http://www.care2.com/greenliving/shrinking-sweaters-felted-pillows.html
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. A few 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.
Ronnie Citron-Fink lives in New York with her husband, two children (when they come home to the nest), two dogs and a cat. Ronnie is a teacher and a writer. She has been a contributing writer for Family Fun magazine. She currently writes articles about education and home design. Her writings are in four books including Family Fun Home and Some Delights of the Hudson Valley.
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20 comments
add your comment »Rosemary R: writes (about felted wool sweaters being reused): "Thank you as always for truly helpful hints.
I am allergic to wool but I will share your advice with my family and friends."
Rosemary: just a thought - but the fact that felting reduces the material down to a really dense fabric - with the loose fibers tightly encapsulated (nothing 'floating freely' afterwards), might render the wool surprisingly non-allergenic to you.
Most folks I know who are allergic, are allergic to the loose hairs. Just something you might want to re-examine? Also - Wool stores/manufacturers sell a hand/laundry 'shampoo' for these sweaters (lanolin based) which could also remove any remaining allergy inducing properties. In addition, felting also removes all 'scratchiness' of the original wool my own allergic brother complains about the most. It just might be worth testing out one of the products your family/friends produce. Much luck :)
Eliz.
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why is this inappropriate?
thanks...
Kabin
Konteyner,Prefabrik
mega kabin
Konteyner
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I have looked all over for wool sweaters, pants, rugs, blankets, and I can't find any. I think this new felting craze is causing a shortage of wool hand me downs. I only buy cotton for us, we live on the Coast and it is rarely sweater weather here, maybe that is the reason there are none in the thrift shops. But this is such a good idea if you can get old sweaters that are of no use to anyone and turn them into something useful.
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ive used all typed of used clothing to make pillows, use anything like an old button-down shirt, lightweight coat ( using the liner for one side of the pillow) really cool, unique & green way to go!!
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Thanks for the great idea.
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Dear Annie...I love your ideas and work with repurposed wool daily making purses, pillows, toys...you name it! I get mine from the wholesale store at goodwill where people have already ruined fav sweaters and they are felted by default. otherwise they would probabely get thrown away and wasted. These people who think sheep are somehow endangered from us using the wool are nuts. Sheep enjoy getting that mess sheared off and roaming free in the pasture where they are addored and cared for. Keep up the good work!! Needlefelting works great atop those pillows too... Suzanna
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I would have never thought about that. I remember doing that when I was younger. It looked pretty bad.
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It should be noted that many animals that are raised for wool production suffer from the same miseries that other animals in industrialized agriculture systems do. From a humane as well as environmental standpoint it's generally best not to use products (including food products) made with leather, wool and other animal sourced components. There are exceptions to any rule but in today's world of global markets and industrialization it is generally going to be greener, humaner and sustainabler to avoid purchasing those products in my opinion.
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Do you have any picture examples? Thanks!
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Thank you as always for truly helpful hints.
I am allergic to wool but I will share your advice with my family and friends.
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