Thrifted Thursday- Sweeter Sweaters

Good morning everyone! How is your December going so far? I hope it's been great, and most of all, stress free! 

One of the things that I'm really loving "researching" right now (that's my excuse for spending hours on Pinterest) is ways to use things like sweaters and tshirts to make new things. Actually, we did a post a while back about ways to upcycle tshirts. Today, I'm going to share some cool things you can make with old sweaters.

Ok, I have a tiny confession to make- I love some of the patterns on "tacky" sweaters. I love that the Fair Isle and Nordic type prints are coming back into style. But, a lot of times, when I can find sweaters with patterns that I like while out thrifting, the cut and style just aren't doing it for me. But, if it's only $2.... and I really love the colors and pattern.... I sometimes can't help myself ;). So, I need an excuse to bring that beauty home.

Last year, I actually end up making some legwarmers from the sleeves of a crazy sweater- see this post for pictures and instructions. And, for my crazy Christmas party outfit, I used the sleeves off a sweater again. But, since I live in El Paso, I don't really need a ton of legwarmers. But I still had that crazy black, pink, and teal sweater sitting around. What to make, what to make? Pinterest to the rescue!!! I found a blog called Saved By Love Creations that had a list of 50 things to make with old sweaters... what? Awesome!! 

There are several things I want to make from that list, but the thing I tried first was something called "pocket warmers." I've seen them around several times, but the blog I looked at for instructions was Annie Get Your Glue Gun. I decided that I would make mine heart shaped... cute, right? So I cut out my little hearts:

Aren't they just adorable? I just knew they were going to turn out so cute... Then I started sewing.... the hearts were a little  a lot lopsided after I turned them inside out (I put right sides together to sew them up), but I thought I could fix that with some filling. My plan was to fill them with some dry navy beans. So, I filled up my little hearts that looked like deformed roosters (really, they do... I'll show you a picture in a minute) and popped them in the microwave to test them out.... Whew!! The beans apparently started cooking.... nasty! So... I decided to make some larger hearts and fill them with rice... still, a little lopsided but not as bad. Finally, I just gave up, made a rectangle, filled it with stinky beans (I ran out of rice), and called it a day... After all, how many times am I going to need a hand warmer in El Paso?

Even though this experience was a little traumatizing, I'm still planning on trying some of the other projects- I still have a bunch of that sweater material to use! ;)

Please go check out the list on Saved By Love Creations to see if there are any old sweater projects you'd like to try. Let me know how they turn out! Happy thrifting!

                                                                                            -J