collage of handmade crafts made with old felted sweaters

What do you do if a wool sweater, cardigan or jumper comes out of the wash considerably smaller than it went in?

No matter how careful you are with laundry it seems as if the occasional shrinking woolens accident is inevitable. I consider myself a reasonably competent person, I read labels and follow instructions but at least 3 times in my life I have shrunk a wool sweater from adult to child size entirely accidentally.

Once you’ve recovered from the shock of your laundry mishap please don’t throw out the shrunken sweater in disgust, what you’ve actually done is made a wonderful felt that you can use for all sorts of fun creative crafts.

What to make with wool garments that have shrunk in the wash

Click on the image to be taken to a tutorial explaining how to make each of these felted wool craft ideas:

a grey neck scarf made from an old sweater — Make a Scarflette

Turn the sleeves of a shrunken sweater into a useful little scarflette to keep your neck warm

Turn an old cable knit sweater into an embroidered bag

Embellish an old cable knit sweater with simple embroidery and turn it into a fun bag.

Felted Star and Bead Garland

Cut stars and add beads to make a Christmassy garland

Felt Flowers

Lots of ideas to make felt flowers for brooches or garlands

Embroidery Scissor Cover

Hand stitch a pretty cover for your embroidery scissors

Scrap Fabric Coasters

Vicky Myers Creations shares how to make a set of coasters using scraps of fabric

Recycled Sweater Blanket

Pillar Box Blue created a gorgeous blanket from a collection of old sweaters

Make a Useful Scissor Fob

Use simple embroidery stitches to make a useful scissor fob

Needle Felted Beetle

Birdz of a Feather used scraps of felted sweater to create structure for this amazing little Beetle Car

Embroidered Star Decoration

Make a sweet little embroidered star winter decoration

Little House Lavender Bags

Embroidery and Applique to make the sweetest little lavender bags

Another Christmas Tree Ornament idea

A patterned felted sweater makes a perfect little Christmas tree ornament

Make a Wooly Christmas Tree

Make. Art. Life shares how to make these adorable layered mini Christmas trees

If you’ve not had an woolen sweater laundry mishap then you can, of course, shrink your old wool garments purposefully too! You might have an old sweater with a hole or two that you’d like to give a new life and new purpose to.

Shrinking a woolen garment to create a thicker fabric with the fibres fused together when it’s done on purpose is just called felting and is really easy to do. I’m not felting expert but here are a few tips that have worked for me.

How to felt an old wool sweater

All you need to do to felt an old wool sweater or cardigan is put it through a really hot wash. You can do this in your washing machine or even in a big saucepan of boiling water on your stove.

The washing machine method is easier as the constant agitation while washing helps with the felting process too. Just pick the hottest wash setting your machine has, add some detergent (this helps with the knitting together of the fibres) and sling your sweater in. You might find it takes a couple of hot washes to get a really nicely felted effect.

If you want to felt/shrink several garments at the same time you can. It’s good to save electricity that way of course. However I’d recommend putting each one inside an old pillowcase to keep them seperate, otherwise you risk them felting together or some colourful fibres from one garment felting into the other.

What kind of woolen garments can you felt

Your woolens do need to be a good high % of wool fibres to get them to shrink and form a usable felt fabric. 100% wool is ideal of course but I’ve had success felting 70% wool sweaters too.

If your old woolen sweater is labeled as machine washable or superwash it is unlikely to felt well.