Anthro-style embellished cardigan

I adore cardigans.  I'm not exaggerating when I say my cardigan collection takes up at least half my closet.  My standard work outfit is a cute top, a pencil skirt or slacks (seasonally-dependent), flats, and a cardigan.  It's my thing.  I also love wearing pieces that not everyone else has.  When I saw the two Anthropology cardigans in the image above on pinterest (right side), I had to have them.  The trouble with pinterest is you can pin things that are no longer available and you get all excited for nothing.  The two gorgeous sweaters above are not available on the Anthropology website.

So I decided to make my own.

I got a navy blue cardigan from Target for about $20.  They make a perfect standard cardigan, by the way, I highly recommend it for the price.  But I was not about to embroider my own flowers.  I don't have that skill, and I probably would have ruined a perfectly good cardigan had I tried.  Amazon has pretty much everything, including these applique embroidered motifs in a variety of colors and designs, for about $6.  

These appliques don't have the glue backing that some patches do, so they work much better for sewing onto knit fabrics.  I'm not really sure how these are supposed to be used.  Maybe they're intended for adding flair to a t-shirt or pullover or something like that.  But that shape (and the green color) was not going to work for me, so I cut it apart and saved the leaves for another project.

I laid out the flowers in a design I liked...

...transferred to the sweater, and pinned into place.

I hand sewed them using a similar color thread (coral colored in this case) in an overcast stitch.  I would resist the temptation to use a sewing machine for this.  While it would certainly be much quicker, I just don't trust it.  Knits are too stretchy...and bouncy.  I prefer to maintain the control of a hand stitch, so you can see what's happening to the sweater with each and every pass of the needle.  I would hate to get the applique sewn into place only to find that the fabric got pulled too much in one spot and made the sweater all wonky.

I sewed on my bits of applique on Saturday night after putting the kids to bed and it took me about 2 hours, start to finish.  By Sunday morning I had a brand new cardigan that no one else in the world has.  And it cost me roughly $26.

I'm already planning my next embellished cardigan project.  I'm thinking an ivory cardigan (which I happen to already have) with neutral toned appliques.  I checked, and Amazon has some good motifs in just the right colors.