Something to wear on those warm winter days....

   How cute are a pair of wrist warmers for those days when its not quite cold, and not quite warm?!  The greatest part about these is that you don't even need to know the first thing about knitting, because they are made from old wool sweaters! It's time to search deep into the back of your closet for those wool sweaters that maybe aren't in the best condition anymore, and revamp them into something totally neat!  

I've been wanting to use wool sweaters for crafting for awhile now, and I finally did!  I always had thought that shrinking wool sweaters, and using the material was called 'felting', but after looking around the internet, I realized that true felting is when you start with unspun wool/fleece.  What I did for this project is called 'fulling'. 

I went to the thrift store and bought 100% wool sweaters, took them home and did exactly what you're NOT supposed to do with wool.  I washed them in warm water and dryed them in the dryer, resulting in a tightly knit, shrunken sweater perfect for me to cut to my hearts content!  (Don't worry if it doesn't shrink too much.... since many wool sweaters end up at thrift stores because they have already been shrunk!).


I cut about 9.5 inches off the sleeves to start with, and I cut out the seam.



I then squared up the sides.  The aprox. size of mine are 8"x 9.5" at this point.




I marked where I wanted my thumb to come through. (I marked it with pins).



I pinned (with the right sides together) all along the side.  Notice how on the left one you can see the two yellow pins I used to mark where my thumb would go (and where not to stitch!)




Sew the seam (but not where the thumb is to go!).  I used a sewing machine... but these could be easily hand sewn too:)



I sewed the seam, above the thumb on an angle so it would be tighter than the bottom.  Then I cut off any excess fabric to remove bulk.  Then flip it right side out!

I ended up cutting off a little more from the bottom.  Then I used the ribbed collar from a regular tshirt to make a cuff around the bottom.  That way the bottom won't stretch too much.  My total finished length is 8 3/4"



I embellished mine with felt, embroidery thread, and buttons (I love to use buttons!!)

 I didn't do anything with the raw edge around the thumbs because Im not really worried it will fray to much, but I could have stitched it so there was no raw edge.

Think about all of the possibilities of embellishment with these!  Anything would go... lace, rickrack, beads... the possibilities are endless.

Keep crafting,
~Becca