Laura came over recently. We seamed up her sweater for her husband Paul. We used an alternative method:

Yup, we cut several inches off of the knit pieces.

Have a sweater that turned out too big? Here’s what you do. Pin it together and try it on. Pin it again until you get a good fit. Then grab some good scissors, take a deep breath and cut off the excess. We left about a 1/4″ for seaming.

Getting it through the sewing machine is a bit tricky. I used a heavy duty needle and went slow.

First we cut the excess off the sides, about eight inches total.

Next up we sewed the tops of the front and back together.

Then we cut about four inches off the sleeves and sewed them to the body.

We tried it on and it fit Paul! Later Laura picked up stitches and knit the neck ribbing.

Want to know the punchline to this whole situation? She got gauge for this pattern. Yup, gauge can lie.