Upcycled Felted Sweater

I love to felt, bead and make things my own! I have been thinking about doing is Upcycled sweater for a while.

The fist step is to find a wool sweater at a thrift store. The one I am working with for this instructable is a lambs wool men's sweater (about 1 size too big) that I purchased last winter for $4.

I ran it   through the the washer on a hot/cold cycle with something in the washer to help agitate the fibers like tennis balls or sneakers. This is a form of wet felting and it will set the sweaters yarn making it ready to pin felt.

Then you need to reshape the sweater. I cut the sweater down into the basic shape needed for the top.

• I removed the sleeves and the shoulder area of the sweater.
• Then I trimmed the arm holes close to the seam so it looks like it is a finished seam.
• Saved the sleeves for later projects.

Turn the sweater inside out. Then form a channel by running a seam along the front and back edges. You will later come up with something to use for a strap. I am thinking that 1" will be good for this project.

I choose to do circles for this project. I gathered round shaped items to use as forms then inserted my felting block and began pin felting!

Remember:

• you and add more roving if it is too thin.
• I balled a small amount of roving in my palms for the small round spots
• I twisted 2 colors together for a different look
• I wanted to layer my circles and one area I wanted the color to be under an existing so I used a mason jar ring as a guide.

Pin felting is a lot of fun but those pins are sharp! Yes I pinned myself :)

This did not look quite finished enough...... I think it needs beads!

Using a beading needle and thread i started the process of adding beads.I was careful to tie off the first and last bead in each circle. when going through my beads i found some strung (part of an abounded beading project) that i choose to sew on to one of my circles.

I choose to cut strips out of an old t-shirt.  I braided the strips together to form the cord, sewed the ends together and ran it through the channels. The I pinned the ends together and tried it on for size. The last step was to sew the two ends together in arrange it so the sewed ends were hidden in a channel.