Repurposing an Old Sweater

Here's what you do with a perfectly good angora sweater your sister no longer wears.  This is what I started out with. 

First and most importantly wash it in really hot water and put it in the dryer.  This way it will be washable in it's future life.  The next step was to take it apart.  I took off the sleeves and the belt on the bottom.

I shortened the sleeves took in the bodice of the sweater and attached a 5 inch piece of black velvet to the bottom of the sweater. (I think if I had it to do over I would cut the sleeves a little shorter.) I then cut inch long strips of velvet and made ruffles which I then sewed on to the bottom of the sweater. 

  I found that the v of the neck was too low on my daughter so I added a piece of the velvet to the neck line to bring it up to a more modest level for a 4 year old. 

The head band was my daughters idea. She figured out that the top part of the cut off sleeve fit her head perfectly and kept her ears warm.  So I finished the edge and attached a ruffle to the back.  She insisted that the belt needed to be a scarf and that it too, needed ruffles. 

The little model is very happy with her new Christmas dress.  Mommy suggested we buy her some nice new plain pink tights but, she has insisted that the stripey ones were perfect. 

Pretty cute if you ask me.