Felted Sweater Pillow

I remember felting wool in design school and I am not really sure what reminded me of this, but it seemed like I could turn this into a Christmas gift. I decided to try and make a pillow cover this way.





You will need:


1 wool sweat (100% wool)
Buttons
Pillow or pillow form (I just used an old pillow)
Needle & thread or sewing machine



First thing you want to do is wash the sweater, you want to put it in hot water in the washing machine, an not on the gentle cycle. Also throw it in the dryer. This should sufficiently felt the sweater.

Next I cut the sweater apart and squared out the pieces to make it into two equal squares of fabric. I chose to attach the two pieces together and make a centre back seam on the pillow, I did this to take advantage of the contrast binding on the hem of the pillow. If you want you could just make regular side seams instead.

I tried sewing the seams together on the machine but it was a bit thick, I ended up sewing some on the machine and some by hand. I then measured out where I wanted the buttons to go (I chose 3 different buttons, I thought it went with the folky feel of the intarsia pattern on the sweater) and the coordinating button holes. I tried to finish the button holes using a blanket stitch but you can’t really see the stitching. I may just leave them as raw cut button holes, it shouldn’t fray so this should be OK.

 I attached the button holes by hand, try and make a shank on the buttons since the fabric is so thick. You can do this by putting a tooth pick or a pin under the button while you are sewing, this will make sure the button is not so tight on the fabric. And then before tying off the button wrap the thread around the base of it a few times to tighten this up.

I think it looks pretty good. I would like to try a solid coloured cabled sweater next.