Looking for the easiest project ever? Look no further. You’ve found it!
When my sister-in-law accidentally shrunk a cute, pink, wool sweater, she knew exactly where to bring it to ensure it would see a good second life. You see, I have a fairly sizable obsession with wool, so when she showed it to me, I knew exactly what to do with it.
My daughter is a total girly-girl and pink and purple are her favorite colors, so upon receiving the sweater, I knew I’d be making it into something for her. She also loves dresses, so a cute sweater dress would get tons of use. And the sleeves could easily be made into matching leg warmers.
Watch out Wisconsin winter! This girl will be prepared!
The great thing about shrunken (i.e. felted) sweaters, is that they won’t fray, so they’re great for no-sew projects. (To learn more about felting and wool, read For the Love of Wool.) But before I started, I threw it in laundry one more time for good measure; I’d hate to further shrink a project I thought was already shrunk.
So are you ready to hear about the easiest, DIY, no sew project ever?
There’s literally one step in this process — cut off the sleeves. Before I did that though, I had my daughter try on the sweater to make sure the cuts fell at the right place. They fell about an inch below the shoulder seams so I didn’t need to do any measuring or marking, just a quick snip.
This sweater didn’t have a waist band, so I didn’t need to work around this, but if you have a sweater that does, I’d imagine that it’d be just fine if you simply cut it off. (Keep it though! It’ll be great for other projects!)
Voila! The project’s done! Because the sweater is wool and fully felted, I don’t need to worry about fraying. If it was a different material, I’d want to run a stitch around the sleeves and the top of the leg warmers, but no need with wool.
Bonus! When my daughter outgrows the sweater dress I can either hand it down or turn it into a cute wool bag. 🙂 Time will tell!
What are your favorite upcycled sweater projects? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
— Funky Crunchy Mama
