Perhaps it is not the strangest thing I have come up with, and perhaps I am not the only one to come up with it, but boy am I enjoying my recycled sweater felting days.
Lately my craze has been all about working to find a good use for all of those gorgeous, and sometimes too scratchy to wear sweaters. My answer: making ornaments, christmas stockings and baby quilts out of them.
Lately my craze has been all about working to find a good use for all of those gorgeous, and sometimes too scratchy to wear sweaters. My answer: making ornaments, christmas stockings and baby quilts out of them.
It is rather simple. Hit up your second hand store (or your own storage room) and find all of the 100% pure wool sweaters you can. Well, maybe just start with one or two... Get them in XLg or Lg since they will shrink.
Then wash them in HOT water with a good amount of soap slime.
Then wash them in HOT water with a good amount of soap slime.
To make the soap slime take a bar of soap, (the best is hand crafted soap) 4 cups of hot water and put them both in a jug. Let them sit over night. Mix and mix until the soap is a slimy consistency. Add about 1/3 of a cup to the load of sweaters.
Wash THREE times. Yes, three times. This will turn your wool sweater into a nice little hunk of felt.
Picture the time you accidentally washed a sweater and it came out looking like it would fit a cabbage patch doll. That is what you want.
Next you simply use your imagination to think of different designs.
I sketched out a few designs and then cut a template using a cereal box weight cardboard.
Wash THREE times. Yes, three times. This will turn your wool sweater into a nice little hunk of felt.
Picture the time you accidentally washed a sweater and it came out looking like it would fit a cabbage patch doll. That is what you want.
Next you simply use your imagination to think of different designs.
I sketched out a few designs and then cut a template using a cereal box weight cardboard.
You could try apples, angels, birds, trees, monogram letters... gingerbread folks... endless right?
Another design that worked well, after a little tweeking was making felted balls. They are quite time consuming but make a statement.
My suggestion to you is try out a whole bunch of different designs and see what you like. If you are fresh out of ideas you can contact me and I will surely help you out!
Or if you would simply like to enjoy a little recycled goodness on your tree but don't have the time to create, you can visit our roadside stand and check out the hand made crafts there.
Happy felting!
Another design that worked well, after a little tweeking was making felted balls. They are quite time consuming but make a statement.
My suggestion to you is try out a whole bunch of different designs and see what you like. If you are fresh out of ideas you can contact me and I will surely help you out!
Or if you would simply like to enjoy a little recycled goodness on your tree but don't have the time to create, you can visit our roadside stand and check out the hand made crafts there.
Happy felting!
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