Drape front cardigan to shawl collar cardigan

Last year drape front cardigans were everywhere. I bought 3 in different colours - dark burgundy, dark navy and dark green. Unfortunately they were not that flattering on me though I wore them anyway.
This year I noticed the cardigan in the shops whilst still long were now straight and this was much more flattering. I thought about donating my drape front ones, or maybe cutting them up using my cardigan pattern, however after a bit of experimentation I realised if I just cut a small section out of the back neck and sewed it back together I could get a straight shawl collar cardigan. So I gave it a try.

So here's what the cardigan looked like before. Those long tails hung down, and the bulk added visual weight to my tummy and hips.

Then I cut out this section from the back neck. This is the back neck removed and a new back neck and shoulder added from the front drape.

I then sewed the remainder of the neck edge to itself to form the new collar, then seamed it back up, smoothed off the corners slightly into the raglan sleeve and it looked like this.

This is now a more rectangular cardigan with a wide fold back shawl collar. The long lines of the collar and the space down the middle encourage the eye to move up and down the body creating a more flattering look.

I'm really pleased with the outcome and the other two are for the same treatment later in the week.

Thanks Ruthie

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Let me know if you would like a few more pictures showing the process and I will try on the next one. It makes complete logical sense to me because I sew the Prima cardigan so much, so use the pattern piece and instructions as a guide, however I imagine that it doesn't work for everyone!

A similar style currently would be McCall's 6084

So the new front is a shape a bit more like this only more angular and with a wider collar.

You can see in this back image of the McCalls pattern how those lines marked CB are sewn together at the back neck.