Repurposed Sweater Dress

I was inspired by the racks of used sweaters at the thrift store the other day. I grabbed 5, hoping to come up with something amazing!!  What came was an adorable, comfortable sweater dress for my little toddler.  This is a very easy project for a beginner.  Depending on how you do it, you may not even need to hem anything!  It's also ridiculously inexpensive to make.   Have fun! 

Materials:

used sweater
sewing machine
scissors
pins

I'm a big fan of using my child's clothes as a pattern.  For this dress, I grabbed an a-line dress that fits her well and used it as a reference.  This doesn't need to be exact.  It can be a little loose or even a little snug would be cute.  Your sweater should be stretchy.  Lay the dress down at the bottom of the sweater and cut an a-line shape.  You are going to use the bottom of the sweater so you don't have to hem it.

First, cut two little curves for the arm-holes at the top.  For the sleeves, I used the sleeves from the sweater (again, so I don't have to hem.) They will be too wide.  You'll need to cut them narrower to fit your child.  attach the sleeves.  The top edge will be raw.

For the neckline, I used the neckline from the original sweater.  I cut it off the sweater, so I had a strip.  When I attached it to the dress, I didn't have quite enough, so I had to stretch it as I sewed to make it work.  With dress right-side-out, pin neckline to dress upside down.  Sew the two raw ends together.  Sew on to dress. 

Put it on your cute kid and admire!