Phoenix From The Ashes

When haunting thrift stores, I always keep an eye out for cashmere. Because, Cashmere.

I’ve discovered that often when it comes to cashmere, the older it is the better. Case in point: This very large, very old, very masculine gentleman’s V-neck. I imagine it belonged to a golfer, due to the extraordinary vibrancy of the purple.

It washed up by machine like a dream, fluffy and delicious. Ruby and Atlas were dubious that I could transform it into something more wearable, though. Dogs of Little Faith.

Two aisles over from where I scored the sweater, its long lost matching shirt awaited my discovery. Coincidence? I think not.

Purple Sweater suffered from a number of holes, which I was able to mend by cutting off the ribbing from the lower edge and pulling out some yarn to darn them with.

Here’s the completed mend; integrity restored, but still visible.

But here’s what it looks like after several passes with a needle felting tool. Far less obvious! It turns out that cashmere (at least this example) is extremely resistant to felting. I had to felt from both the front and the back sides of the fabric to blend in my darning.

My next order of business was to remove the neck edge ribbing, and the cuffs from its too-long sleeves. Once all that tight ribbing was off, I began to visualize a new silhouette for it. I traced the location for an asymmetrical cardigan opening in chalk.

I scored some beautiful cotton batik for bias binding, with buttons to match.

And here’s the completed resurrection:

I haven’t decided yet weather to alter the shirt into a more feminine shape. What do you think, Gentle Readers? Would you tackle a thrifted cashmere project?