What To Do With an Old Sweater

Say you have a sweater you no longer want. Maybe you put it in the washer and it shrunk, maybe it has holes, maybe it's starting to look to worn or maybe someone gave it to you and it's not your style. What can you do with it....let's make it into a pillow!

Step 1 - get the sweater. If it's wool you can put it in the washer and dryer and felt it (it reduces the wool fibers so that you get a more solid piece of fabric that shouldn't unravel when you cut it- it shrinks). My sweater in the picture above is acrylic so I just cut and sewed.

Step 2 - find yourself a pillow. Most of my pillows have pillow slips that I can take off but any pillow will do as long as it fits on your sweater. Make sure you leave yourself enough room for a seam allowance.

Step 3 - Cut around your pillow and then put right sides together to sew er up!

**One of the good things about not really knowing how to sew is that you don't know enough to be concerned about tension and stitch lengths and whatever! So never mind that and just go for it. You can always take it apart and start over - it's only thread!

Step 4 - I sewed up two sides and then I stuck the pillow in it and pinned up the other two sides. I did that so that the fit would be snug. If you were more meticulous in your initial measuring you can probably skip this step and you obviously know what you're doing!

Step 5 - sew the remaining sides - only on the fourth side don't sew all the way across. I sewed about 2 inches in on each side to leave room to stuff the pillow in. Now turn it so that the right sides are facing out - put your pillow in - and hand stitch up your opening. And BAM! Well...about 20 minutes later....You have lovely one of a kind sweater pillow!

If you know what you're doing you can of course add buttons or a zipper for the closure otherwise you'll have to do like me and just cut it up to get your pillow form out when you're finished with it. Unless you really, REALLY love it and want to keep it forever! Which you might because it is so cute! So now that I see how easy it is, I'm on the look out for one of those great white fisherman's sweaters at the thrift store. I think that would make a great pillow for winter!

If you'd like to learn how to make the cute sweatertotes pictured above, the instructions are in the January 2009 issue of Country Living (They're each made from one sweater with cute mitten pockets). Hey, you could make mittens out of old sweaters. These would make really cute Christmas gifts and sew easy:-)!

Speaking of pillows...look what came in the mail right after Christmas from my dear friend Phyllis For The Love of Vintage- cute little gingham pillows and a door hanger!

Thank you Phyllis - I love them! They look great on my window seat! I might be able to start painting today since it's sunny and not too windy. Come back on Monday for Thrifty Decor Chick's Mission: Organize & Declutter (it's not too late to sign up - there's a button on the top of my sidebar). Have a good weekend everyone!