the inner life of lady fitz

Lousy purple is IN this season.

Boils my blood to no end since I’ve loved purple for many long years so I’m already sick of everyone looking like me. Went to a wedding last weekend in a fave purple dress — there were at least four other women all purpled up. Grrr.

A smart lady in my life said to shut up and stock up so when the trixies moved on to teal or yellow or whatever, I’d be all set. It’s pretty good advice. Since I haven’t bought retail since August 2007, I continue to stockpile purple at the Salvy.

This winning XL cardigan is a stunning shade, a solid lightweight cotton and sweetly long. It was too wide and shapeless though,

and the buttons were terrible.

1. Try sweater on inside out. Pin up sides. Fit, repinning as necessary.

2. Using a zig zag stitch, sew up the sides.

3. With sharp scissors, cut off the sleeves at the shoulder seams.

4. Find the middle of the top of each sleeve. About 1 inch, 1 1/2 inches on either side of the middle, baste about 1/4 inch from the edge. Pin the bottom of the sleeve to the bottom of the armhole, and the top to the top. Keep pinning from the bottom.

5. Pull the basted threads slowly from each side until the sleeve fits the armhole with a little gathering. Pin, fit and sew.

I stitched in a little folded netting to support the little puff. 

I also replaced the original boring brown buttons with vintage yellow domed buttons, after much debate between yellow and pink.

The purple acorns and green discs wouldn’t fit. Boo.

So much better now.

And check out a similar slimming sans sleeve enhancements. Such a fantastic cotton knit with a boatneck and cheeky sneaky silver buttons up the front of one side, before:

And after:

The change is subtle; the fit is just better now that the sides have been slimmed.