From Old Wool Sweater to Fashionable Bag Tutorial

Earlier this week I blogged about the steps taken to felt a wool sweater.  You can find that tutorial here.  I am now going to show you one of my favorite projects to use your felted wool sweater for.  We are going to make a bag or a purse from our sweater.  The great thing about these bags is they have a lot of "give" and tend to grow as you pile more and more inside.

Step #1:  Felt the wool (instructions here).  Felting the wool fuses the fibers together allowing it to be cut without fraying.

Step #2:  Cut the neck band and the sleeves off, as shown below.

Step #3:  Take one of the sleeves (removed in step 2) and cut it open at the seam line, cut off the cuff.

Step #4:  Place your opened sleeve below the bottom of the sweater and cut it to be approximately the same length.

The sweater will actually get folded side seam to side seam and the bottom will be added.

Step #5:  For this particular bag, I chose to add a pocket which I created out of the cuff and bottom of the sleeve.  I pinned this into place and top stitched.

Step #6:  With right sides together, pin the opened sleeve to the bottom of the sweater and stitch.  Repeat on the opposite side.

Step #7:  Finish by closing the ends.  This particular sweater was very thick...so I ended up having to hand stitch this one, as there is quite a lot of easing that must be done, which gives it a gathered look and more room to grow!

The finished product!  Perfect fit for my iPhone.

This is a bag I had constructed a few weeks ago with rosette detailing made from the scraps of the sweater.

My daughter's sweater bag with rosette detailing.

The bag used to make this tutorial is available for sale for a price of $25, as well as the green bag with rosettes.  I have several more in the works, if you are looking for a particular color just ask.  If you'd like me to repurpose a special sweater of your own, I'd be happy to work that out with you.  

Hope you enjoy!  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Happy sewing!

Linked to:  Someday Crafts, Trendy Treehouse, Sew Much Ado, Sugar and Dots, Polkadots On Parade