It's a two-edged sword--this impulse to recreate a version of something you see in a store. On the one hand, I'm always thinking, do I really want to spend the time it will take to make this rather than buying it? and on the other hand I'm all like, no way will I spend THAT much money when I can just do it myself! Hear me? Of course, when the price point is set at hundreds of dollars, it makes the decision a lot easier.
After spotting the gorgeous image of the Amour pullover on Anthropologie's IG account during the holidays, I was determined to have one for Valentine's this year. With a discount sweater and a bit of yarn I set out to create this diy version of Anthropologie's Amour Pullover. If I had to do it over, I'd probably try to spread my letters some more, but it's hard to gauge when you're in the middle of tacking the yarn to the top.
--a black sweater or pullover
--one skein of white wool yarn
--embroidery needle
--white thread
--small piece of black jersey Pellon like this from Joann Fabrics
This technique allows you to have curving lines as opposed to block letters.
1. With the sweater on, mark where you want the words to begin and end with pins.
2. Form a knot in the thread and weave it through the tail of your yarn several times.
3. Pull the yarn through from the inside to the outside, leaving extra yarn on the inside to form a knot that won't pull through the top to the outside.
4. The technique you'll use to tack down the yarn is to come up on one side of the yarn and go down the other side into the same hole where you brought the thread up. This is an embroidery technique called couching. You can see a great illustration and example of couching on this DMC Threads blog post. This technique allows you to have curving lines as opposed to block letters.
5. Lay the yarn out in the general shape of your lettering and begin couching every 1/4 inch or so. You'll need to tack the yarn closer together around small curves for it to stay in place.
6. Continue with all the words until complete. If you run out of thread, start again with step 1.
7. When you've completed the text, pull the thread to the inside and cut, leaving a good sized tail. Tie a large knot that won't pull through. The inside of your sweater will look something like this.
8. Place Pellon over threads and yarn and lightly iron until fused. This will help unraveling when washing.
9. DONE. For $20 and 30 minutes, I have an AMOUR sweater that I, well...amour! Bam.
LOVE!
ReplyDelete