# Upcycled Sweater Pants



## matt_man (Feb 11, 2006)

We cloth diaper our twins and I have been making them wool pants out of felted wool sweaters. 

LOVE THEM!!!










Anybody want to stalk some thrift stores for me :gaptooth:


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

I have an absolute mountain of felted thrift store sweaters!
And I also frog the ones that can be frogged. I got 3,000 ft of 100% wool for $1.25 last year.
The felted sweaters are on their way to becoming mittens, slippers, and a very, very soft cashmere sweater that will be a pillow, I think..or maybe a scarf.. ooh
Thrift store sweaters ROCK!!!


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I LOVE to felt thrift store sweaters...shopping bags and legwarmers from the sleaves are my favs.
Went to Goodwill today, looked at some real purdy sweaters but none were green tag so I bought a small Emeril saute pan instead.


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

Those pants are too cute! Good on you for cloth diapering.


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## Nellie (Oct 18, 2006)

I've got three sweaters that I felted, to cut up and make into a patchwork throw for my sil. I'm trying to figure out the best way to stitch it together, any suggestions?

My newest thing for sweaters though, is to resize them for dresses for my little girls. Last night, we were watching an animal dvd, and one of my twins said, "Oh, I wish I could have a zebra dress!" Well guess what I found at the thrift store today? A zebra striped sweater, for 99 cents!


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## luv2farm (Feb 15, 2008)

ok...... if I'm gonna visit with you ladies, I got to know.....

What is "frogged"?
What is "felted"? 

I feel like this is a secret club and I dont know the pass words :teehee: :hrm:

But, those are REALLY cute pants!!


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Frogging is what you do when you 'rip it rip it rip it' or undo what has already been done. If you are recycling old sweaters it is a good thing, if you do it to what you are knitting.. it is horrible.

Felting is when you make individual wool strands bond together by rubbing. Fulling is what you get when they cling together from hot water and friction. Both turn loose wool items, such as knitted things, into a solid 'cloth' that can be cut without unraveling.

And as far as sewing the sweater pieces together.. you can hand stitch or use a broad zigzag stitch (looks better) I saw something cool..maybe here.. about using needle felting along your stitches to smooth them in. It looked awesome!! You can use similar colors or go radical to accentuate the seams.


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## yankeeterrier (May 10, 2002)

Ever since Martha Stewart came up with using felted sweaters for crafts, seems like the pickins have slimmed for wool at the thrifts. Fortunately I have 100s in my stockpile.
Here are some wool diaper covers I have made from repurposed sweaters


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## matt_man (Feb 11, 2006)

I LOVE the lambie one.....how much?


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## matt_man (Feb 11, 2006)

Oh...and the red stripey longies on your custom page - I totally had that sweater and made a pair of longies with it last week! I love how they look like flare leg jeans!


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## yankeeterrier (May 10, 2002)

matt_man said:


> I LOVE the lambie one.....how much?


I sold those a while ago I'm afraid, they did turn out great! Never found another sweater quite like that again. I do have one with kitties I'm trying to figure out the best way to cut. I'm also scooping up Christmas sweaters for next season.

I also look for bell cuffs since they do look like flare legs, I started to avoid ribbed cuffs over the years since they end up looking like sweatpants.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

chickenista said:


> Felting is when you make individual wool strands bond together by rubbing. Fulling is what you get when they cling together from hot water and friction. Both turn loose wool items, such as knitted things, into a solid 'cloth' that can be cut without unraveling.


At the risk of sounding anal retentive about felting and fulling .....

Both felting and fulling describe placing wool items in hot soaping water and agitating them so the barbs on the wool open up and interlock.

Felting describes this process when using fluffy fiber or strands of yarn.

Fulling describes this process using fabric (knitted, crocheted, woven).


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

yankeeterrier said:


> Ever since Martha Stewart came up with using felted sweaters for crafts, seems like the pickins have slimmed for wool at the thrifts. Fortunately I have 100s in my stockpile.
> Here are some wool diaper covers I have made from repurposed sweaters



so cool.


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

I've found a few sweaters at the thrift stores and used the sleeves to make fingerless gloves. Just open up the seam for a thumb hole. Fingerless gloves are priceless to me on the farm.


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