Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make an Embellished Blanket with Recycled Sweaters

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Lee Meredith, contributor

40 users recommend

A functional work of art is the best kind of gift!

Lee Meredith

This is a good quiltlike project for someone with no actual quilting experience!

Lee Meredith

I did a gridlike design with the ties, but you could go crazy and put the knots in randomly or in a swirl design or whatever you can think of!

Lee Meredith

A functional work of art is the best kind of gift!

Photo: Lee Meredith

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Next, cut the sweaters into blocks to make up your blanket. Cut a variety of sizes and shapes, avoiding ribbed edges that want to scrunch up. Once you think you have enough, lay them all out on the floor and arrange them so they fit together—you'll probably need to cut some smaller to match up or cut more pieces to fill gaps. Keep it visually balanced, with large and small blocks evenly distributed and color/texture variation even throughout.

Since the wool will stretch, edge lengths don't need to be exactly the same—you can stretch them to match up when sewing.

Now it's time to embellish those blocks! This is where your personal creativity can shine and you can use whatever techniques you're best at or new ones you've been wanting to try out! Here are some CraftStylish tutorials that might help: reverse appliqué by Diane Gilleland, reverse appliqué by Jennifer Stern, five handy embroidery stitches by Erika Kern, and appliqué inspiration by Kayte Terry.

You can embroider onto felted wool either with regular embroidery floss or with yarn for a different look.

I love to use recycled T-shirt pieces to make simple appliqués on felted sweater wool. On my blanket, I did several basic shape appliqués with T-shirt fabric and other recycled fabric scraps, all attached to the wool with embroidery floss stitching, embroidery with floss and with handspun yarn, and some stamping with fabric ink onto the T-shirt fabric. All of my embellishments are based on memories and inside jokes that I share with the gift recipient (my fiance).

Be sure to embellish each block one at a time, placing them back in their spots when you're done so you don't forget how to piece the blocks back together.

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Recycled Sweater...
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Comments (6)

1Suprise writes: I love it, so beautiful, and practical to have in cool nigth
I love or idea, thank you for sharing with us...have a good day to you...thank you again.

Posted: 12:38 am on January 14th

YouMustBeKidding writes: Great idea but this has got to be one of the ugliest blankets I have ever seen!!!
Posted: 7:48 pm on February 28th

sophiecai writes: wow...love this recycled ideas!
Posted: 8:39 pm on February 15th

Jen1964 writes: Ingenious! I have to admit, I've never thought of quilting with sweaters. I've seen people quilt old t-shirts, but not as nicely as this. I love the crazy quilt appearance, and the cuddly sweater factor. Just nutty enough to be genius. (Yes, that's a compliment) Some folks swear by tufting, but I like what you've done better. The backing is SOOOO important. For this kind, I'll bet you want it to breathe, too. Wouldn't hurt if it was as fuzzy as fleece or a light knit velour. Just watch out for static electricity! Sometimes the stores have $10 lap robes, in good washable fabric. Sounds a little like cheating, but not if you're just after the fabric. They make excellent slipcover fabric as well. Betcha could do some cute pillows from your idea.
Posted: 11:45 am on October 20th

croqzine writes: Nice! I love blankies!
Posted: 1:03 pm on October 9th

Sister_Diane writes: Okay, it must be said: he looks adorable. :-) And I love the blanket!
Posted: 11:29 am on October 9th

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