Another question about wool covers...

[amysuen]

I'm working on making another set of recycled wool sweater covers. With the first set I felted the sweater like crazy and made 1 layer, but ran into the problem of how to do the leg elastic.

This time I didn't felt the sweater so much, I put it in a sink full of hot water and hand-agitated it for a while. It felted a little, but not a lot. So now, do I make a 2 layer cover or a 1 layer cover? It's not as thick as the other one I did, but thicker than the layers in the PWP 2-layer cover that I have. It'll be mostly for day wear, if that makes a difference.

And, if I do a 1 layer cover, I'm back to the leg elastic problem. I'm cutting it with the waist part as the cover waist so I won't need any elastic there.

Ideas???

[mamadodson]

hi, i do bum sweaters too, and i dont usually use elastic in the legs, i use the trim on the neck of the sweater or the bottom of the arms and sew that on to make the legs, if that makes any sense at all if you wanna see pics, pm me your email addy, i will share with ya!! how do you felt the sweaters? is it necessary to felt?

[amysuen]

I had planned to do a cover, not a bum sweater. I figure that a cover will be more versatile for with clothes or not. Besides, it's a vest so there aren't any cuffs.

The turquoise one (in my siggy) I washed and dried on hot twice. It shrunk from an XL to too small for my 9 yr old!

This vest I swished in a sinkful of hot water to felt it a little.

[Kari_mom]

Amy, I make single layer wp fleece covers and I bet you could make your single layer wool covers the same way. My pattern is the outline of the cover. Where I want to add elastic, I add a seam allowance. I taper it in and out so there aren't any poky corners. Then I zigzag the elastic to the wrong side of the seam allowance, turn it in, and topstitch it in place.

Does that make sense? I can add pictures if you want. HTH!

[Kari_mom]

I forgot to add that you could try it as a single layer for trimness and add a strip of sweater in the wet zone if you need it. But really, I find lanolizing makes all the difference when you just need a day weight cover. Think of all the unfelted soakers that diapering moms use and love.

[amysuen]

Good point about unfelted soakers! But how do I sew in the elastic if it's just one layer? This is the problem I had before. I'm not thrilled with the solution I cam up with for the other one - I just sewed the elastic on the inside, but it's not the prettiest.

[JennInSeattle]

What I think she was saying is that in the area that you'd add elastic to normally, you increase the width by 3/8 of an inch when you're cutting it out. Then you sew the elastic down to the edges of the cover (like you did on your last one but then turn the elastic in toward the cover itself and sew down the edge to the inside of the cover.. then the elastic isn't exposed but be careful when you are sewing the edge to the inside of the cover to make sure you don't catch the elastic in your straight stitch.

I can probably take pictures of what she's saying if you need me to.

[amysuen]

Got it now!

I probably want to leave a little room at the very edge so I have a place to sew after I've turned it in, instead of putting the elastic at the very edge. I think that'll work with this cover! My other cover was so thick I could barely fit 2 layers under my presser foot, there's no way 2 layers plus elastic would have fit.

Now if I could only figure out a way to fit another cover/bum sweater in... It's a V neck so there's not enough rise. Oh well, maybe some wool liners!

[JennInSeattle]

Yep, not exactly at the edge.. maybe a 1/2 inch seam allowance and then move the elastic in 1/8 inch from the edge..... you get the rest!

I'll need pictures by the way!

[Kari_mom]

Yep, yep, yep! Thanks Jenn, for figuring out what I meant! Looking forward to pictures myself!

Also Amy, maybe you can work in another cover if you piece the wool. Felted wool is so easy to piece because you can butt-join the edges. Just push the two edges together that you want to join and feed them under the presser foot, using a stitch that is wide enough to go into both sides of the join. Zig-zag or three-step zig-zag will work, my machine has a couple of other stitches that are pretty and add nice detail to the seam kindof like simple embroidery. Practice with scraps first! If this doesn't make sense, maybe Jenn can explain!

[JennInSeattle]

Originally Posted by Kari_mom

Yep, yep, yep! Thanks Jenn, for figuring out what I meant! Looking forward to pictures myself!

If this doesn't make sense, maybe Jenn can explain!

:LOL You actually made me laugh out loud!

[Kari_mom]

I wish I could just draw pictures, it would be so much easier to explain what I mean....

[amysuen]

Yikes - posting at 1 am! I get the piecing wool thing, what a good idea. I feel like such a dunce with wool, I'm just not experienced with it at all. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm done. Thanks for all your help Kari Mom and Jenn!!!