Hey ladies!
I am going to share with you a quick DIY for adding on knit cuffs to your favorite knit cardigan or t-shirt!
After finishing up my new knits with rolled hems, I realized that something was missing...CUFFS!
I have several boutique knit cardis that have seen better days.
I found that when I made my own , I just had to have the cuffs.
I feel it adds a nice finish, keeps me warm, and allows me to push up my sleeves for washing the dishes.
I love everything about the new cardigans I serged up.
I used the Swoon Scarf neck cardigan pdf Pattern.
Here is my teen daughter wearing her first serger project.
She did this on on her own!
She opted to follow the pdf and not add the cuffs to hers.
If you love this style as much as we do, head over to
Swoon to download your FREE girls or women's pdf...
Sweet. I love freebies!
Ok , back to business.
All you need are a few scraps that are left after you have your Swoon cardi all cut out.
Go ahead and use these cuffs on ANY long sleeve knit top!
Raglans, hoodies, ringer tees, for kiddies or adults will work the same.
Follow the pdf directions...except, you can skip finishing the sleeve hem.
Trim your sleeve length so the edge of the sleeve falls to your wrist.
Measure your wrist and add 1".
My wrist is 7", so I will add 1" and cut two cuffs at 8" wide.
BE CERTAIN that the greatest stretch of your knit is going left to right.
(For example, if I pull my knit from left to right, it stretches a lot. If I then pull my knit from top to bottom, it does not stretch as much or at all.)
I thought that a finished cuff length of 3" would be great.
To make that happen, I cut a length of 7".
We will fold this cuff in half soon so I allowed for that and up to 1/2" of a seam allowance.
Next, fold the right sides together (greatest stretch is still left to right here).
Serge the 7" long edge.
When you have finished doing this to both cuffs, it will look like the photo above.
Now, fold the cuff in half, wrong sides together.
The raw edges of the cuff should match up and the serged edges are enclosed inside the cuff.
Repeat with the other cuff.
Here is my rolled edge that I used before.
It is great, just not what I need.
Take the cuff and center the seam on one side. Take a pin and mark the center of the opposite side of the cuff, as shown above.
Mark the end of the sleeve in the same way.
To attach your cuff, match up the seams...
insert your sleeve (yours should be unfinished)...
and match up all raw edges.
Use the pins you placed on the cuffs to help you evenly distribute your fabric all the way around the cuff edges.
You will need to do some stretching/easing here.
My sleeve was ALOT larger than my cuff.
If you want, you could run a basting stitch along the sleeve edge and gather it.
I just pinned and stretched it.
When you have all raw edges matched up and your pins placed to help you ease the fabric, head over to your sewing machine.
Eh, I know, you don't wanna sew knits, you wanna serge them.
We will get to that.
The large amount of fabric that we have and the slinky nature of the tissue knit really needs to be basted first.
You do not want to mess this up on your serger...trust me.
Using a 1/4" seam allowance, baste the raw edges together, stretching the cuff to fit and being SURE to catch all 3 layers.
NOW you can head on over to the serger.
serge off that nasty basting stitch, cutting away the messy raw edges as you go.
Make sure that you go slowly, and do not catch any other sleeve or cuff fabric under your presser foot.
Eeek! LOVE my serged edge!
Get your large eyed needle and hide those serger tails in the seam.
Trim off the excess thread.
Voila!
You now have a lovely new cuff on your cardigan!
Have a beautiful day!
If you love this style as much as we do, head over to
Swoon to download your FREE girls or women's pdf...
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Thanks to Swoon patterns for this great FREE pattern!
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