Debbie Gibson Sweater to Cool Modern Shrug

When I was in New York the DIY Ninja and I each bought big baggy 1980's houndstooth sweaters at a thrift store. I think the sweaters cost about $3 each; hers is red/black and mine was white/black. I don't have a photo of the sweater before I started, but it was very similar to the one here on the left from Ghetto Vintage. The main difference between this one and the one I had is the flowers, lol, mine had none and it was a little more baggy than this one you see. It is so hard to find large size houndstooth prints these days, especially is sweater material. As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I was going to make out of it! About a year ago I saw a music video by Miss Platinum in which she was wearing a very bold black and white checkered shrug that I absolutely fell in LOVE with. I've worked with knit before, but nothing quite so bulky as this was. Mostly my experience is with thin sweaters. I started cutting it before I even left DIY Ninja's house to come home. I cut it off around just under the bust line where I wanted it to hit me at plus about 1.5 inches. I cut a 3 inch wide piece out of the front from the neck down, cut off the collar band and rounded the front corners, again leaving 1.5 inches more fabric than I wanted to end up with. Being such a bulky knit, it took this allowance to be able to make a proper double folded hem on all of the edges. I hand stitched it all to make sure it was tucked in good so that nothing would come loose and unravel in the wash. The final touch was to go over it with a really sharp pair od scissors and trim any little piling balls off of it for that good-as-new look! I am so pleased with the out come that I have been wearing it everywhere for the last couple months! I also have so much of this fabric left over that I could make the dog a sweater or make a little bag or something; I'm undecided at present.

Jenny J. Kerr