Sweater Hurricane Lamp and 15 more Recycled Sweater Gift Ideas

By Joan
November 27, 2015
6 Comments

I had this great idea to continue my hurricane lamp slip covers with a beautiful cable knit thrift store sweater. You may remember my hurricane lamps covered in shells, driftwood, moss and honeysuckle vines. But after doing a little research I found that it’s already been done. Hey, that’s my idea.

No worries, I would do my project anyway, but I also went looking to see what other sweater projects I may have been missing out there in blogland. Apparently a lot, and after I show you my quick tutorial I’ll show you a bunch more things you can do with a recycled sweater, many of which would be great for gift giving this holiday season.

I believe, that of all the hurricane lamps that I’ve made, this one went together by far the quickest. Total time to make 2 of the lamps was probably less than a half hour and that was with taking pictures.

Start with your hurricane lamp or cylinder vase and a sweater of your choosing.

I was hoping that my hurricane lamp would fit in the sleeves of my sweater but either my sweater was too small ( it was a small after all) or my vase was too large, but it would not fit. I was stuck with using the body of my sweater for my vases.

With the wrong side out, pinned the sweater around my vase making it kinda snug and sewed the line I just pinned. Trimmed the seam.

With the wrong side still facing out, pull the sweater over the vase. Turn over the unfinished edge and hot glue in place.

Turn the sweater right side out and you’re done. If you would like to add buttons, they too can be hot glued in place. They could also be sewed in place but then you’re looking at over a half hour.

Such a quick project and so pretty lit up at night.

Since that project went so quickly, I’m sure you’re ready for 15 more recycled sweater ideas. Get ready to be inspired and get out your Christmas list.

This endless scarf was made by B Organic.

I know a few people on my Christmas list who would love these cute wine bottle gift bags from What Che Said as long as the wine was included.

These repurposed sweater pillows are from Cami over at Tidbits. She also shares her secret for avoiding wavy seams when sewing with sweaters.

This cute little snowman if from Crafts n Coffee. In the same link she shows you how to make a bunch of snowmen heads from a tube sock.

This patchwork Pet bed is from Apartment Therapy. A great chance to use up a bunch of old sweaters.

This cute pincushion was found over at Flickr. No tutorial here, but if you click on the link you’ll see a few pincushions in a couple of different colors.

How cute is this little beanie hat from Make it & Love it. She actually made them in several different styles, all adorable.

No babies to make a hat for, how about this cute little Christmas tree ornament from Cherished Bliss. Apparently she didn’t make her ornament, but to me, that looks totally doable.

I’ve been admiring this lampshade for a while from A Cultivated Nest. Apparently all you need is an old lamp shade, hot glue and of course a sweater.

These beautiful mittens are from My Yellow Farmhouse. She didn’t include a tutorial so I’ll send you here for one. Wouldn’t these be great for everyone on your Christmas list?

I couldn’t decide which Christmas trees I liked better, so I included them both. the above trees were made by One More Time.

And these trees are from Bargainhoot.

Have a doggy who needs a little style? How cute is this sweater from VoKnits.

These boot socks are from Stuff Happens. No diy here, but I’m thinking they wouldn’t be too hard to reproduce. Cut sleeves, hem one end?

I don’t think this was originally a recycled sweater, but how cute is this baby wrap from Caet’s blog?

Hope you got lots of ideas for your Christmas gift giving but if you need more, the recycled sweaters I showed you are less than half of the ones I found while perusing the net. Don’t worry, I pinned them all. Make sure you check out my Pinterest page “Sweaters” for even more ideas and I’ll meet you in the sweater department of the Thrift Store.