C&C: Day 1: Pink Applique Cardi

This was posted one minute past 12, I swear it still counts for Saturday!
This was sooooo easy, but you must have a lot of patience. I was inspired by two of my sister-in-laws, Erin, who has this cute vintage cardigan in the closet diaries post, and the other Rachael, who has this awesome green applique sweatshirt.

So, how did I do it? Well, I took some extra floral fabric laying around that matched this awkward pink cardigan perfectly. So I cute out a big chunk of the floral fabric and pinned it to the back of my cardigan. Making sure to keep stretch in mind. You can use a dress form or your own body if you like for the pinning process (you may need some help from a friend/mom/husband/whatever)! Then precisely sew around the outside of the floral (or whatever) fabric. To be extra accurate I would leave my needle position down and lift my pressure foot up, then turn my cardigan in order to sew the applique's sharp corners. I did a straight stitch, but I think I'm going to go back and do a satin stitch. I think it would look more applique-y and homespun that way, which I love! I then cut and gathered the sleeves to spice it up! To keep the bottom of the sleeves from fraying or to make them look more finished, sew the new and original sleeve ends together (RST) and trimming the excess (I haven't done this in the pictures yet, because i realized I hadn't when I started to edit the pictures, haha). I was going to applique a little flower cluster in the front but I have a lot going on in the back already so I decided against it. As you can see, I left the floral applique's edges raw because it is easier to do and I actually like the raw look.

I need to start taking pictures outside, dressed up, and during the day. Maybe that will be my goal this month. No more orange or drab pictures.