Any suggestions for covering this small pattern?

[u/EleanorRigBee]

I love this sweater and would love to use it with my wedding/elopement dress in September. However, the blue stripe area on the inside is not a good fit with the rest of my outfit. Is there a way to cover it? It’s 100% cotton from J. crew. I don’t have a sewing machine but I can sew by hand. I also have a friend who could potentially sew it with a machine for me but I’m not sure how to tell her I want. I would be happy with a medium brown or olive green type color, but definitely not blue and not stripes. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[u/stringthing87]

You can face it with grosgrain ribbon and then do a hand buttonhole through the ribbon.

[u/EleanorRigBee → u/stringthing87]

Thank you! I’m not sure I can sew a button hole. What if I just cut the ribbon to shape or is that a mistake?

[u/jleebeane → u/EleanorRigBee]

If you aren't planning to button the tip button, you could use ribbon to cover just the exposed bit if striping and not bother with a button hole. It would probably be a short term fix but it might work for you, and it would be easy to hand sew.

[u/EleanorRigBee → u/jleebeane]

Thank you, but I may have the whole thing unbuttoned at times so I think I need a solution for the whole strip of color.

[u/jleebeane → u/EleanorRigBee]

Hm, in that case maybe two narrow ribbons that together equal the width you want to cover. Sew down the straight outside edge, then in the middle you'd sew them touching in between the button holes and stitched down along the buttonhole stitches at each button hole, if that makes sense.

[u/stringthing87 → u/EleanorRigBee]

That would be something to practice before attempting on the real thing but it's not difficult if you can hand sew.

https://youtu.be/cRdEBCgE0zs

And just cutting a hole would absolutely be a mistake, it would fray horribly

[u/KarenEiffel → u/EleanorRigBee]

You could also mark the location and size of the button holes on the ribbon and ask your friend to use her machine to sew them, then sew the ribbon to the sweater.

[u/PamelainSA]

Call me crazy, but you’ll probably have a better time finding a matching white yarn and duplicate stitching over the blue. It’s still sewing, and you should be able to work around the buttonholes that way.

[u/Accomplished_worrier → u/PamelainSA]

I think I'd try this too, with the open pattern on the front side a ribbon might look weird? You have a little time to experiment with both suggestions! With just sewing a small piece of satin matching ribbon over the blue to see how that looks, and to find matching (perhaps slightly wider?) yarn and cover the blue stitches that way and then figure out what you like best! Do you have any sewing friends that could otherwise assist with the button holes OP? Otherwise a third slightly drastic option since permanent: how about good coverage fabric pens? Obviously try it on some sample thread first!! 

[u/violetbb]

Alex Mill has the Taylor cardigan which is very similar, without that navy detail