How-To: Recycled Sweater Pendant

This weekend at Bazaar Bizarre in San Francisco, the CRAFT team will be in full force. On Saturday we will be making felt necklaces with everyone who stops by our booth, and on Sunday we will be crafting some really cute rings! I wanted to share the super simple felt necklace today. It’s one of the easiest last-minute gifts that I can think of, and it makes great use of any felted sweater scraps, or commercial felt that you have lying around. If you are in the Bay Area, be sure to visit us at the San Francisco County Fair Building, at Golden Gate Park! And if not, you can just follow this easy tutorial to create your own recycled sweater pendant.

Materials

Felt scraps, preferably from a recycled sweater
Scissors
Eyelets
Eyelet setter
Ribbon or wire
Updated with even more felty goodness!
*To turn a 100% wool sweater into felt, just use hot water and agitate it either by hand or in the washer. For more information on felting sweaters, check out this felted sweater project.

Directions

Step 1: Cut a heart, or any shape you like, from a scrap of felt.

Step 2: Punch 2 small holes in the felt with the tip of your scissors, where you would like to place the eyelets.

Step 3: Put an eyelet on the setter, and then align one hole in the felt over the setter.

Step 4: Give it a good squeeze to press the eyelet into the wool securely. Repeat for the other hole.

Step 5: Thread ribbon, wire, or any other necklace chain you like onto the eyelets. Voilà!

3 Responses to How-To: Recycled Sweater Pendant

Anonymous on December 11th, 2009 at 2:59 pm said:

So basically this tutorial says cut out a shape from a piece of felt and put eyelets in it. Right?
Where does the sweater come in?

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Brookelynn on December 11th, 2009 at 5:15 pm said:

I should have been more clear in my instructions. The felt that I used is from a fulled sweater. In the pink necklace, you can see the knitted cables add texture. And in the purple necklace, the felt is much more dense and textured than than commercial felt sheets. Just shrink a 100% wool sweater in the wash, and then use it as your source of felt.

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Ashley on December 12th, 2009 at 6:27 pm said:

Brookelynn,
I really enjoyed your needle felting demo today and would like to pick up a few small (and hopefully cheap) needle felting supplies to play around more with this technique. I especially want to work on embellishing my knits and wool sweaters I own. One of the things that really appealed to me is that it doesn’t sound like nearly as expensive of a hobby as knitting can be.
You said that we should be able to pick up needles for about a dollar each and the foam for dollar or two also. You also said that one ounce of roving should only be like two dollars. (Let me know if I’m getting any of this wrong). It all sounded incredibly cheap to me and I was super excited to try and pick some up. I looked at Mary Jane’s Attic as suggested by some other people at the event but her Etsy only has really expensive pieces. I was hoping you could mention where you have found good, affordable supplies in the Bay Area or online. You said something about knowing good sources in the North Bay?
Thanks!
Ashley

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