How to sew a recycled sweater scarf – a beginner upcycle sewing tutorial.
If you keep a stash of wool sweaters that need a new purpose, this tutorial is for you! Or even better, now you have a thrifting mission. It’s often easy to find felted wool sweaters that someone washed & dried on accident, now you can give them a second life with this simple scarf! Upcycled from two felted wool sweaters, this scarf is fast and easy to make without looking cheap. I’ve tested it out and it keeps your neck super cozy!
If you like this post, check these out while you’re here:
- 15+ sweater refashions to recycle old sweaters into new clothes!
- 40+ ways to upcycle sweaters into something new
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- 25+ upcycle sewing tutorials that make great gifts
Pin this sewing tutorial for how to sew a recycled sweater scarf with this link or collage image:
How to sew a recycled sweater scarf
A finished scarf measures 7” wide X 68 ” long!
Supplies:
- 2 felted wool sweaters (preferably 100% wool and washed in hot and dried on high – you can tell when there is minimal stretch and it feels much denser) with similar thicknesses, preferably adult medium or larger; it is possible that too small of sweaters won’t yield enough fabric for the scarf.
- Iron
- Sewing machine
- Scissors
- Rotary cutter
- Acrylic quilting ruler
Steps:
The most important part of this project is finding the right sweaters to cut up. Leaving the raw edges means you need felted sweaters – nothing you can unravel. They both need to be a similar thickness as well; both sweaters used in the example are merino wool sweaters that have been washed & dried on hot. Don’t mix a super thick and thin sweater together, it will look odd and not sew together easily!
Step 1- Initially, cut along the seams of the sweaters to maximize usable fabric and machine wash on hot, dry on high. Then cut (4) green sweater rectangles that are 7” wide X 6” tall and cut (3) gray sweater rectangles that are 7” wide X 6” tall.
Step 2: Cut (2) gray sweater rectangles, 7” wide X 6” tall, with roughly 4” of ribbing at the end of one side.
Step 3– Lay the sweater pieces out, with a ribbing piece at each end and alternating green & grey rectangles. Put the edges flush next to each other and use a zig zag stitch (settings used in this example shown in the photo) in between them to secure – with a few straight stitches back and forth at the start and finish to lock in your seam.
Step 4– Use an iron and press all seams flat after sewing, and then trim the edges so everything lines up neatly. These trimmings make great stuffing for a pouf or a stuffed animal, so don’t throw them away!
Step 5– Repeat step 3, going back over all the seams and sewing a second line of zigzags along each seam after trimming, and press the entire scarf once more and you’re done!