Altering a cashmere sweater for a better fit

I picked up this wonderfully soft cashmere sweater by Banana Republic last fall while going through the piles of stuff that local university students throw out when they move to new apartments. Besides being extravagantly comfortable, it is scandalously low cut. Maybe that’s why the previous owner threw it out.

I decided to create a less revealing neck line by taking in the shoulder seam. Here’s how I did it:

First, I pinned it.

Then I sewed just below the existing seam line to create a new seam. It was important to sew below the original seam so that there wouldn’t be two seams on the shoulder when I was done.

I cut off the excess fabric and reinforced the seam with zigzag stitching to prevent unraveling.

Then I put it on the dress form to check the seams …

And the new, non-cleavage-baring neckline.

There was a small hole in the back of the sweater just below the neckline from where I’d previously removed the itchy tag.

I took one of the pieces of excess fabric from the shoulder seam and sewed it to the inside of the sweater with clear monofilament thread using the preprogrammed darning stitch on my Pfaff sewing machine.

Yay! I have a nice, non-weird looking cashmere sweater to keep me comfortably warm for the rest of the winter.