DIY: Felted Floral Sweater

Warning: This post is full of photos taken by my hubs. Usually the photos you see on this here blog are taken by me and my 10 second timer. Press the button, run in front of the camera, attempt to look natural and SNAP!, picture taken. With hubs, it's a little different. Strangely, I'm more self conscious. Probably because of the constant commentary which has me cracking up. My favorite? After I complained that the photos didn't look so hot, hubs quipped, "well, let's take some more and attempt to put some whipped cream on this crap-pie." And, yes, I do believe I was the crap-pie he was referring to. Sigh.

So, as usual, this DIY story begins with me drooling over some uber expensive piece at Anthropologie. Case in point: that lovely embroidered number on the left. Them crazies wanted something like $198 for that thang! Do you know how much whipped cream that would buy?! Why, I'd be the best tasting crap-pie in town. And I already had this thrifted Banana Republic sweater just sitting in my closet like a blank canvas. So, in normal Cassie fashion, I decided to copy that little piece. Like I said, same DIY story, different day.

I know what you're thinking: dang, girl, another felted sweater? Or maybe that's not what you're thinking, my ESP skills have always been lacking. Regardless, can you believe I've not gotten over this felting bug that bit me way back with this first Anthropologie DIY?  Since then, I've felted sweaters of birds, flowers and my cat. I've found I really enjoy the process because it combines two things that I love: creating pictures and creating clothing. 

But enough about that. Lemme show you the basics of how I crafted the flowers. To begin, hit the thrift store or your closet and get yourself some sweaterage. Wool roving and needle felting tools can be picked up at your local craft store. I began by pulling a long thin amount of roving and folding it over my finger as shown on the left. I slipped that off my finger and ended up with the loop on the right.

Lay it onto the sweater...

...and commence stabbing. As you punch the roving, it's fibers sink into and interlock with the sweater. This causes the size of the roving to shrink a bit. That's why the blue flower on the left looks so much smaller than the one I'm punching.

Once finished with one flower pedal, follow the same steps to create the second one. They resemble heart shapes and already have me thinking up a Valentine's Day sweater. Never too early to get a jump start, says me. For the dot in the middle, I used a very small piece of felt that I rolled between my fingers and punched into place.

For the flower stems, I initially used green roving. But I just couldn't get the felt to cooperate. So I discovered a stash of 100% wool yarn in my sewing room (the things I have buried in there!) and decided to try it instead. It works beautifully. In the photo above, I've simply laid the yarn out where I want it to be punched and started stabbing away.

And this is a little what the end result of that looks like. For such things as the flowers with multiple pedals, I followed the same steps as the heart shaped flower. Really, you can create any ole shape with roving. Just use your needle tool to shape the flower, strawberry, leaf, stem, you-name-it as you go.

Wait! This pie needs more whipped cream! By the way, that dip-dyed blouse under my sweater is yet another Anthro-copy that I plan to share with you next week.

Probably my favorite photo from our day out. You can see the back of the collar and the little sprinkle of flowers on my shoulders. Did I tell you I kinda love this sweater? You know what I really love? $198 in my pocket.

Now I'm not gonna lie, this sweater took me ages. Mostly because it was one of those work-on-here-and-there projects. But I'm happy I finished it even if I've only got a matter of weeks to wear it. You'll have to let me know if you've given felting a shot. I'd love to see what you've created!