ThreadHeads
Weekly DIY Roundup: Felted Sweater Wool Projects!
I craft almost exclusively with recycled materials, and felted sweaters are one of my favorite materials to work with - you can do so much with felted wool! I've rounded up a bunch of my favorite project ideas, including several of my own creations, to get you excited about the idea. Not all of them have tutorials, but once you start playing with felted wool you can get so creative and it's way easy to make awesome things without a how-to in front of you!
First of all, you'll need to know how to make the felt, so check out Diane Gilleland's sweater felting tutorial on Craftstylish.
I just wrote up a tutorial for the same website for an embellished blanket made from blocks of felted wool:
I already mentioned this way back on my shoes roundup, but I'll show you again since it fits so well with this topic - I wrote a tutorial on craftster.org for these felted sweater boots:
I've made a ton of hats from recycled sweaters - the basic idea is just to cut up a couple rectangles and sew them together to get a hat shape with ears, then embellish however you want...
...And then once you get bored with the basic shape and want to get a bit more creative, you can play with piecing different shapes together - as long as you can fit it on your head, you can call it a hat!
I also made this scarf from pieces of sweater sleeves all sewn together, very simple concept:
And I've made several coffee cup sleeves from sweater sleeves, like this one:
Juleej made an instructable for felted cozies with word embellishments!
I really love these water bottle covers by ThinkingMama on flickr!!
As it gets warmer, this felt mittens how-to by Waxwing on craftster will come in handy - so cute!
Whipup has a tutorial for 30-minute recycled sweater bags:
This needle book is super cute, by Nini Makes:
In addition to accessories, cozies, and other functional items, felted sweaters are also fantastic for making toys and plushies! Check out this adorable snail (with a tutorial) by Ric-Rac:
Blueblythemonster on flickr makes amazing embroidered felt objects, which I don't believe are made with recycled sweater felt, but they are fantastic for inspiration! (check out the whole flickr set, I love them all!)
And lastly, if you have an interest in the whole felted sweater genre of crafting, you should check out Betz White's website and blog since this is her main material of choice... Her most recent how-to is for a wool pomander:
So now head out to your local thrift store and grab a bag full of unwanted wool sweaters, throw them in the washer and dryer, and get crafting! Share your creations here with us, I can't wait to see them!
17 Comments
Add a Comment