Cardigan refashion from Hazelnuts

It's taken me ages to post over here but at last I have something to say so here I am!  I'm Jacqui from Hazelnuts.  I've been participating in Elsie Marley's Kid's Clothing Week Challenge and did this cardigan refashion for my daughter as part of that.

------------------------------------------------------------------

My daughter Hazel's size 110cm (about a 5T) cardigan.

Originally it looked like this:

I see that the original photo was taken way back in October last year so it's taken me awhile to get around to it!  I was inspired by a clever cardigan refashion by Tiny Happy who told me it wasn't that hard and actually it wasn't! This is what I did:

1. Cut off the sleeves and tried it on Hazel and pinned where I thought the shoulder seam/side seams would be.
2. Unpicked the neck facing or whatever it was called. I managed to get the overlocker seam to unravel by pulling random threads (is there a trick to knowing which one to pull? I only ever find it by accident or when it's unravelling clothing I want to wear in which case it's very easy).  This meant that, except in a couple places where I nicked it, the edges didn't unravel.  I undid the facing along the back and on the front just past about where I thought Hazel's shoulder seam would be.
3. Found a shirt pattern for a V-necked button-front shirt and matched the pattern pieces for the arm area and arm to the pinned positions as best I could. I do wish, however, that I'd had a good cardigan pattern to work from that was designed for knits as this one ended up being too big and the cardigan needs taking in.
4. Cut the pieces out and resewed with an overlocker.  After I tried it on Hazel I discovered it was fine along the neckline despite being too big around, so I went ahead and attached the neck facing and added the ruffle and buttons.  I sewed the ruffle on with a twin needle to give it a bit of stretch along with the knit neckline.  I tore the ruffle in long strips from the fabric so it still has the raw, slightly fluffy, edge.

Mat thinks the buttons are a bit OTT but the originals were so... late '90s know what I mean?  The only problem I ran into was that the original facings overlapped more than I'd assumed they would so I had to shift the buttons way over to the edge so the right ruffle there wasn't covered over!

The flower was made from a tutorial at Pink Paper Peppermints that I found via a lovely little dress on My Sewing Circle.  It's on a bit of felt attached to a pin.  This is the one I prefer; but I had made a smaller one from the stripy fabric that Hazel likes best so she can have that one on it (too matchy for me!) and I'll have the photograph and the memories...