Making Woolies from Old Sweaters- Show me pics!

[marenmccoy]

I just made a trip to the thrift store and came home with a big bag of wool sweaters, mostly merino, for making longies and soakers using the Katrina pattern. Anyone want to share pics of their recycled wool success stories? I was wondering, also, if anyone has any advice/tips on felting the sweaters. Oh, AND- will I need to use a ball-point needle on my sewing machine, or will the regular needle be okay?

Thanks! Let's see those woolies!

[Verockica]

I read somewhere that when felting in the washer you should put the wool in a pillow case, I didn't do this and I will do it next time, because there was so much junk to get out of my washer after it was a little ridiculous. I didn't use a ball point needle either, just the regular kind. I have them for working with PUL, but never tried them with wool.

[greenmama52]

Here are some of my favourites. I added a felted soaker short inside the pink longies and they are great for night time. The pink ones are so soft. I wish I had 10 more of that same sweater so I could make more stuff! On the pink and beige longies, I added a flap to the feet so they could be closed up, or left open. It was super easy, and I like how warm it keeps my LO's feet.

[Rejoicing]

Do you guys use any particular pattern for the longies style? I have a stack of sweaters that I am just too nervous to cut into!
Also do you have to felt them? Would it be possible without felting?

[marenmccoy]

Green Mama, I love that footie flap idea! I think I'll have to try that.

Rejoicing, you can use the Katrina Longies pattern, or you can just use the sleeves of the sweater, as shown in this tutorial.

[greenmama52]

I don't normally felt mine and they all work fine. Maybe if the sweater is really thin, or loosely woven you could felt it. I usually just add a double layer in the wet zone if I think it will be too thin. Felting made a huge mess of my washing machine as well. I like the previous post's idea about putting the sweaters in a pillowcase to felt. Maren, you'll have to put some pics up of yours when they're done!

[greenmama52]

OOps.

[greenmama52]

OOps. Double posted.

[VitaW]

I love this! I just made some shorties and then went and got a couple more sweaters at Goodwill yesterday. The problem with where I live is it's really hard to find wool. And that makes it especially hard to find pretty colors.

[littleleaf]

Well, I'm not going to inundate you with pics, but I just wanted to show you how a could different patterns/methods look:

Katrina's longies pattern. It's a straight leg cut (boot cut), with good amount of booty room, although you might want to add a bit if your wool doesn't have much stretch and you're using bulky diapers (e.g. night). I find that this pattern is a bit tight if you use poly fleece, so if something has less stretch than fleece, I'd size up.


Katrina's longies pattern, modified to add booty panel. I cut the pattern so that it would have a little more booty room than the regular Katrina pattern. Because it doesn't have a seam down the middle of the bum, this works really well for appliques on the bum.



Flat-cut longies with side seams. This pattern gives a little less booty room, and also has equal rise in the front and back.


Using the sweater sleeves. If the sweater has a taper, then you're going to get tapered-leg longies. The sleeves also work really well for making footies too, since you need to taper the leg down by the ankle anyway. Exactly how much booty room you get depends on how you cut the material, but generally, you'll get less booty room than the Katrina pattern.