of these radiating lines.

The next step is really easy. I’m going
to simply bring my needle over the top of

the adjacent stitch, and then under the next
stitch, in an anti-clockwise way.

Then I'm going to repeat this. I’m going to go over
this stitch, and under this stitch.

Then over this stitch, under this stitch...

Basically, I’m going to keep repeating this, in an anticlockwise manner, with the threads moving
outwards from the centre, until I’ve gone

around enough times to create a rose!

To finish it off, I simply brought the thread
to the back again, and then tied a knot – or,

a couple of knots, because the knitted material
is quite gapey and I don't want the knot to

go back through to the front, and then I cut
off the excess thread.

Then I repeated this for the other two circles I drew onto the cardigan, in my two different colours!

Next, to embroider the leaves, I drew on a
leaf shape with my fabric marker, and then

I used a satin stitch to fill the shapes in,
from the edge to the halfway mark. Now I explained

how to do a satin stitch in this video here,
but basically I brought my needle up at the

edge of the shape, then back down at the other
side, and then I brought it up again next

to that straight line stitch I just made,
then I continued this, up one side of the

leaf and down the other, until the entire
leaf shape was filled in like this.

Then, I repeated this whole design onto the
other side of the cardigan’s neckline, and

I’m done!

This cardigan has been totally transformed
– from a simple, unflattering beige cardigan

to a cute, vintage-inspired, cropped and embroidered
number!

It’s very what I like to call "Granny Chic",
a style I am very fond of, and I think that

it goes really well with high waisted skirts
and shorts and dresses, buttoned up like this,

or left open like this!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video, that
you maybe learned something, and like always

if you try out this or any of my other tutorials
then tag it with #diyannika on instagram so

I can see your creations!

And I will see you all for my next video.
Thanks for watching! Bye!

Thank you to all my supporters on Patreon
who help to make this video possible. To become

my Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria
.