Turn Shrinking Sweaters Into Felted Pillows

Washed and dried wool sweaters can easily be transformed into comfortable home decor such as felted pillows or blankets. Some years back, I wrote a series of DIY projects for Family Fun magazine. One of the projects used recycled wool sweaters to make felted mittens.

When we think of felt fabric it is usually the synthetic acrylic used for craft projects and felt boards. Have you ever made the mistake of throwing a wool sweater in the dryer? If you have, you’ll notice that the sweater shrinks into to a soft dense material. That’s the fabric used for this project. Natural fibers (wool) felt because they have bumpy fibers that bind together. The wool felt is easy to cut and will not unravel like regular knitting will. If you don’t have a collection of old wool (moth-eaten is OK) sweaters lying around, try the local thrift, Goodwill or secondhand clothing stores.

For a warm and fuzzy home decorating project, try making these felted pillows:

What you need:
Old wool sweaters (use only 100 percent wool)
Scissors
Yarn
Tapestry or yarn needle
Pins
Tape measure
Pillow form

What to do:
1. Wash the sweaters in the washing machine in hot water with a small amount of detergent two or three times.
2. Place the sweaters in the dryer for about 45 minutes. Check to see how they are shrinking. The sweaters will take on a thick felt-like fabric. The drying time varies depending upon the thickness of the fabric. You can check if the sweaters are ready by snipping the fabric. If it doesn’t fray, it is felted.
3. Measure the pillow or desired size for cover to be stuffed.
4. The pillow cover can be made from cutting two pieces of felt or patchworking a few pieces together.
5. Pin three sides to prepare to sew.
6. With a piece of yarn and the yarn needle, stitch the three sides using a blanket stitch.
7. Stuff the pillow form in to close the cover and blanket stitch the fourth side closed.

For more information, here is a site for lots of felt making ideas.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Elizabeth S.

4:11PM PDT on Apr 14, 2012

@Miriam N --wow, so negative! Having a bad day? Obviously this is a crafts area --with suggestions --and yet you clicked onto it just to complain? JFYI 'felting' has been around for a long time and is a GREAT way to salvage shrunken woollens which would otherwise be tossed in the garbage (most sweaters accidentally shrunk cannot be passed onto someone smaller since the proportions are all out of whack), so this is about RECYCLING and keeping these items out of our landfills. What part of THAT don't you get? This way the material can not only be reused, but is incredibly warm, functions for all sorts of terrific and 'new' items --even pet beds (if you're into animals at all), extremely warm winter mittens can be cut out of the sweaters --or scarves -- doesn't take long at all to stitch them up. Why do you think this is a lot of 'trouble'? Many of us knit and crochet --or even sew our own clothing (I'm a knitter) and make gifts for family and don't think of it as 'trouble'. It's a loving thing to do. This is merely a shortcut.

send a green star

Debbie C.

1:23PM PDT on Apr 9, 2012

What a cool idea!! But, I'm hot blooded and gave away all my sweaters!!

federico b.

9:55AM PDT on Apr 3, 2012

Grazie delle informazioni.

Sarah M.

12:16PM PDT on Mar 20, 2012

thanks

8:21AM PDT on Mar 17, 2012

GREAT idea, Carole F. There's a link at the back of my Vogue (and other knitting magazines) advertising a company which will take your college or other t shirts to turn THEM into a quilt - for a fairly high cost. Here you're doing the same thing - for little to no cost at all. Cool recycling suggestion!

Danuta W.

12:58AM PST on Mar 4, 2012

Thanks for sharing.

Sandy E.

2:39PM PST on Mar 1, 2012

Sounds like fun.

Lyda M.

2:54AM PST on Mar 1, 2012

Everyone has interesting ideas.

Miriam N.

3:29AM PST on Feb 29, 2012

Throw that old stuff away or donate to charity, buy yourself a couple of new pillows for a few bucks and be happy ! WHO is going to have all this trouble and waste such a lot of energy for such a stupid purpose? Give us a break ! : ((((

Sue M.

5:53PM PST on Feb 28, 2012