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Restyling, revising, repurposing. They're all very valuable skills. When you tag on the word "sweatshirts" after each skill you might think of my guest. Over 20 years ago Mary Mulari made her first guest appearance on my show with "Restyling Sweatshirts." She's still developing expressive ways to revise this wardrobe basic. Welcome back, Mary! Nancy, it's great to be back! I have a whole lot more great ideas for sweatshirts. A sweatshirt is an ideal palette for expression. Start with a collection of 2-1/2" fabric strips. With creative stitching, turning, and more stitching we'll show you how to convert a pullover into a cardigan that has visual motion. I call this expressive sweatshirt "Stripes in Motion." It's the perfect place to begin sweatshirt restyling. "Expressive Sweatshirts" that's what's coming up next on Sewing With Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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Baby Lock a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover makers of sewing, knitting, quilting and embroidery products for over 25 years. Experience the Clover difference. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. To revise any sweatshirt the first step is to do some deconstruction. We're going to turn this pullover sweatshirt into an open-up-the-front garment. Notice that on the "Stripes in Motion" that there isn't a binding at the bottom. The ribbing is gone from the sweatshirt and it doesn't really look like a sweatshirt at all. No, we've used some colorful strips of fabric to make it much more interesting. You'll find that throughout this series and the book that accompanies the program that there are some common elements that almost all of your designs require. Very often I take off the bottom ribbing of the sweatshirt. Just cut it off. That's right, and I always save these. We're going to be using them on many projects also. But for now, we're turning up the edge of this sweatshirt and sewing twice around to give a ready-to-wear look to the hemline of the sweatshirt. Then we mark center front. That's often another step that we'll be doing on many of these shirts. So to get the center front you just folded the shoulder seams to match the side seams if there are seams, and mark the fold. That's right. Mark it distinctly because you will need to follow that line carefully. I'm sure many of you who sew have purchased already-cut fabrics. A Jelly Roll, or 2-1/2" strips, are commonly assembled together in pretty coordinates. That's what Mary has used to make this design. Take some of the work out, Nancy because all of these strips coordinate and we can combine them in interesting ways. So, the first step is to fuse some fabric strips together to these. They're 2-1/2" and you have placed them on either side of the line. Of the center front, yes. Then there's sewing on each side of that line. I feel this is an important step in stabilizing a cardigan front. That's stitching 1/4" away from the center front line and then for this particular shirt we can roll back those facing pieces and they're really hidden on the underside of both sides of the shirt. Now you would require some pressing at this point. That's right. We're kind of just... We'll be pressing later in this program but right now, we're just going to bypass it. Then we need to make our decorative strips. They're all 2-1/2", but what I do is for the one strip that I want on top I cut off a piece. So now I'm working with a 1-1/2" strip. I'm going to combine that with a 2-1/2" strip. Here's the next step. There's a seam on both sides of the top piece. They don't line up, obviously because they're not the same width. But we created a tube and we used a tool here to turn that right side out. Mary, you have closed one end which I have tried to get the tube in, but it doesn't work. That's right. That makes it easier to pull this right side out. It's a quick process. Generally I use half of a strip. The strips are around 40" long and I use about half of two strips. So, this is 20". And it ends up being, because you cut that-- The wider piece of fabric kind of frames the top piece and adds some interest to the strip in that way. Of course pressing is going to make a big difference. The seam allowances will go to the edge. I didn't do a very good job of getting the edges out at the corner, but... We can work on that later. Yes, I will work on that later. Then you can do some more marking. That's right. We need to take out a ruler and draw some guidelines on the front of this shirt for placing our stripes. There will be one in the center front, a straight one. Then I'm going to draw a line here. This is a line that will come out. The stripes in motion, we start by pinning. You can use the guideline for the first and then we make an angled fold. This requires some pinning in through the sweatshirt and the stripe. Then I'll angle it again in this direction. I try to make each of the stripes for this process line up a little differently so they're not all equal and the same. You can continue that down and do some more folding in place. That gives the stripe some interest. Then you could intersperse them with straight stripes. Then there's also one that is sewn in the middle. It is sewn down about halfway over so this becomes a placket opening for the sweatshirt. On the finished sweatshirt, I have even extended that down so that it stands out below the bottom edge. To position these onto the garment to stabilize them or to permanently sew them, I should say here's a close up of using a blanket stitch a clear thread, just stitching in the well of the seam to attach all of the layers together. Clear thread is a marvelous thread to use. Yes, with all these color combinations it blends and the stitching is invisible. You don't have to change your thread all the time. That's right. We'll take another look at Mary's finished cardigan. To finish, we'll just show quickly how to work with the button loops. Well, these are hair bands, Nancy. I tend to like hair products for closures! And I have one here that we have done a little bit of stitching. Then, we're sewing little bands or strips of faux suede. Then these are wrapped, so we don't see our stitching. They're secured then on the edge of the cardigan placket. So, they're topstitched right to that center placket. Great elastic! Nice button loops! What a wonderful way to finish off your sweatshirt "Stripes in Motion." So, this is the first expressive sweatshirt of the series. Most sweatshirts aren't restyled equally. Remove the sleeves to make a vest and then utilize the sleeves to trim the vest. This serge and twist design features 1" strips cut from the sleeves and then serged along the edges. Mary's idea of serging and then twisting the strips before adding them to the vest makes for a clever embellishment. We'll take another close-up look at this design. It's more tonal than the last one that we had. That's right. It's not quite as bright. We have a placket made from the ribbing of the bottom of the sweatshirt. We have trims cut from the sleeve and we've utilized our serger for this. And, of course also turned back the edges of the cut sweatshirt armholes to make the finished edge. Throughout the series and in Mary's book you'll find many options in the hemming when we removed the binding or the ribbing from the bottom. Instead of just turning up the hem you can add length by using a strip of fabric. Some people like to save the full length of the sweatshirt after they cut off the ribbing so this is a great way to face the hem. So, before we can have revisions we have to deconstruct this. Sleeves off, obviously, to make a vest and at the bottom we have our facing pinned in place. We're ready to sew that. That would either be with one or two strips of the 2-1/2" prepared strips that we used in the previous project. Then we mark center front. That's going to be a really common denominator. Before we cut open or add the placket, there's yardage. The yardage is in the leftover sleeves. That's right. We're going to cut strips, 1" wide strips of the sleeve fabric. And they can be of any length. Dictated, of course, by the length of the sleeve. Right. The finished vest has three on each side of center front. Then also for the button loops you've cut narrower strips. Yes, 1/2" strips for button loops. Then to serge the edges use a narrow overlock stitch and a contrasting thread and serge each edge. It's a really quick finish, but a nice accent. It's especially effective with pigment-dyed sweatshirts. When you twist these strips, Nancy, it's quite obvious what is the right side and the other side of this sweatshirt so that adds a nice element of design, as well. Now the button loops are going to go on first after marking the center front. Here is a strip that we might serge. It's much narrower than the decorative stripes. Then we cut this in approximately 5" lengths. That will be determined also by the size of the buttons that you choose for this. We will place the first one here near the top of the neck. Sure. So, the length could be determined. Check it on your button that you choose first of all. So then place the number that you'd like and then we can do the placket. Same width, 2-1/2", that we had in our last element but instead of using cotton strips of fabric Mary, you used the ribbing from the bottom. That's right. The seams were all cut off of this piece. See, I told you we save all of these. Then we can open that up and fuse lightweight interfacing to the back. So they were cut approximately 1-1/4" from the fold. That's right. So we have two of equal size. We turned the edges back at top and bottom and here we have our loops in place already. Then we can cut open the center front to again, make an opening in our vest. I'll quickly do this. Now we're all set to turn this to the backside. You'd have to do some stitching. Then the loops go over and you secure them also in the middle. We might draw a line on the sweatshirt we pin, and then we twist. With a line on the shirt it's of course going to be easier to follow. I'm making a guess here, but I like how this looks when we see both sides of the sweatshirt fleece. Then the final step would be to do the straight stitching along the edges. Just stitch down. I use thread that matches the serging and then it's a hidden seam. Serge and twist, its another expressive sweatshirt. Dip into a collection of coordinating 2-1/2" fabric strips to trim a sweatshirt with crossbars. Consider modifying the armhole for a more fitted look and curving the hemline for more style. There are so many ways to be expressive with a sweatshirt. When we take another look at Mary's design you'll see that those Jelly Roll Strips those 2-1/2" wide strips, come in very handy especially a collection. Even small pieces work well. You've combined the closure technique from the vest and the cardigan technique on one closure. That's right. There's more than one way to open up that front. On the back, I gathered together at the waistline a little bit for a little bit of fitting and style on the back. You also curved the back a little bit longer. We're going to work with the strips of fabric. Many of your viewers, Nancy, have these collections and they really are fun to work with. So we start with a 2-1/2" strip and we cut paper-backed fusible web and fuse these together. I used the pinking blade, either the pinking shears or the pinking blade on a rotary cutter and made the edges more interesting. Like before, we hemmed the lower edge with fabric or you could turn up the edge, the choice is yours. Mark the center front. Mary, you did some fitting in here. One side has two darts pinned in place. These would be applied when you have the sweatshirt on and you check the fit. Sometimes armholes are very deep so you may want to do that. Then you marked the center front. We have cut the neck ribbing open from the back. So it's just one layer. We're going to make it smaller, so it isn't quite so wide. So that's why we have trimmed that at this point. Now, some positioning. We're ready now to put the bars in place. We'll peel off the paper-backed web and make an arrangement. I like to not line all of these edges up. I like to kind of stagger the edges and they can be placed at any intervals that you might like. Then they're going to be fused in place, of course. Let's put that one over here. I'll start the fusing. Then after fusing you can do stitching along the edges. Whether the sweatshirt is either open or closed. You can do this at two different times, actually. The choice is yours. That's right. Then we can add the placket. We have the placket sewn down, actually with the ribbing on one side and the fabric strip folded in half, on the other. Then you just turn everything around. You kind of saw us do that in the preceding two techniques. Let's take a look at this neckline at the top. It's narrower, and a lot of people tell me that they prefer a narrower neck ribbing. Then, after it's stitched in place sometimes I take out the pinking shears and I trim the edge, as well so it looks neat in the neckline. Then stitch in the ditch, stitch in the well of the seam to make that narrower. In the back, you've gathered 6" above the area and added just a little tab. With some more creative use of Jelly Rolls some placket variations, and of course a vest you have another expressive idea. Adapt one of Mary's innovative techniques to convert a pullover into a cardigan. Then add a colorful flower and a graceful vine with leaves to the sweatshirt front. It's a simple addition with great impact. As we take a close-up look at the bloom and vine design you'll see that instead of buttonholes and buttons it has a snap closure. This is your fourth variation of this placket front. That's right. I can't do them all the same. I wish you would be consistent! The reference material for today's show will include all the steps for this particular variation. We are going to concentrate on making the vine the dimensional flower, and the techniques that follow. The renovation of the sweatshirt is what we have been working with earlier in today's program. Remove the ribbing from the bottom add a placket opening, and you have kind of a unique... Yes, Nancy, I like to angle them. We cut the edges of the neck ribbing, then angle them then actually sew that down. It becomes a more comfortable neckline and the top corners of the ribbing don't curl under. The vine is the first dimensional accent that we're going to feature, and you can cut bias strips of fabric using a bias tape maker. Thread the end through the wide end of the maker. Advance it with a pin. As it starts to come out of the narrow end I'll grab the iron and we'll press it. As you're pressing this the long ends will be pressed toward the middle. You'll have a nice bias strip to form. Now you can shape that. Pin it onto the front of the jacket. And you're going to press a lot longer area than what I did. Another option would be to use pre-made bias tape. Yes, we can buy this in a roll that has fusible backing and that could be used to shorten the process. So after positioning this, you use a topstitch or blind hem stitch, to position the vines. The most important part the leaves and the flower. I've talked already about how I saved the bottom ribbings. Here is the bottom ribbing from a green sweatshirt. I put some interfacing and I cut my leaf shape out. I cut, actually, three for this sweatshirt. Then, the flower. This, Nancy, here is a piece of a sweatshirt sleeve that came from the sweatshirt you're wearing. Next week you will see this. That's right, and three circles of varying sizes. I cut them out with a pinking shears and then I sew them with a little bit of an X through the center. Then after putting them through the washer and the dryer this is how they turn out. Then I trim the base fabric away and I sew a snap to the bottom of that so my blossom is also reversible. You cut the edges. You cut the edges so that they are kind of "fringy" going around each layer. After washing and drying you get this variation And you can see it's very creative and innovative. My "Nancy's Corner" guest received her degree in textiles, fashion and embroidery in Nottinghamshire, England. Her love of landscapes gnarled tree roots to frozen ice sculptures combined with her expertise in textural stitching results in great artwork. I'd like you to welcome Julie Crabtree to Sewing with Nancy. You're going to be amazed with her stitchery! Julie, thanks for being with us. Thank you Nancy, it's very nice to be here. I saw an article about you in a newspaper and saw pictures of your images and I was impressed. Then, when I saw the real thing I was literally amazed because the 3-dimensional look that you're able to achieve with stitchery is second to none. Thank you. This design has dimensional birch trees and leaves and there's lots of interest in here. But, you just don't start without a plan. No, there is a process. I do take a lot of photographs, mainly for observation but then I go to my sketchbook and do an image design. From this, I go to ideas. This one is lots of little snippets of fabric bringing in the colorization of the background adding stitching, hand stitching machine stitching, building up lots of layers then dissolving the soluble stabilizer. Putting this onto a canvas background which becomes the whole background for the piece. From this piece, I do more stitching hand stitching, machine stitching. Then adding the trees, the texturing on the trees working my way towards the foreground with the little branches, the leaves, the beads which are all hand stitched, to make the depth of the piece. It's amazing. It's just lovely. Thank you. I like the size, you know, it's a manageable size. It's pretty to look at. The next image we're going to share with you is a little bit more contemporary in look. Yes, this is more of the stylized landscape but it is still a landscape. Again, worked with little snippets of fabric on soluble stabilizer, stitching hand stitching, machine stitching beads, and again coming to the foreground. Bringing little pieces of felted fabric to make the depth and texture. Your inspiration, I think, was from the southwest. Yes, this one was. It's called the "Prickly Pear Cactus." The next piece we are going to look at is a little larger. Again, it doesn't have any glass on it so we can kind of see the dimension. Oh, pretty. Thank you. Just stunning. You brought along with you some step-by-steps, how you build it. I think that our viewers would really appreciate this. So, we'll put this down. Thank you. You combined painting after your first... Yes, this is the way I normally work my pieces. It's on cotton canvas fabric, very closely woven fabric. I do an outline of what I want to do. Just a very wash of paint for the background. I very rarely paint the sky. Then just a few lines where I'm assuming some trees were. A little bit does a lot there. Then the next image. The next image, I've done a little bit more painting. This is normally more than I would use but for demonstration purpose it gives you an idea of where the coloring for the flowers... And, the type of paint that you use? It's a watered-down acrylic. Okay It doesn't need to be too thick. A watered-down acrylic. Yes, then I start stitching the background as you would a painting, working from the back to the foreground and building up. And, free-motion embroidery. Free-motion embroidery. Then we have more free-motion embroidery. Again, building up layer upon layer adding texture, hand-dyed cheesecloth little snippets of fabric and just keep building up and building up. Then the final dimension. The final piece, which is a lot of hand stitching beads, embroidery stitches, fabrics and my little signature piece is the fencing, which I put on a lot of my pieces. We'll take a look at your large image that we have here with some interesting canvas work. You can see the dimension and beads. It's just charming. Thank you. You have really taken stitchery and textiles to a new level. Thank you very much. Well, I'm impressed. I'm sure that you are impressed too, with Julie's work. Thank you for being our guest. Next time on Sewing With Nancy we'll continue our 2-part series on "Expressive Sweatshirts" and Mary Mulari will be our guest again. To find more information on the "Nancy's Corner" guest remember to go to sewingwithnancy.com click on "Nancy's Corner," in the 2400 series. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now. Mary Mulari and Nancy have written a fully-illustrated book entitled "Expressive Sweatshirts" that includes all information from this two-part series. It's $14.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our Web site at sewingwithnancy.com/2411 Order Item No. BK2411, "Expressive Sweatshirts." Credit Card orders only. To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's Web site for more information on this program. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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Baby Lock Madeira Threads Koala Studios Clover Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Rowenta. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.