Top 10 Crafts for Old Sweaters
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by: CaleyWalsh | Total views: 1070 | Word Count: 930
Almost everyone has an old sweater or two jammed in the back of the closet, whether unloved or worn out. With a few crafting ideas, even damaged sweaters with holes or stains are valuable again. Turn old sweaters into fun craft projects for decorative items such as pillows, wearable items such as brooches and functional items such as potholders. Old sweaters are a great material for crafting and at no additional cost. From FaveCrafts.com, find the top 10 ideas for how to craft with old sweaters.
Brooches- A brooch adds instant style to any jacket, sweater or bag. Either felt the sweater first to prevent unraveling or double-stitch a flower shape with your sewing machine. Use a fabric pencil to mark a simple floral design and double stitch over this design. Cut out the shape at least 1 cm away from the stitch line. Stitch and cut out another floral shape slightly smaller than the first. Layer the two flowers and sew together with an interesting button.
Yarn- If you knit, crochet or even weave, salvage the yarn from an old sweater to use in a new project. Find a seam in the sweater and carefully snip one of the seam stitches with a pair of very sharp scissors. Use a blunt needle to lift out the seam stitches, snipping the seam yarn for each. For a knit sweater, you want to unravel the yarn from the cast off edge, generally at the top of the sweater since sweaters are made from the bottom up. Start ripping from the last cast off stitch and carefully wind the yarn into a ball as you go. You should end up with four or more balls of yarn from the different sweater pieces.
Paper Craft- Cut out small pieces of wool for embellishing scrapbook pages or handmade cards. Cut out letters or even tiny sweater or scarf shapes for autumn. Make a wonderfully textured tree with an old fuzzy angora sweater.
Yarn- If you knit, crochet or even weave, salvage the yarn from an old sweater to use in a new project. Find a seam in the sweater and carefully snip one of the seam stitches with a pair of very sharp scissors. Use a blunt needle to lift out the seam stitches, snipping the seam yarn for each. For a knit sweater, you want to unravel the yarn from the cast off edge, generally at the top of the sweater since sweaters are made from the bottom up. Start ripping from the last cast off stitch and carefully wind the yarn into a ball as you go. You should end up with four or more balls of yarn from the different sweater pieces.
Plastic Bag Holder- Have a dog you need to clean up after on walks? Use the sleeve of an older sweater to create a handy plastic bag holder to hang from a door. The stretchy wrist end is perfect for the bottom and you dont even need to stitch it closed. Just cut the shoulder seam and sew a neater edge. You can add embellishments such as ric-rac at the edges or cut out Dog Walk in fabric letters and appliqu to the sweater sleeve. Loop a piece of elastic and sew to the top to hang from a door.
Potholders- Stitch several layers of the old sweater together and add binding or trim around the edges to create potholders. You can also use thick quilt batting to fill the inside of your upcycled sweater potholder.
Pillows- Use a pillow form to help you measure and mark the size for your throw pillow on the old sweater. You need a sewing machine for this project or a bit of patience with hand sewing.
Yarn- If you knit, crochet or even weave, salvage the yarn from an old sweater to use in a new project. Find a seam in the sweater and carefully snip one of the seam stitches with a pair of very sharp scissors. Use a blunt needle to lift out the seam stitches, snipping the seam yarn for each. For a knit sweater, you want to unravel the yarn from the cast off edge, generally at the top of the sweater since sweaters are made from the bottom up. Start ripping from the last cast off stitch and carefully wind the yarn into a ball as you go. You should end up with four or more balls of yarn from the different sweater pieces.
Plastic Bag Holder- Have a dog you need to clean up after on walks? Use the sleeve of an older sweater to create a handy plastic bag holder to hang from a door. The stretchy wrist end is perfect for the bottom and you dont even need to stitch it closed. Just cut the shoulder seam and sew a neater edge. You can add embellishments such as ric-rac at the edges or cut out Dog Walk in fabric letters and appliqu to the sweater sleeve. Loop a piece of elastic and sew to the top to hang from a door.
Toys- Whether felted or not, old sweaters are a great material for making toys or stuffed animals. Create a puppet with the sleeve of a sweater. Hem the cut edge to prevent fraying. To make the head of the puppet, you can simply sew the cuff together straight across or trim a curved line and sew. For a puppet with hair, gather a few inches of the cuff and weave the thread back and forth. Pull tight and secure the thread. Cut off some of the gathered cuff to leave fuzzy hair.
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