Thrifty Art Thursday: Felted Sweater Slippers

Like I promised in my last felted sweater post, I'm going to show you how to make slippers out of the leftover sleeves from your felted sweater bag.

First find the seam of the sleeve and turn it to the center top. Then you cut the sleeves off by measuring them roughly against the foot. Add about an inch or two beyond your foot for the heel and seam. I've found that in general, men's sweater are good for men's socks and women's sweaters for women's socks. I haven't tried making kids socks yet, I'll let you know if I do.

Next slit up the center seam from the cut end until you can stick your foot in and wrap the tips of the sweater around your ankle.

Then to sew the toe shut you just make a half circle seam at the toe end. Make sure the sweater seam is in the middle of your half circle. Trim the excess from the slipper sock toe.

Now you make the heel. First seam up the back. Take the tips where you cut into the top and bring them together. The seam will be running up and down the back of the slipper leaving the top where you cut open to put your foot in. Your slipper will look weird and squarish at this point.

Put your slipper on, wrong side out you'll find there's a little triangle of fabric you can pinch at the base of the heel that will lay flat along the floor, a lot like the triangle of fabric you made with the sweater origami to make the square base of the bag. Sew along that little triangle and cut the triangle off.

Flip your slippers to the right side and Voila! You have warm wooly slipper socks. They're perfect for embellishments, embroidery works great, maybe a blanket stitch along the opening, or some little yo-yo's on the toes. Perfect for a cheap quick christmas presents, and if you can snag that special someone's shoe, you can use that to estimate where to cut your sleeve. Just measure it against the shoe and don't add any extra inches to the end.

Thanks for stopping by Thrifty Art Thursday, and here's a little present for you in this holiday season:

Just enter DANDELIONHOLIDAY2010 in the coupon code at my Etsy store to get 20% off any of my hand carved block prints, upcycled aprons, or original paintings! I will be adding more aprons and new prints next week as well so check back!