Tutorial - arm warmers/altered top

I've been admiring arm warmers for a while.
They come in various lengths, just covering hand and wrist (as in Alice in wonderland), hand and forearm, hand up past the elbow.

Any colour and any style too.
I've seen plenty made out of felted woolen jerseys lately. But this one is a little different.

These arm warmers are made from a cut up knitted top.

Yes its orange with black trimmings.
I have a thing for orange at the present.... no correction... I have a thing for colour. I really don't wear much black at all.... but that will be another post.




You will need:

1. An old long sleeve top.
2. scissors
3. sewing machine
4. felt or other fabric to finish off/trim the thumb hole and top of arm

Step 1:
cut off arms
and cut off stinky part of under arm then discard that bit. Keep the top and arms.

Step 2:
cut out of black felt 1" strips that are long enough for your thumb holes and your arm holes.

Step 3:
cut Holes in your sleeves near the cuff.
Cut along the seam.
Make sure they are 1" from the end in both sleeves.
Try to make the cuts straight (unlike my example)

Step 4:
Sew ends of all your 1" strips together.

Step 5:
Pin smaller strips to thumb holes folding the edges of the hole into the strips and sew. (this is the fiddly bit but keeps it from fraying when wearing it)
Keeping seam of strip opposite side to the end of the sleeve. (this keeps the bulk of the seams away from the hand.)
do for both sleeves.

Step 6:
Do the same with the end of the sleeves. I also later on added black wool by sewing in a weave (in and out type style) as they kept falling down. You can add black shearing elastic to keep them up. It would be a better option I think.

Step 7:
Try them on and Pose!!!

I also decided to finish off the top around where the sleeves were by double folding and zig zag stitching.

Again another pose!
I put my watch on the outside so I could see it. Seen this done.

and because of my colour fettish i put on a bright blue plain top underneath ($9 at Temt from Northlands mall) with blue jeans. (same ones posted the other day - I had bought 2 at once).


Original top was bought on sale last year for about $10 - forget the name of the shop.