Upcycled Cashmere

When I quit my job, I became a bit addicted to thrifting.  Although these days with two kids I don't get out as much, I have amassed quite a collection of cashmere sweaters, most of which have holes or stains or have shrunk.  This is no big deal, as I have been hacking them up and resewing them into baby leg warmers, diaper covers, hats and sweaters.  My most current project is a new sweater for Lola, to replace her "pink apple" sweater she will soon grow out of.  Most cashmere, once machine washed, will felt down a bit and then quit.  It doesn't continue to shrink with repeat washing as does wool.  It therefore makes pretty nice baby duds--though I do hand launder anything with appliques, just to make sure they stay intact.

For the new sweater I selected a pretty pale aqua sweater--the arms already harvested and made into the leg warmers that Lola is wearing in the photo above. I then cut out the pieces based on the pink sweater, but the next size up.  Ribbing which will go on the collar of the new sweater was taken from the bottom of the old.

Next, the hardest part, is trying to decide what kind of applique to put on the sweater.  I'm pretty burnt out on the usual baby girl stuff---flowers, hearts, butterflies, etc.  I love owls but they've just recently been overdone and soon mushrooms will be as well.  

 I ended up settling on a sort of "bunny person" pair.  A parent and child, the big one cut out of a fawn colored brown sweater and the little bunny out of an oatmeal heather.

After going though several button options for the eyes, I settled on some cloth covered, mottled blue ones for big bunny and tiny pink plastic buttons for little bunny.  A little crocheted flower that I have at hand from a previous project  will go in the hand of one of the bunnies....maybe both should have flowers.  I haven't decided yet.

At this date (2/26) the sweater is now assembled and I'm ready to start the applique of the bunnies, which will be sewn on using near-matching embroidery floss with a blanket stitch.   Hopefully I will finish by Easter.