DIY Animal Sweater

I love the animal sweater trend. They tap into my love of gaudy, kitschy awesomeness. Since I'm prone to fickleness, I grabbed a grandpa sweater (really just a well worn but cozy men's sweater) from my last thrift haul and DIY'd the trend. 

I plan to make a couple of more and add a little more flair, maybe bling out my animal but I kept it simple for the first one -- cut and sew. It took about an hour to complete.

Materials needed:

sweater

template

(plucked an image from the internet and enlarged it)

fabric

(a south african print from my stash)

sew-in interfacing

scissors

sewing machine

pins

Step 1:

Cut fabric in shape of template.

Step 2:

Cut interfacing in shape of template.

Step 3:

Not really a step, just want to show the machine settings I used to sew around image.

Step 4:

Pin fabric and interfacing to sweater.

Step 5:

Sew around image.

That's it!

The only probably I encountered was with the sweater bunching up underneath the fabric while sewing. Next time I'll start at the top and work my way down and be more mindful of the stitches. I had to use my seam ripper a couple of few times.

When I finished, I took an unofficial poll asking what my animal is because E called it a cat. I'm definitely going for F-O-X!

What say you?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

In local news: I compiled a list of Black Friday deals for thrifters on ChicagoNow. Give it a looksie if you're planning to do some shopping tomorrow!