How To Make A Christmas Garland with Repurposed Sweater Balls

After denim, my second favourite fabric to upcycle is old sweaters. I made the cutest repurposed sweater balls from my wool scraps. I used the colourful balls to make a Christmas garland and some upcycled Christmas ornaments.

This is my kind of craft, in that it costs almost nothing to make as you are repurposing what you already have. It doesn’t make much mess or require a lot of concentration. Which means I can do it whilst chilling with Netflix.

Most of these repurposed sweater balls were made whilst binge-watching the “Queens Gambit” on Netflix. I loved the series, but what blew me away was all the stunning wallpaper featured.

I loved all that sixties styling, and some of the interiors were fabulous to look at in the home and the various hotels. While everyone else was getting fixated on the chess, I swooned over the wallpaper and interiors.

If you love colour, pattern, and mid-century interiors, I recommend watching this series. Also, if you’re a chess fan, you’ll love it too, but for different reasons.

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What You Need To Make Sweater Balls

The Sweater Scraps

I used old wool sweater scraps I had left over from other repurposed Christmas sweater projects.

Scraps in various colours and patterns will make a more festive Christmas garland. As long as you can cut the waste into a circle of 6 cm in diameter, then it is big enough to make the wool balls.

(Don’t throw away the smaller wool scraps, you can still use them to make a different funky felt garland.)

If using old sweaters for the first time and not scraps, felt them in the washing machine. Put the sweaters on a hot wash with some washing powder in the machine (like with my mountain pillows).

The agitation and hot water will make the fibres tighter in the wool sweater, and they will shrink. Tumble drying the sweaters will also help with the shrinking process. This felting of the wool sweaters will ensure the fabric can be cut and won’t fray, making it great for crafting.

However, only sweaters with a high percentage of pure wool, 70% plus, will shrink and felt. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you can’t use them for this craft. Also, some wools, like cashmere, are notoriously hard to felt but still can be used to make sweater balls.

Many sweaters are made on knitting machines and don’t unravel or fray when cut. Test your sweater, and if you can cut it without it fraying or unravelling, you can use it for this craft.

• Thick paper and paper compass cutter to make templates.
• Strong thread
• Upholstery needles
• Coloured twine
• Mini craft bells
• Fiberfill – the filling from old pillows will work just as well.

How to Make Wool Sweater Balls

Step 1: The first thing is to make the circular templates. I made them 6 – 9cm in diameter using a paper compass cutter. You can draw around cups and glasses if you don’t have one of these tools.

2. Place the circle template onto a scrap of sweater wool, draw around it and then cut out the shape.

3. Draw around the templates and cut out wool circles until you have a collection in various colours and sizes.

You will need three sweater balls in three different sizes and colours for each Christmas ornament. The number of wool balls required for the Christmas garland depends on how long you want. I recommend making 20-30 balls for each garland.

4. These sweater balls are stuffed fabric yoyos. As wool is a stretchy fabric, the sweaters will form a better ball shape than cotton fabric, traditionally used for yoyos.

Take one wool circle and threaded needle. Tie a knot at the end of the thread so it will not pass through the wool. Then stitch a running stitch around the circle’s edge (about 3mm from the edge). Pulling and gathering the fabric as you go.

When you return to the stitch start point, pull the thread so the circle closes to form a bowl shape. Before pulling the thread to close the hole, use your thumb to stuff it with fiberfill.

5. Next, pull the thread tighter to close the hole. Then stitch around the edge of the circle again to close the hole tight, and pull the thread after every stitch. Carry on until the hole is completely closed.

Cut the thread and then roll the sweater ball between your palms to help shape it even more into a round ball.

Once the wool circles had been cut, I found these sweater balls surprisingly quick to make.

It took me about 2 minutes to make each ball. Before I knew it, I had a bowl of repurposed sweater balls after a couple of episodes of “The Queens Gambit“.

If you like to do something with your hands while watching TV, this is a perfect craft for that, as it doesn’t require much concentration.

The sweater balls look fabulous as they are in a bowl, and perhaps you could leave them like that as decoration, especially if you soaked the fiberfill in essential oils before stuffing the balls. Then, they would make a lovely scented decoration for the table.

I decided to turn my repurposed sweater balls into some Christmas ornaments and a Christmas garland.

How To Make The Sweater Christmas Ornament

You will need three balls of different sizes.

Thread some thin twine onto an upholstery needle. Tie one end to a small craft bell. Then, thread the twine through the smallest ball. Then, the middle ball finishes with the largest ball. Next, tie the twine into a hanging loop.

These sweater ball Christmas ornaments were so simple and fun to make. I loved playing around with the different combinations of ball colours.

How To Make A Christmas Garland

This is made in a similar way to the ornament above. Thread an upholstery needle with twine.

Tie a craft bell to one end of the twine. Next, thread the twine through the top of a repurposed sweater ball at the gathered end of the ball.

Then, thread the next ball onto the twine, leaving a 4 to 5-cm gap between each ball. My garland was about 20 balls long, and I finished with another craft bell.

Suppose you find the balls slipping around on similarly the twine before and after threading the balls. This will stop them from sliding along the twine and all bunching together at one end.

Since making these sweater balls, I have made some gorgeous fabric mushrooms from fabric swatches in a very similar way. Check out these other Christmas sewing ideas.

I love repurposing sweaters into things for my home, such as blankets, fun shaped pillows and even colourful rugs.

I save the smaller scraps from these larger projects for fun decorations and crafts like these sweater balls. In the past, I’ve used the scraps to make felt Christmas trees, Scandi felt baubles, felt roses, and sweater felt tassel decorations.

I have even made a super cute felt succulent garden from the scraps.

If you liked these repurposed sweater scraps Christmas decorations, you might want to check out these denim Christmas decorations made from jeans scraps.

If you want more clever upcycling ideas, check out this comprehensive list of upcycling resources.

You’ll find more wonderful Christmas craft ideas here.