Do you have a sweater tunic that is of an awkward, dated length? The one that doesn’t quite cover your backside and also pairs poorly with all the high-waisted bottoms that you bought over the last year? The good news is that you can crop them easily with use of a torso-width piece of flat elastic (which I explained at the end of this post). Or, for a (what I consider) creative no-sew way to shorten a sweater, you can also create a knotted effect at the hem with the use of a single hair elastic.
All you have to do is 1) fold your (longer) sweater from each side towards the center (as seen in the top left corner of the above image), 2) while maintaining the folds you made earlier, lift the sweater so the underside is exposed, 3) tie the hair elastic where you would like the new hem to fall, and 4) tuck the gathered piece of material (and the sides of the sweater) inward.
Voila! Your sweater now has a shorter length and a neat knotted front.
* Note that this “no-sew-crop-sweater” trick works best on sweaters that have a more relaxed shape and also aren’t overly long or chunky. The longer and heavier the sweater, the bulkier and more unnatural the bulge in front will be, so there are some limitations on how well this trick can be executed
