Shrug it off - a pretty little how to

I arrived late during the shrug trend of 2005. In fact I didn’t purchase one until the sales of 2006 and then it was couple of years before I wore it. However I find it vital bit of wardrobe in that it goes with things that proper cardigans don’t. I really see it as a set of sleeves. It keeps you warm and covers up bare shoulders in the office. A great bit of summer kit. I was about to start looking for a shrug pattern a while back when refashioning inspiration struck!

I have a jumper that was just a little bit too small. But I really like the colour. So I fiddled around a bit chopping and sewing and created this:

This refashioning concept also works well with t-shirts that have gotten a bit baggy or thin (i.e. see through). On Saturday I converted two tops into long sleeved shrugs and have loving documented the process for your crafting pleasure.

Take top and be certain that you are ready to cut it up. I have green t-shirt which is so loose bending over in it has become dangerous and a creamy jumper which don’t fit very well.

First decide how long you want the back to be. Measure an existing garment if possible. Don’t forget to leave a bit extra for a hem if you want one. Some fabric rolls up in a very pleasing manner and removes the need for a hem.


Measure this length on you garment and chop the bottom off.

Then cut up the front of the garment. You can hem the raw edges now if you like (or not).

That’s it unless…

You have very long arms (like me) and want to use up the leftover bit of fabric that you chopped off you can extend the sleeves.

Take your chunk of fabric and either rip the stitches or cut up the seam. You want to keep close the actual seam. Now you want to make tubes of fabric. Put your shrug on so that you can see where the sleeves come down to. Wrap the fabric round your arm and pin so that you can get an idea of width. Then cut. The amount of fabric and the size of your arm will affect how long your tubes will be. Remember you do need to be able to get the thing on and off so unless you have a lot of stretch in the fabric absolutely skin tight probably won’t work.

Make the tubes by turning the fabric wrong side out and sewing done the open side. I’ve done this on a machine but you could hand sew.

Join the tubes together. I find this easiest to do by putting them over my hand and spreading my fingers to stretch smaller bit of fabric. On my first shrug I hand sewed these because I wanted the joins to be invisible. I did this round on the machine. Then in the same way attach tubes to existing sleeves.


That’s it unless you’ve been lazy like me and left the hemming to the end. I used a zigzag stitch in this which results in this pleasingly wavy edge.

Go and discover all the things your new long sleeved shrug goes with.