Square Bolero...

Let's call this a bolero and not a shrug. Bolero sounds of music and latin songs and Spain, while shrug sounds like this:  ...a form of nonverbal communication that is performed by lifting both shoulders up, and is an indication of an individual either not knowing an answer to a question, or not caring... (Wikipedia)

Last week while thrifting I found the bolero pictured above hanging sadly on its hanger. The reason why it looks shapeless on a hanger is that the bolero is actually a square and only recognizable as a shrug when worn. This one was made by H&M and loosely knitted. The "dress" on the right is actually a skirt I made this week from two black t-shirts. I used two different tones of black (easy, if you have only thrift shop t-shirts to work with, ha! Finding matching ones is tough). Luckily, thrift stores have plenty of black shirts so they can be pieced together for a bigger project.

I love the idea of garments that drape and move and are not what they seem to be. Obviously I wanted to understand how to make one of those. The measurements below are for a child (or very small adult: me) size bolero, because my daughter was intrigued by the idea of a square which could be worn as a vest and wanted one, too. The good thing is that experimenting is fun, as the vests are simple and fast to make: Here are some images from my notebook.

Measurements in inches.

The one pictured just above was made from thrifted t-shirts and looks very similar to the one in the top image, although it doesn't drape quite as well. The "pattern" would be perfect for the knitters amongst you!

I'll definitely will make a bigger one to keep me warm in the cool North East summer nights. Yep,  a woman can dream, right?

Have a lovely weekend!