Quick Craft: Crew Neck to Cardigan

In spite of my ongoing goal not to cave in to buying throwaway fashion, there are times when I just get the urge to haunt the Forever21.com sale section. Where else can you find an ill-fitting dress for $4?! Anyway, a couple years back I picked up a lace crewneck pullover. I liked the idea of wearing a camisole under it, and it was a fun, interesting shade of minty-jade green (a color nearly impossible to capture in photos, as it turns out. NONE of the coming pics really do it justice).

Shocker: It didn't fit. The arms were fine, the body was fine, but the length was just way too short for a girl of 5'8" like m'self. So, into the scrap fabric bin it went. ...For two years. Suddenly a weekend or so ago, inspiration struck when I was rifling through the bin. If I simply sliced this pullover up the middle, it would be a pretty cute cropped cardigan!

The shoulder at the top of the image almost shows the actual color...
No option of light I could find allowed the camera to actually capture it.

I got to work.

Measure twice+ to determine the center, then snip away.

Hemming the cut line will prevent raveling.
As for thread, when you don't have a perfect match, a little lighter is always better than darker.

I hand-stitched my two pin lines, mostly because my machine is on the fritz and I don't trust it on anything out side of basic cotton. As this was both a synthetic and stretchy, I wasn't willing to risk it having a mechanical tantrum and forcing me to scrap the whole thing.

Et voila! A slice, a stitch, and a new addition to my wardrobe. Two bucks well spent.