Gorgeous Colorful Soft Rug From Old Sweaters
My mum gave me a bag of her old wool sweaters to repurpose and upcycle. Lucky for me my mum loves to wear bright colors. So I ended up with a bag of sweaters in lovely pinks, reds, and purples.
I had recently made a very popular no-sew denim rug out of waistbands (click here), so this time I thought I'd have a go at a no sew sweater rug.
The first thing I did with the wool sweaters was felt them. I did this in the washing machine.
The next thing I did was to cut the felted sweaters into strips. I used a rotary cutter and board for this. My strips were about 15mm in width and as long as I could make them.
It is important that the strips of felt are all the same width, however, the lengths can vary. You can cut thinner strips to get more lengths of wool out of your sweaters. The width of the strips will determine how thick the finished rug is.
Once you have cut up all your sweaters you can start making the rug. I used between 4-5 sweaters for my rug. The number you need will depend on the size of the sweaters you use to start with and how thick you cut the strips.
To start with I pasted one side of a felt strip with fabric glue and rolled it up. I then added another strip. You continue adding strips of felt to make a coiled mat. You can use pins to keep the ends in place as the glue dries.
It's a bit like quilling you do with paper.
I made several of these coiled mats in different shapes and sizes.
Once you have as many coiled mats as you want you can join them together.
I used a glue gun for this as the glue dries quicker than fabric glue so it is more likely to hold its shape.
I made small coiled mats to fill in the little gaps between the bigger mats.
To finish off I had more stips of felt around all the mats to bring them together.
This isn't a quick craft but, the rug can be made over time and you can add to it later to make it even bigger.
There are more details on my blog. Link in bio at the end.
if you don’t have enough sweaters for a whole rug check out these popular but easier denim and sweater mats.
Resources for this project:
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Comments
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Thank you for the explanation. After you’ve felted it do you air dry the sweater or use a dryer?
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You can use either, but a dryer will help with the felting process.
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That’s a very unique idea! Very nice.
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Thank you so much.
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
How do you felt a sweater
Looks cute but how do you clean it?
very pretty, and you are very talented, but I agree with other's,
How does it wear, and how can it be washed?