Recycled Sweaters Doll Quilt

Last Sunday, I spent the day with my dear friend, Jen. Her very talented sister, Karen, made a cozy sweater quilt for a friend and Jen wanted to make one for herself. So, I took Jen on her first thrifting adventure. Once I saw all the bright, soft sweaters, I realized this would be a perfect blanket for me to make for Taylor's new bed! We're getting some nearly new hand-me-down bunk beds for her and I haven't found just the right bedding for her. A sweater quilt is the perfect solution! While I was cutting my pieces, I decided I was going to practice sewing the sweater pieces and make a doll quilt for Taylor. I wanted to work out the quirks of using the different textures with varying degrees of stretch, before I started on the full-size version. So, first I cut all my sweaters into rectangular strips to be used for the full-size version.

Then, I took some of my scraps and cut them into equal size pieces. As I was sewing, I realized these tips:

When sewing a finely knit/super soft piece to a cable knit piece, feed the fabric through the machine with the soft sweater piece on the bottom and the cable knit piece on top. This will help the fabric guide through the machine much more smoothly. The cable knit pieces tend to require more care going through the machine and would get stuck in the feed dogs. Otherwise, the knits weren't as tempermental as I thought they'd be. When I was done sewing them altogether, I simply backed it with one of Taylors old flannel receiving blankets.

Working with recycled sweaters can be addictive! I've got lots of projects in mind for my scraps!