Last night I was perusing some tutorials about how to turn an adult sweater into items for Petunia and woke up this morning ready to go! I was so motivated that I started before I had even drank my coffee. That’s unheard of for me. Generally sewing before coffee is a complete no-no for me. Too many instances of early-morning seam-ripping have been experienced. But not today. And it was so easy. Seriously. You can find the other tutorials that I used here .

I was starting with an old, tired gray hoodie sweater that had a zipper. First: cut off zipper.

Second: cut off under the arms so that you have a “sweater rectangle”.

Third: put cut edges together with right sides together, ready to be sewn into a tube. Sew them together using a zig-zag stitch.

Fourth: fold over cut edge (the one you cut right under the arms) with a thin hem and sew with a zig-zag stitch, stretching it as you go. This makes a ruffled effect. This looks best if your thread matches your sweater really well. The dark gray sweater I used was very forgiving. I forgot to take a picture of this step…sorry!

Fifth: fold over the finished bottom edge of your original sweater to make the waistband. I folded it over around 1 inch but you can eyeball it and use whatever measurement you’re comfortable with. Sew with a straight or zigzag stitch, leaving an opening to insert your elastic.

Sixth: attach small safety pin to elastic and thread through waistband. I used my daughter’s waist measurement minus an inch because every time I use her waist measurement, things fall off. Not sure what’s going on there, just telling you what works for me! Sew the ends of the elastic together and sew the opening of the waistband shut.

And there you have it! Petunia is wearing the sweater-skirt with the leggings that I made from the sleeves of the same sweater. I’m posting that very, very easy tutorial tomorrow because, in all honesty, it took more time to edit pics and write this post than it did to make both the skirt and leggings!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the leggings…so fun and easy! Petunia says “Mommy, they’re from your sleeves!”. This really tickles her…