made cardigan too big

[zmir64]

i’m crocheting a cardigan and realised i made my front panels too big. can i fold them in and slip stitch them to be secured or should i just start again?

[Granny Square]

I would start again, sorry this happened.  Sewing a seam is going to bulky and (if it were me) I would always be annoyed and unhappy with it.  There will be 4 layers of fabric where there should only be 1 in that area.

The good news, and I know it is all in my head - it seems to go quicker the second time...I've been crocheting for decades and have done a LOT of ripping and redoing!

If you are a beginner, or someone for whom this is their first wearable project, you may not have known this was important (until now) - for a wearable ALWAYS use the same hook size and yarn weight called out in the pattern to make a swatch before you start, and make sure it matches what the pattern says it should be--if you had done so, you'd have known there was a problem after making a slightly larger than 4" square, not after all the work you have done that will have to be ripped out and started over.  

Your hook and yarn combo made a too-big fabric, so go down a hook size and make a swatch as the pattern says, and if that doesn't work make another with a yet smaller hook.  You and the designer are both humans (meaning we're all different including our stitch gauges), you just happen to make looser stitches than the designer does with the same hook and yarn weight. 

Make the swatch a little bigger than 4 inches (or whatever size the pattern says, 4" is typical) to avoid wonky edge stitches, then measure the interior 4" across, count the number of stitches you have even if it is a fraction of a stitch - let's say it's 19.5 stitches across=4".  Divide 4 by 19.5, which is 0.2051" per stitch.  Now, look at the number of stitches at the hip or bust (probably the same if no shaping), let's say it is 100 stitches across the sweater back.  Multiply that with the 0.2051" from your earlier transaction, that ends up being 20.51", times 2 (for the front, without overlap or edging)is 41.02 inches around the body, which is probably around a medium-ish size with a small positive ease*.  I am making up numbers so follow the method not the numbers I'm getting, but hopefully this makes sense.  I always keep a cheap calculator in my project page, it gets used a lot...

*ease-amount that the garment is bigger or smaller than your skin, negative ease would stretch to fit, positive ease is the amount of 'wiggle room' between it and you.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Granny Square

[zmir64]

.

Edited June 6, 2021 by zmir64

[zmir64]

6 minutes ago, Granny Square said:

I would start again, sorry this happened.  Sewing a seam is going to bulky and (if it were me) I would always be annoyed and unhappy with it.  There will be 4 layers of fabric where there should only be 1 in that area.

The good news, and I know it is all in my head - it seems to go quicker the second time...I've been crocheting for decades and have done a LOT of ripping and redoing!

If you are a beginner, or someone for whom this is their first wearable project, you may not have known this was important (until now) - for a wearable ALWAYS use the same hook size and yarn weight called out in the pattern to make a swatch before you start, and make sure it matches what the pattern says it should be--if you had done so, you'd have known there was a problem after making a slightly larger than 4" square, not after all the work you have done that will have to be ripped out and started over.  

Your hook and yarn combo made a too-big fabric, so go down a hook size and make a swatch as the pattern says, and if that doesn't work make another with a yet smaller hook.  You and the designer are both humans, you just happen to make looser stitches than the designer does with the same hook and yarn weight. 

Make the swatch a little bigger than 4 inches (or whatever size the pattern says, 4" is typical) to avoid wonky edge stitches, then measure the interior 4" across, count the number of stitches you have even if it is a fraction of a stitch - let's say it's 19.5 stitches across=4".  Divide 4 by 19.5, which is 0.2051" per stitch.  Now, look at the number of stitches at the hip or bust (probably the same if no shaping), let's say it is 100 stitches across the sweater back.  Multiply that with the 0.2051" from your earlier transaction, that ends up being 20.51", times 2 (for the front, without overlap or edging)is 41.02 inches around the body, which is probably around a medium-ish size with a small positive ease*.  I am making up numbers so follow the method not the numbers I'm getting, but hopefully this makes sense.  I always keep a cheap calculator in my project page, it gets used a lot...

*ease-amount that the garment is bigger or smaller than your skin, negative ease would stretch to fit, positive ease is the amount of 'wiggle room' between it and you.

thank you. i’ll try again and go from there. i’m a beginner so i really appreciate the advice!! thank you so much!!!