My Frugal wooly solution

[honeybunmom]

X-posting in Waldorf

While I'd love for my ds to have multiple one piece woolies to keep him warm this winter while keeping his cloth diaper covered with no shirt riding up on his back, I just can't bring myself to purchase multiples of these when there are so many other things vying for our dollars.

A while ago, another mama posted in the sewing forum looking for a tutorial for making a snow suit out of sweaters. That led me to such a tutorial and from that, these were born:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...m/100_5072.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...m/100_5071.jpg

Depending on your thrift store, you can have a cashmere romper for your little on for as little as $6-$10, plus the cost of thread - less if you use lambswool or merino, etc. I used two; cutting the arms off and making them the legs and then another sweater for the arms. The key (unless you know how to install zippers and I've never done that) is finding a sweater that buttons up, but is not a cardigan.

Now, I don't worry about ds being cold when the heat is low at night and he won't sleep with a blanket.

[kindchen]

Those are super cute! I always wonder when I hear about recycling sweaters this way: how do you keep the sweater from unraveling where you cut it?

[SleeplessMommy]

Unraveling is not a huge issue like it would be if you had unwashed, newly hand knitted fabric and your kid took the needles out, dropping 1000 tiny stitches. The fine wool or cashmere yarns are somewhat sticky and have been at least once in the manufacturing, making it a tiny bit felted together.

For making diaper covers, the sweaters are usually machine washed before sewing. This felts up the sweater nicely and there is no unraveling.

For making the romper, the sweaters can be left unfelted or partially felted. The seams can be serged on the inside, zigzagged, or hand sewn/basted to prevent unraveling.

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by kindchen

Those are super cute! I always wonder when I hear about recycling sweaters this way: how do you keep the sweater from unraveling where you cut it?

Thank you! As long as it is wool or other animal hair fiber, it won't unravel; the fibers lock around each other when you wash and dry the garment. This is called felting. I machine wash the garments first in hot water and then throw in the dryer.

[iowaorganic]

those are inspiring. I think I am going to try my hand at making a couple of sleep sacks using some of my stash of felted sweaters.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Totally stealing this for DS for this winter. He gets soooooooooooooooooooo cold and has no woolies at all. Great job mama! And thanks so much for sharing!!

[TiredX2]

Those are awesome!!!

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Originally Posted by honeybunmom

X-posting in Waldorf

While I'd love for my ds to have multiple one piece woolies to keep him warm this winter while keeping his cloth diaper covered with no shirt riding up on his back, I just can't bring myself to purchase multiples of these when there are so many other things vying for our dollars.

A while ago, another mama posted in the sewing forum looking for a tutorial for making a snow suit out of sweaters. That led me to such a tutorial and from that, these were born:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...m/100_5072.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...m/100_5071.jpg

Depending on your thrift store, you can have a cashmere romper for your little on for as little as $6-$10, plus the cost of thread - less if you use lambswool or merino, etc. I used two; cutting the arms off and making them the legs and then another sweater for the arms. The key (unless you know how to install zippers and I've never done that) is finding a sweater that buttons up, but is not a cardigan.

Now, I don't worry about ds being cold when the heat is low at night and he won't sleep with a blanket.

Any chance you can share the link for the tutorial? I just bought a wool sweater at a thrift store today that I am going to felt tonight. Strangely I only found one wool sweater in the whole HUGE stack there. I am going to have to scour the thrift stores for a few weeks. I would LOVE to make one of these for my chilly guy!

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

Any chance you can share the link for the tutorial? I just bought a wool sweater at a thrift store today that I am going to felt tonight. Strangely I only found one wool sweater in the whole HUGE stack there. I am going to have to scour the thrift stores for a few weeks. I would LOVE to make one of these for my chilly guy!

Here you go.

I do take the sweater in on the sides and make the arm hole less deep. I've also done one where I stitch the legs on straight across and the second where I stitched them on angularly, in a more natural body line. Hard to see in my pics. I'll be trying it with a cardigan next.

[coyotemist]

This is really wonderful!

I have a similar plan, and now may want to do what you did to make a whole suit. My original plan was to make long johns out of some very fine guage sweaters (pants and a singlet). So far, I've found 2 sweaters, and have spent less than $5.

Our budget really can't afford "real" wool long johns for the little guy.

[Angelorum]

Awesome! I've been thinking about doing this for my little one. I'll probably do separates though, as we part time EC and are getting closer to more serious potty learning. I also just found a thrift store in my area that had a ton of really nice cashmere and wool sweaters.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I did it! Well, partly for now. I felted a couple of sweaters that I found in my closet and here is the partially sewn result. The right arm in the pic is sewn on and the side of the body is sewn too, but that is it. I made the neck like a turtle neck and the original sweater had pockets, so I kept those too. I popped the legs and other arm on DS and made him stand still while I tucked it all in to take a pic. He thought it was fun and can't wait for his "sweater snowsuit" to be done. I had to hand sew it though, because when I tried it on my machine, it BROKE my machine! I need to take it in to be repaired now! Anyway, here it is! Sweater snowsuit

[coyotemist]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

I did it! Well, partly for now. I felted a couple of sweaters that I found in my closet and here is the partially sewn result. The right arm in the pic is sewn on and the side of the body is sewn too, but that is it. I made the neck like a turtle neck and the original sweater had pockets, so I kept those too. I popped the legs and other arm on DS and made him stand still while I tucked it all in to take a pic. He thought it was fun and can't wait for his "sweater snowsuit" to be done. I had to hand sew it though, because when I tried it on my machine, it BROKE my machine! I need to take it in to be repaired now! Anyway, here it is! Sweater snowsuit

Yours is really cute too!

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

I did it! Well, partly for now. I felted a couple of sweaters that I found in my closet and here is the partially sewn result. The right arm in the pic is sewn on and the side of the body is sewn too, but that is it. I made the neck like a turtle neck and the original sweater had pockets, so I kept those too. I popped the legs and other arm on DS and made him stand still while I tucked it all in to take a pic. He thought it was fun and can't wait for his "sweater snowsuit" to be done. I had to hand sew it though, because when I tried it on my machine, it BROKE my machine! I need to take it in to be repaired now! Anyway, here it is! Sweater snowsuit

That looks super cozy!