Shrink a Wool Sweater, Make a Bag

 Hello Readers. This cold frigid weather might make you grab a wool sweater. It will keep you warm but if you wash it, it will shrink. Don't throw it away! You can still use that felted wool to make a cool bag. 

Before and after. 

This wool jacket style sweater was 100% wool. It was nice and warm. It was also itchy and unlined.

I put my sweater in my washer. On purpose! I wanted to make a bag from shrunken/felted wool so I washed mine in hot water to shrink it. Some people shop the thrift stores to find wool sweaters to make bags and such. Once the wool shrinks, you can cut the material and make projects from it and like felt, it won't fray.

I dried it in the dryer at the hottest setting. This will help shrink the wool and dry it so I can start my project. 

 

I started cutting my sweater into pieces. 

 

I cut 2 8"x8" squares for the front and back of my bag. I also cut 3 4"x8" rectangles for the sides and bottom. I made sure to have the hem at the top edge of my front, back, an side pieces. This will make the top of my new bag nicely finished. (You can make your bag any size you want. This was a big as I could make my bag with this sweater once it shrunk in the wash.

 

I started connecting the pieces of my bag. I used my serger but a zigzag stitch on a regular sewing machine would work great too. 

 

I sewed the front, back, and sides together. Next, I sewed the bottom onto my bag.

 

I wanted to attach these black handles (Similar here). I used a chalk pencil to mark the center of the handle ends. I need to know where the handle will sit on the bag.

 

I made 2 small cuts. One on each side of the chalk mark. It's OK to cut the material, it won't fray.

 

I slid the ends of the handles through the openings to hold the bag. 

 

My bag was done and I loved how it turned out. The stripes are so fun. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use Shrunken Wool Sweaters to Make a Quilt

 Hello Readers. Sometimes accidents happen, wool goes in the washer and/or dryer and it shrinks down to child size. It gets thicker and stiffer. What can you do? I have an idea. Wool is very warm and cozy, even shrunken wool, let's cut up some sweaters and make an easy beginner kind of quilt.

Use those shrunken sweaters, don't throw them away!

 

I used my sharpest scissors for all my cutting.

I started by cutting my sweaters into pieces of the same size. I cut rectangles, approximately 8' by 12', and smaller rectangles that were 4' by 8'. 

I had 6 sweaters. I have been collecting them for a while. I cut out all my pieces with very sharp scissors. (The wool is thicker and tougher to cut when it shrinks.) I tried to keep them all the same size. I tried not to stretch or pull the sweaters as I cut them. They will give and stretch because they are knits. 

I spread out my pieces so I could see what I had. I wanted the colors to be spread out all through the quilt. I had more of some colors and less of others. I tried not to over-think the arrangement but I wanted the pieces in rows that were the same length.

I started sewing the pieces together. This is a lot of sewing, I needed a sewing machine, needles and neutral thread. I sewed the 8' sides together with the right sides facing each other. Some of the sweaters had a definite right side and some looked the same on each side. 

I put piece after piece together to make a long row. I sewed row after row. Until I used all my pieces. I broke quite a few needles on this project so I am glad I had some extras on-hand.

It started to get more difficult now. I sewed the rows together. I put the right sides together and stitched straight down the edges. When all the rows are connected, the quilt gets heavier. I stitched with a straight stitch and sewed slowly without pulling or stretching the pieces.

I spread it n the floor to see all my rows connected. 

 

This is what the back of the quilt looks like. It's not pretty.
 

I wanted to cover the back of the quilt. I had this large pieces of fabric in my stash. It was large enough to equal the quilt. I sewed it to the top of the quilt.

 

 I sewed all around the edge of the quilt connecting the quilt to the fabric.

 

 I left and opening to turn the quilt right-side out when I was done. When the quilt was right-side out, the fabric hid the stitching in between the quilt and the fabric.  

I wanted to smooth out the thick edges, I stitched all around the quilt. That would keep the edges neat and help define the border of the quilt. 

I sewed all the way around the quilt so that the edges more defined, but you can see the fabric layer peeking out fro the back of the quilt at the top. The layers have shifted around a little because they are so connected. I just needed to stabilize or connect the center of the quilt. 

I used some very narrow ribbon for this. 

 

I used a large embroidery needle to sew under and back on top of the sweater layer and the fabric layer. I did this in the center of each quilt piece.

 

I tied the ribbon in a knot. Connecting the layers together. If they are not connected like this the quilt and fabric layers will shift around. 

 

I made sure the knot was tied tight. 

 

I cut off the excess and left about an inch of the ribbon attached to the knot.

 

Here is a close up. You can see I left the pockets/seams/etc. attached to my wool squares. I didn't want to pretend this wasn't made from old sweaters, I wanted to embrace that.  

 

This is going to be cozy as winter comes to an end. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update***-This blanket is on my sofa right now. It is really warm and cozy for watching a movie.