DIYs for: Kids * Families * Adults

DIY: Upcycled wool sweater brooch

Here’s one of my oldie but a goodie upcycling projects made using upcycled wool sweaters from my local Salvation Army Thrift Store. It’s easy so you end up making TONS of these upcycled wool sweater floral brooches.

Supplies:

a felted wool sweater
something round approximately 3 inches in diameter
chalk
scissors
a bar pin
embroidery needle*
embroidery floss*

* feel free to use a regular needle and regular thread if that’s all you have

First step is to felt a wool sweater. Find one at your local thrift store or use scrap wool from previous DIYs.

Second step is to trace six rounds from your wool sweater. As you can see I used the top of a glass for my ‘pattern’.

Once you’ve traced the six rounds then cut them out.

Now that we have the six rounds good to go we’re ready to hand stitch together our swanky floral brooch. You’ll want a long piece of thread since you can easily stitch the six rounds together and the bar pin using one continuous stitch.

Take one round and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again.

Next is to stitch the middle of the round where all the folds connect. You want to stitch this to ensure the folds stay in place.

Now take the second round and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again. Place the middle of the second round alongside the first round. Note: you want the fold in the opposite direction. Hand stitch the two rounds together where the folds connect.

For rounds three to six fold each round in half then fold in half again. Now each folded round to your flower one at a time. You want to add them to where you stitch the center of the folds together but in a different direction each time. By doing this you create a flower.

Once you’ve stitched all six rounds together you should have a flower. Easy peasy! The final step is to sew the bar pin to the back of the wool flower.

And you’re done! It’s quite the quick and dirty upcycling project. I’ve made tons of these out of different scrap pieces of felted wool sweaters. You can always get super duper funky and use various colours together or add scrap buttons maybe even repurposed jewelry to add bling to your floral brooch.