The Upcycled Big Brother Sweatshirt

This is the ﬁrst weekend of the fall season, and the temps are truly showing it! It’s time to bust out the sweatshirts here. Having a 3 year old boy in the house, followed by his little sis, we have pretty many boyish sweatshirts that are really in pretty good condition.

While little sister sports blue and gray sweatshirts, sometimes you’re looking for something more fun. With a few snips and some brightly colored felt squares, we can turn this grey little boy sweatshirt into a cute girl’s cardigan. To make it a little more colorful, I have decided to replace the grey ribbing with some bright purple.

Prepare Sweatshirt

First we are going to cut our sweatshirt down the middle. This one happens to have pockets (an added bonus). So we will end up with a pocket on each side of center.

Because I am going to add the bright purple ribbing, I am also cutting off the neck ribbing.

Simply ﬁnd the center front and draw a chalk line. Cut along the line and carefully cut to remove the neckline ribbing.

Next, take your tape measure and walk it along the edge from the lower right up and around the neckline and down the left opening.

Mine measures 43 inches.

Decide how wide you would like your rib to be.

Typically it is one inch wide. That would mean cut your strip two inches wide. You may want to experiment with the width and see what you like.

In this case I cut my ribbing three inches wide (by 43″ long) so that will give me a ﬁnished rib edge of 1 1/2 inches.

Match center of rib strip to the center back of sweatshirt. Fold strip in half and pin to edge.

Note: I turned over the ends so they were finished when it was stitched up!

Stitch in 1/4 inch seam.

I chose to add top stitching to help the ribbing lay a little nicer. Depending on your material, you may not find this necessary.

I am going to embellish my sweatshirt with some felt ﬂowers. I chose some contrasting purple and pinks. This is the fun part, and you can do whatever you like. Since felt will not fray, all you need to do is cut out the shapes of your choice. Be sure you get the washable felt from your local craft or fabric shop. I have anchored the layers with an initial for Ms M.

Feel free to embellish with buttons or felt or any other decorative items. This is a quick and easy solution for “glamming” up a sweatshirt for your little girl.

(Don’t mind the chalk smudges, she was busy playing!)

Do you have hand-me-downs from your big guy that you could upcycle for your little girl?

What is your favorite way to dress up a clothing item?

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