Last year, I made this fun West Elm knock-off Wooden Wall Tree. Since it has the look of a bare tree, I thought that it would be perfect for Fall decorations. Then in November, it’ll will be a cute ‘Thankful’ tree, don’t you think??? I decided to make a fall garland to drape on the tree, inspired by this 4th of July garland. My good friend, Jenny has been making Recycled Sweater Mittens for quite a few years.
She let me pick through her fall colored sweater scraps 🙂
I used felt for additional fall colors that I didn’t have sweaters for. The sweaters that work best are tight shrunken ‘felted’ wool sweaters. The loose knit sweaters, like the one of the far left did not work very well. Use sweaters that are at least 60% wool. To ‘felt’ your old sweaters 1. Wash the wool sweaters in Hot water with detergent 2. Dry the sweaters on High heat. If you don’t have sweaters, your local Goodwill or DI type store should have lots of ugly sweaters that will work great 🙂
Print off templates of your favorite leaf patterns. I picked a couple leafs from both of these links. (Click on the leafs and it’ll take you to the source to save and print.)
Cut out a variety of leafs in different colors. Great project to do while you’re watching your favorite shows 🙂 I set out my leafs and tried to make sure the colors were varied and somewhat random.
Now comes the sewing. I’m not very good at sewing, so if I can do this, then anyone can. I used clear thread. Instead of spacing the leafs out, I overlapped them and varied the direction that they are facing. This way the garland is more full. Here is how it turned out.
Draped on the Wooden Wall Tree, I tried to stagger it so it doesn’t look like a Christmas tree 🙂
I think it will also be a great table runner. Pin it for later:
Have a Happy Fall Y’all!
Linked to my Favorite Link Parties, Remodelaholic, Savvy Southern Style
What a great idea…and so cute! Now I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of so many of my old sweaters….maybe it’s time to raid the kid’s old clothes.
ahh good idea
What do you do to prevent fraying/unravelling?
The sweaters that work the best and won’t unravel are ‘felted’ wool sweaters. You wash your wool sweaters in hot water with detergent, then dry them on High heat. I couldn’t use the loose sweaters like the brown and cream one in the far left of the before pic. It was too loose and unraveled.
This is so adorable. I love it. I am pinning this.
Love your sweater garland, so pretty and love the texture it has. Also great colors, really pretty!
Now that must have taken awhile to cut out all those gorgeous colorful leaves for your garland. Love how full it is and long. Exceptionally great garland. I’ll be raiding the sweater rack at the thrift stores for while to make all the projects I have in mind. Make some gifts too I hope. Happy days
So very cute! Wonder if it would stay nice outside?
I don’t know, I’ll let you know after this fall. However since the wool is felted, it should be quite durable.
What a cute idea! Thanks for sharing! Gotta look for some old sweaters to try this. Pinning!
-Michelle @TheGraciousWife.com
Love the tree and the felt garland. I may have to hit up my thrift stores to make one of these. Thanks for sharing this.
OMG! So cute! What a great idea. I love to reuse items for crafting. Thanks for linking up to the Creative Exchange.
This looks so good! You are amazing. Pinned. We had so much fun partying with you at our last party. We hope to see you tonight’s party at 7 pm. We love to see what you have been working on! http://loulougirls.blogspot.com/
Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls
You’re so creative! Love the texture from the different sweaters. Thanks for sharing with Creative Spark Link Party.
Glenna @ My Paper Craze
This is a fabulous project! I love the variety of “fall leaves”. Thanks so much for sharing at last week’s Creative Ways Link Party. I look forward to seeing what you’ll bring this week!
Blessings,
Nici
Oh this is awesome and I love that you used cozy warm sweaters, It just screams Fall!! Thank you for linking up with us at Get Your DIY On! I hope you’ll join us in November with your furniture makeovers!!
Mandy @ The Hankful House
Beautiful! My daughters will love this fall garland. We have few old very colorful sweaters that are perfect to be recycled. My girls will have a nice time creating this lovely decoration. Thank you for the inspiration!
What a beautiful idea! Thanks for sharing.