Make a beanie hat and mitten set from an old shrunken sweater

Hey y’all, continuing on the theme of sustainable sewing this month I’m sharing a thrift flip today. Using thrifted items to make new things keeps those items out of landfills and is usually a money saver as well! For this sweater upcycle project I turned a slightly felted $2 sweater from the thrift store into a beanie and mitten set.

This was a super simple project that sewed up quickly and left me with very few sweater scraps. If you wanted to use up every last bit, I think this particular sweater knit would be great for homemade dishwashing sponges.

To make the mittens I used my fingerless mitten pattern and tutorial. To make the hat, I modified my Slouchy Beanie tutorial to make it less slouchy and take advantage of the ribbed edge of the sweater. You can see in the video below how I modified the pattern and stitched it up. If the video below won’t load for some reason, you can also watch on YouTube here.

See, such an easy upcycle! Have fun sewing your own – this is a great way to salvage shrunken sweaters, because that happens. You can see how I salvaged another shrunken/felted sweater in this post.

Dianne
This was so timely! Today I dug out an older long sleeved cotton sweater that had a cable pattern on the front and stockinette sleeves and back. Wanted to make a hat for Spring and cut out from an existing one for the shape I wanted. Luckily I came across your tutorial before I began sewing and I now have a cute hat to wear on our daily walks that won’t be too hot for the warmer weather.
Thank you.