5 Fall Projects to Recycle Old Sweaters

felted sweater wreath

It has been positively blustery out there lately, and that chilly weather gets me in the mood to craft with sweaters. Luckily, when the weather gets colder, thrift stores are busting with sweaters, so even if you don’t have any in your stash, you can still find sweaters to upcycle for all sorts of fun, fall-themed projects.

If you don’t have sweaters handy but still want to get in on the crafty action, don’t fret! For most of these projects, recycled crafting felt will work just as well. Eco-fi felt is a little bit thinner than felted wool, so you may need to use more crafting felt to fill out some of these projects.

How to Felt Your Sweaters

Felting sweaters is easy peasy. In fact, you’ve probably felted sweaters by accident before! The quick and dirty method for felting a wool sweater is to run it through the washer on hot and through the dryer on high heat. Just toss it in with the regular laundry. It may take a couple of cycles to fully felt, but this method totally works.

If you want to get more precise about your sweater felting, Julie has an amazing walk-through of how to felt your sweaters.

Recycled Sweater Projects for Fall

OK, so your sweaters are felted, and you’re ready to craft! Here are some project ideas to get you going!

  1. Felted fall garland – Maureen Cracknell shares an awesome scrappy felt project from Betz White. Don’t you just love the bright colors?
  2. Felted sweater boots – Craftster leethal made these super sweet argyle sweater boots. She mentions that it’s been done before, and I’m assuming she’s talking about this method, which uses an old sweater and lots of glue. She just felted her sweater before starting out to make them sturdier.
  3. Felt wreath –  This tutorial at The Pretty Poppy calls for crafting felt, but felted sweaters work just as well.
  4. Felted Christmas trees – My pal Ellen over at The Long Thread shares a tute for turning old sweaters into repurposed Christmas trees. Super sweet!
  5. Felted infinity scarf – Of course, you can always turn that old sweater into a new, cozy accessory!

So, spill it, crafty peeps! What sweater projects are in your To Make pile this fall?

[Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by iriskh]

3 thoughts on “5 Fall Projects to Recycle Old Sweaters”

  1. Welcome – I look forward to reading more of your blogs/creative suggestions!. I’m trying to re-purpose as much as possible and make all my crafts green, in every way. I love the idea of the felted sweater boots, but there’s one problem with Craftster leethal’s approach – lots of glue. Glue is definitely not green, and if I have to go buy more plastic/petroleum-based supplies to support a green craft, just how enviro-friendly is this? Is there an option? Homemade glue? “Green glue?” Sorry to be so nit-picky, but if we’re truly trying to craft a green world…you get the idea. Thanks – Eve

  2. Pingback: Five Christmas Tree Projects From Recycled Materials

  3. Pingback: Crafting a Green World | Pumpkin Napkin Ring Holder | Page: 1 | Crafting a Green World

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top