Recylcing Wool Sweaters into Felted Purses

I had seen something a month or two ago about recycling sweaters. Wellll my daughter and I went to a goodwill store. I went through rack after rack. I bought 3 wool sweaters for $2.99 each. I made sure they were either mens xlg or womens over sized xlg. I am NOT patient enough to sit and unravel and wind all that wool soooooooo I cut the sleeves and neck bands off the sweater *gasp* I actually cut up an Eddie Bauer and Ambercrombie sweater with tags still on it (yesI have lost my mind lol).

I threw a sweater in a pillow case, tossed in a pair of jeans and proceeded to felt the sweater. It did take doing this twice before it felted (I am thinking it was because of the size of the sweater). Today I will be cutting out the "shape of the purse" I want and seaming it together. I will do a quick felt again in the wash so I can block it. The results........I will have a $1.50 "designer" felted purse!!! I can easily get 2 purses out of one sweater and even 2 pouches for inside the purse out of each sleeve. Just another idea for those who either don't want the expense of buying wool or afraid to learn to felt.


Picture of one sweater already felted and stitched but not "completed" yet. Still needs a short felt for the straps and stitches.









Another sweater waiting to be "ruined" (felted) lol