Upcycling a cardigan - up a size

I bought this cardigan in a second-hand shop because I loved the colour and the soft texture. I bought it for my daughter but she didn't want it. And of course, it was slightly small for me. So I had to do something about it.



Originally it had 4 buttons, two on both sides, but by the time I took this photo, I had removed two of them, thinking that replacing the buttons would be enough to make it wider. It wasn't.

So, I took some black boucle yarn and started to crochet a stripe in single crochet in the middle, for new buttons and buttonholes, to add a few centimeters. It is not very straight because I had to go up to the collar part, too, but I think it looks OK. Then I made a row of single crochet around the collar, too. The sleves were a bit too long and tight, so I folded the extra length back and crocheted two rows there too, one single and one double crochet, then cut off the extra length of the old material and sewed it down so that the knitting didn't unravel.
And of course, the former buttonholes and the spots where the buttons had been (the material was really badly pulled) had to be hidden. So I did some very simple embroidery.

What do you think?







Unfortunately, the embroidery emphasises my middle which would be better off hidden this after-christmas time, but I hope this is just a temporary problem. Trying to fight it, you see :)