Re-Purpose Old Sweaters Into Adorable Felt Flower Pins by Anita Pendley

Make adorable felt flower pins from old outdated or tattered sweaters. You can use one of these flower pins almost anywhere. Pin one to your coat for a fresh look.
Pin several to a sad looking fabric purse. Use them on hats and scarves. They are great for home decorating projects also. Put a row of them around the bottom of a bedroom lamp shade. Decorate pillows and throws. Add chenille stems, and put them in a vase.

What you will need:

Two 100% wool sweaters in coordinating colors
Lined notebook paper
Pencil
Scissors
Needle
Strong thread
Straight pins
4 round objects in graduated sizes for patterns (approximate diameters are 1-5/8", 1-5/16", 15/16", and 11/16")
Pin back
Step 1. Making the Patterns
The 4 round objects do not have to be the exact sizes given. Just make sure that the circles are decreasing in size. The objects used for our patterns were 2 caps from different vitamin bottles, a quarter, and a dime.

Repeat the following instructions 1 time with each of the 4 round objects so that you have 4 flower patterns:

Lay the lined notebook paper on a table with the lines perpendicular to yourself (in case you don't remember your geometry, you want the paper so that if the lines continued they would run right into your chest).
Place the object on the paper near the edge closest to you, so that a line on the paper goes right through the middle of the object. Trace around the object creating your first circle.
Place same object above drawn circle with bottom of object just touching top of drawn circle. Trace around object.
Find area where your 2 drawn circles meet and mark a dot in the center.
Move object to right of 2 drawn circles with left edge touching dot and object centered between 2 drawn circles. Trace around object.
Repeat above step on left side of drawn circles.
You should now have a flower with 4 petals.
Cut out the flower pattern along outside lines.
Step 2. Wet Felting the Wool
Sweaters that are 100% wool tend to work best. It is possible to get good results with a little less percentage of wool,
so if you already have a sweater, give it a try. Less than 70% wool most likely will not felt.

Wash sweaters in hot water with detergent and no fabric softener, and then dry in clothes dryer on medium to high heat. The sweaters will shrink and the wool fibers will become entangled, locking together so that when cut they do not ravel.

As a side note I've read before that wool will not felt in a front loading washer. Some say that an agitator from a top loader is necessary to cause the wool fibers to mat. But I have had success in getting the wool to felt in my front loader. The only thing I havn't gotten to felt is cashmere.

Step 3. Making the Flower Pin

Pin patterns to felted wool. Use largest and next to smallest patterns on first wool color, and the other 2 patterns on second wool color. Cut around patterns.

Stack flowers from largest to smallest. Holding the 4 pieces of felt tightly in your hand, push threaded and knotted needle from back side of largest flower and continue straight through center of all flowers. Pull thread very tight.

Keeping thread tight, make several stitches back and forth through flower centers ending at the back. Knot thread.

Sew the pin back to the back of the flower.

Anita writes DIY articles and tutorials for the arts and crafts industry.

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