Rain, Rain Go Away... Guess I'll Repurpose A Sweater Today!

Today was a pj kind of a day; dark, dreary, and quite cold. Ahhh.... fall is finally here in Michigan. Summer has officially retired for the year, along with the bathing suits, flip flops, and tank tops. Fall rain has pushed us indoors for the day making this the perfect afternoon for a warm and cozy sewing project. Before I decided on this sewing project, I was cleaning out my closet getting ready for a Purple Heart pick up next week. As I was going through all of my old fall and winter apparel, I came across a stack of old sweaters. One caught my eye in particular. I had bought for my husband during the holiday's last year and shortly after it ended up in the dryer... ooops! Out came this little itty bitty striped sweater perfectly felted! I thought, " looks like I just got a new sweater!", but alas, it was too short  for me. I had saved it because I thought I would try a sweater repurpose one day. And hey, look who dare i say had a successful run with repurposing an old sweater into a new hat and scarf for my 7 year old!

So I started with a "felted" sweater that was turned inside out (right sides together) , a sewing machine, a pair of scissors, and an idea of size measurements that would fit my 7 year old. You could also use another hat with a similar shape as a guide when cutting just keep in mind that you will need a 1/4" seam allowance. I cut a piece of paper as more of a guide than a pattern that was a half circle with a length 11" and a mid height of 7.5 in.  Notice that the paper has an odd shape that I had to perfect in a second go around:) The use of a compass, a tool I clearly don't own, would be helpful here! If you aline the pattern piece witht he bottom of the sweater that there is no need for hemming the hat. You will have a nicely finished brim.

So I cut out the hat and sewed around the rounded edge using a 1/4" seam allowance. Then i simply trimmed and and turned the hat right sides out.

This was my second attempt at the hat so I had to cut it out of the middle of the sweater. Therefore, it needed to be hemmed. I did this by simply turning the hat inside out and foldingo over the bottom edge 1/4" and making an even stitch all the way around.

Then when turned right side out you have a clean edge like so:

The hat seemed a little plain for my little fashionista so I decide to whip up some flowers out of the extra sweater material. I cut several circles out and threaded a needle.

Like so:

To make the petals; fold one circle on half.

And then in half again. While pinching the petal, secure witha stitch at the bottom point.

I joined at three of these petals together by stitching each on to the other at the bottom point until they resembled a full looking flower like this one.

 next I stitched it to the bottom of one side of the hat for a sweet look. You could add as many or as few that you like. I think it looks super sweet on her!

When I was done, I still had the arms that just seemed wrong to throw out. I could have made more flowers for headbands and purses but I decided to try a deconstructed looking scarf.

I started by cutting the arms off below the arm pit.

then I took my rotary cutter and evened out the width. I wasn't too fussy about getting the width exact the whole length. I planned to trim it up after I was done sewing it together.

Then, I cut up the sides of the sleeves making four separate pieces like below.

Next, I matched two pieces together at a time with right sides together and stitched across the short side using a 1/4" seam allowance. Keep doing this until all pieces have been joined together.

Last, I trimmed the seams.

I made two more flowers and stitched one to each end of the scarf.

And then I called my little model out for the photo shoot! I am very happy with the outcome and she was happy to have a new scarf set! Hope you try it! Any questions? Just leave em in the comments!!

Happy Crafting!