Simple Felted Sweater Bag

I found this old sweater out in our shed. I have had it for over 10 years. It doesn’t quite fit anymore, but it is a good boxy, wool sweater. I have been wanting to make a felted sweater bag for a while but I am not really a seamstress…I am a perfectionist without the skills or patience to have the results that I want or expect from myself.

So I looked at some other bags on the internet and decided I would tackle it this morning. My own way, which means winging it and trying not to mess it up too much:)

First, I cut off the sleeves,

then, I cut off the top portion with the neckhole,

then my supervisor told me where the pins should go,

I sewed along all the sides that I had cut,

If you look closely you can see the thread on the left side,
there is excess material,

I trimmed the excess material,

and I snipped the corners so that it wouldn’t be bulky when I turned it outside in,

then I measured and marked the center of the bag with a pin,

I wanted buttonhole handles so I measured a few inches on either side of the mid-point, and marked it with a pen and a ruler. I was just following the red line that was already on the sweater,

I made my cuts, this proved to be too big, I think the total was a 6 inch hole, and I had to “fix” it because it looked too sloppy, I would recommend a 4 inch hole,

Once the bag was finished to this point, I threw it in the washing machine on a normal setting with hot water. I tried to do delicate but my machine wouldn’t let me use hot water on delicate cycles.

Finished bag that I will be using for crochet projects instead of using a plastic grocery bag:)

Not counting wash time this took about 30 minutes to make which also included some one-on-one time with my supervisor and cleaning up a puppy mess.

I also did a bit of tidying up with a needle and thread because parts of it were a bit sloppy.

The size before I washed it was about 16 1/2 inches wide by 14 1/2 inches tall

and the size after felting is 15 1/2 inches wide by 12 inches tall.

I may try washing it again.

While this bag is for me, I hope to make some more like it as holiday gifts and with the leftover sleeves I plan to make some mittens for Grace or Owen. I’ll post about that later.

Click here to see another post with some more sweater bags. I was much happier with these new ones…