Second-Time Cool: The Art of Chopping Up a Sweater

by Anna-Stina Linden Ivarsson, Katarina Brieditis, Katarina Evans

Create unique fashion styles using old sweaters! Here's a book for anyone interested in designing a wardrobe that expresses individuality in fun and creative ways. Second-Time Cool shows how easy it can be to recycle knitted sweaters and strike a dazzling look. Simply grab an old wool sweater, wash in the hot cycle, pick up the scissors, and follow the instructions outlined in this book. Ideas include appliqués, slippers, vests, wrist and leg warmers, stylish tops, bags and purses, and much more. The book helps readers think creatively about what can become a sleeve can become a mitten, the center of a sweater a skirt, and a turtleneck a hat. The authors remind readers to look for interesting fashions from the past in secondhand stores. Retro is it's all about learning to customize, cut up, and change used clothes with confidence. Also included Instruction pages are replete with full-color photography, while images displaying the end results offer inspiration. The authors are a collective of Swedish designers, expert knitters, and fashion journalists.

Genres: Crafts, Sewing, Nonfiction, Knitting

92 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Anna-Stina Linden-Ivarsson was born in June 1951 in Sweden and is a freelance fashion journalist.

Anna-Stina studied art, craft, and design at the Nyckelviksskolan school in Stockholm. In the true tradition of Nordic design education, the school promoted artistic development with a focus on materials and techniques. With the experience and knowledge she gained from Nyckelviksskolan, she embarked on a career in fashion journalism after a short stint as a nurse in the 1970s.

From 1981 to 1995, she was a fashion writer for Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest morning paper. Since then, she’s been freelancing, continuing to write for the paper and for other fashion magazines, daily papers, weekly and monthly magazines, and television.

Anna-Stina was asked to write Second Time Cool: The Art of Chopping Up a Sweater (2005) with Katarina Brieditis and Katarina Evans, two designers who specialize in knitting and embroidery. For Second Time Cool, Anna-Stina wrote the text and chose the pictures while Katarina and Katarina created the designs and how-to instructions for recycling old wool sweaters into something new. Second Time Cool is unique because it mixes the history of textiles with fashion, classical textile techniques, and recycling to make “new” fashionable clothes.

Anna-Stina’s interests are arts, crafts, and fashion. She has two children and lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Reviews

[Lise Petrauskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really inspiring. I got it out from the library about three or four times. It has a very non-American aesthetic, which I like. It's not too fancy and cleaned up. I've made the slippers several times and one pair I wear daily. I've made two hats based on ideas from the book, and gloves, which I love, both for myself and as presents. I made leg warmers...It's shelved as a kid's book, but it is quite rich in interesting photographs of one-off projects. I don't get the frustration that many craft books give me when the projects are too specific and regimented and not to my taste. The spirit of collaboration, accident, and play are all celebrated. The projects are cute, but not cutesy, not twee in the least.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

My library has this as a Young Adult book but I think it straddles the line with regular adult craft books. I thought the layout was fun and really liked the high fashion photos, particularly John Galliano's work (despite his douche-bag behavior) and I appreciated that some of the young models had tummies instead of everyone being a Size 0. Many looks are pretty rough and there aren't step-by-step directions per se... but there are tons of photos of the creative finished pieces. Lots of inspiration here!

[Amberwench · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upcycled clothing can be polished and elegant. This is not that book.

Ideas and variation on how to DIY truly unique clothing, this book is the perfect way for the hands-on punk child/tween in your life to spend hours at a time entertaining themselves with a couple thrift store sweaters and cheap embroidery supplies.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

mostly just pictures of different ideas of how to use old sweaters with a few references to different design inspirations. Not a lot of how to. A place to start with ideas.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very, very basic.

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is horrid. I'd give it .25 stars if I could. It's mostly examples of ridiculous unwearable designer recycled looking clothing, not repurposed sweaters. You know how runway styles are often ridiculous? These make those look off-the-rack.

There are but a handful of items the book writers? Designers? made but they're mixed in with patterns from the past and ads that have no bearing whatsoever on the subject of the book. And they're hideous.

There are almost no instructions for anything, just examples of what you could do. The people wearing them look like hobos or like street kids would dress in a futuristic science fiction movie.

This book is just awful and the title doesn't fit at all. For example, there are photos of a boa made from rubber bands that is apparently extremely heavyweight, 1946 knitted bikinis, a bold hat from a high end designer that the authors describe as probably being inspired by ancient Incan design (could be but it also looks like a full color version of a Tibetan Galusha order hat which is the headdress the Dalai Lama wears in ceremonial garb and is frequently worn in photos of him. The runway designs don't appear to have any sweater I n them let alone chopped up ones.

I just don't get the point of this book.

[Knitology]

For anyone interested in designing a wardrobe that expresses individuality in fun and creative ways Simply grab an old wool sweater, wash in the hot cycle, pick up the scissors, and follow the instructions outlined in this book. Ideas include appliqués, slippers, vests, wrist and leg warmers, stylish tops, bags and purses, and much more. The book helps readers think creatively about what can become what: a sleeve can become a mitten, the center of a sweater a skirt, and a turtleneck a hat.

[Trena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This punky cool book about sweater reconstruction has a fair number of projects with detailed enough instructions. Some of the projects are too awesome for someone of my advanced age, but the information was useful and there are lots of pictures to inspire. I would flip through this one (or check it out from the library) before committing to buy, because it's something you read once or twice and then move on, not a reference to keep on your shelf.

[Juneau Public Library]

This book is full of inspiring ideas about how you can re-use your old sweaters and turn them into new clothing and accessories. Make mittens, scarves, slippers, bags and more from the raw materials you already have in your closet. Includes an overview of how to re-purpose sweaters, basic instructions, and lots of pictures and ideas for how to embellish your re-purposed woolies.

Recommended by Cheryl

[Autumn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is long on inspiration and short on practical advice. The things they do try to explain (crochet)are covered way too briefly to do any good. However, it is an authentic look at Scandinavian thrift store couture.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initial thoughts after reading (found in a notebook): Pretty, some of the things I would never wear, but I definitely would look it over because often times bad books are nearly as good as good books.

[Donna]

The art of chopping up a sweater. Again, very cool ideas for recycling old sweaters. I've already got a couple projects in the works.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very inspiring. Not as much how-to detail as I would like.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough detail for me to figure this out on my own, or be able to just...do the crafts, I guess. It seemed very complicated.

[Cyndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The styles represented are clearly not for me, but I still found it rather inspirational.

[Bobi Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like that people are trying things like this. I had higher expectations for the projects featured, though.

[Marianne Mullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas book. Reviews basics of stitches, knitting, crochet, and has great pictures. Looking forward to using this book for inspiration as I begin new projects.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really fun - ideas and high fashion mixed with DIY hobo clothes

[Sara Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty neat but requires WAY more ambition than I gotz!!