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Monday, October 26, 2009

Refashion: Child's Cardigan

I've felted my first thrift store sweater, and I'm never going back. This was such a fun little project!  I'm excited to find more sweaters and see what else can be made- purses, diaper covers, felt pencil cases...oooh, the possibilities!

Materials:
100% wool sweater
mesh bag
old bath towel
washing machine
scissors

Start with an adult-sized sweater. The particular sweater was a women's sized small made with 100% lambs wool. Put the sweater into a mesh bag (I used a laundry sack from the dollar store), and put it into the washing machine with an old bath towel (for friction.) Make sure you use something old- you'll be washing it super hot so it might shrink, and this process can make a lot of fuzz that will stick to the towel. The mesh bag will help keep it contained, though.

Wash the load as hot as your machine can, with a cold rinse, and just a little soap. Dry in the dryer, and pull it out to see what you got!

Honestly, I didn't know who this would be for- I had no idea what size it would be when I pulled it out. Turns out, it's a Mimi sweater.


Cut up the middle of the sweater, and trim the bottom edge and sleeves to whatever length floats your boat. We ended up cutting up all the ribbing off the bottom, and making little 3/4 length sleeves- anything too long around her wrists becomes a chew toy!

For an older child you could add nice chunky buttons, add embellishments, make scraps into little flowers and sew them on...so many options!




We thought the arms might make nice leg warmers...but it really didn't work out. *grin*

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7 comments:

LunaMoonbeam said...

Wait...you can just slit it up the middle, and it doesn't fray or ANYTHING?

Oooh....suh-weeeeet!
(Oh, and I'm kinda groovin' on the frog flippers...er, leg warmers!)

Su said...

Mimi's rocking her new duds!
Would you believe I've tried felting. Only, the sweater that said it was 70% wool, did not felt. Tried a few times, and gave up :)
Will be on the lookout for more stuff to felt, though.

Alexandra said...

This is so neat! I've never heard of felting sweaters.

Samantha said...

That is a hilariously cute idea! The stuff you come up with, girl! :)

Anna said...

The pic of your daughter in the shrunken, uncut sweater is adorable! :)

Rae said...

Gah that is so great! That first picture is hilarious! (:

Franzine Kafka said...

very cute