Turning an Old Sweater into New Mittens

Turning an Old SweaterInto New Mittens

Continuing our series on turning an old sweater into something new, this week I took the same sweater from last week and created new mittens. The cowl neck of the sweater made the perfect pair of mittens. I could have done a little decorating with the yarn but I decided to keep these simple. All you need is an old sweater (the tighter the stitch the less unraveling when you cut), sharpie marker, scissors, yarn and a yarn needle. Optional: pins to keep the 2 layers together.

  1. Place the sweater on a table and optionally pin the sweater sides together to keep it in place when you trace. Trace your hands on the sweater with the sharpie. If you want a looser fit for the mittens then trace bigger then the hand.

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2. Cut out the mittens through both sides of the thickness

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3. Take the sides and put the 2 right sides together so the sem will be on the inside of the mitten when you turn it inside out. Take a long tail of yarn and sew around the mittens. At the thumb and curves, I double stitched for better re-enforcement when they are being used.

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4. Turn the mittens inside out. You can either decorate them with a yarn bow or other things or put them on and use your new mittens!

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Upcycle Old Sweaters into New Slippers

Anyone who wears sweaters, has old sweaters that are out of shape, dull in color or out of style. I love to take old items that most people throw away and make it something new again. For the next 2 Teach Me Tuesday posts, I will be showing you how to upcycle an old sweater into something new just using the sweater, scissors, yarn and a yarn needle!

Today we are upcycling an old sweater into new slippers which are cozy and cute! My best tip is to use a machine knit sweater because they don’t unravel as easily as a handmade sweater.

Step 1: Cut the sleeves off of the sweater.

Step 2: Take a pair of shoes or flip flops to cut the sweater to create the soles for the slippers. You can use a marker to trace and cut the soles as well.

Step 3: Line up the sole to the cut end of the sleeve. I did pin them together just to make it easier for me. You might need to stretch the sleeve end to fit the sole.

Step 4: Cut a large length of yarn and sew the sole and sleeve together. I used a stitch that wrapped the yarn across the edge of the two pieces by threading the yarn through the yarn loop. You can use any stitch that is easy for you. For added strength, you can stitch 2 rounds.

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Step 5: this is optional! I added a weave of yarn at the top of the sleeve so I can tighten the top if I want to wear them different ways.

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Now I have a new pair of slippers for this snowy night we are going to have in New Jersey! Next week, I will be taking more of the same sweater to make mittens so be sure to stay tuned!