I make these sweaters from "big" sweaters, using the knit as fabric. I try to
find fluffy angora blend sweaters to cut up and add pretty things such as pearl
buttons, ribbon roses and occasionally marabou around the cuffs. It is an easy
way to make a sweater for non-knitters
I have never had a problem with the knit unraveling, but I try to choose a tighter
knit. Usually something that is scale appropriate to an 18" doll. I serge the
shoulder, sleeves and sides, but handsew the front and hem with a whipstitch. I
would zig zag the edges, if I didn't have a serger. The first few I made were
from sweaters that I had saved from my angora sweater days. I quickly used those
up and moved to thrift stores...You may want to experiment with something like
that (using zig zag stitches).
To prevent ravelling of woven as well as knitted fabric one can stay stitch
along a line just inside the cutting line BEFORE cutting. I had to do that
on a very loosely woven fabric for a child's garment. Alternatively, one can
apply scotch tape all along the outline of where the cutting will be so that
you cut out the pattern piece thru the tape leaving enough tape to secure
the edge before you sew. You could also sew a protective bias tape encasing
the raw edge as an added protection after stay stitching. This whole effort
should only be necessary for the rare case, like mine, when the fabric is
very loose and very expensive.
I cut the ribbing for the neck from the bottom of the sweater, where the knit
turns into ribbing through the knitting process. The sweaters are all cardigans
and so there is no problem getting them over the heads of the dolls. I sew snaps
to fasten them on the inside and then sew buttons, pearls, ribbon roses and other
things to the front of the cardigan to finish the look. (I drafted the sweater
pattern from a t-shirt pattern I made).
I finish the neck with the ribbing just to replicate what a "real" sweater looks
like - it is just the way I like to do it, but you could finish it in many other ways.
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