Making a sweater smaller? is this possible?

How-to Questions
1

I don’t quite know where I went wrong. My gauge was pretty spot on, but I just finished the back and it meaured 22.5" at the chest, which would make a total of 45" if I take into consideration the front. THe person I’m knitting this for has a chest measurement of 36" so that’s almost 10" of ease! I know in sewing a problem like this can be easily fixed by playing with the seam allowance (ie, making a garment smaller by adding more seam allowance) . Can something similar be done for this sweater? ie, when seaming, can I do something similar with knitting? My only concern with this is that the area for the armhole wil shrink…

Instead can I frog upto the point of the armhole and bind off more stitches to account for the extra seam allowance which will make the armhole smaller?

Any ideas?

2

I think it’s important to first figure out why you have the additional width. Is your gauge still correct? If so, do you have too many stitches? Missed decreases could mean that the sweater is not just too wide, but incorrectly shaped as well.

3

Make sure it’s too big first, too. Have her measure a sweater of a similar fit and see what she comes up with. Many of the sweaters I love best measure much bigger than I’d expect them too.