WIP: Recycled Sweater Union Jack Blanket

I know - you have heard it from me before - but I save everything. Old shirts, sweaters, ties, blankets, curtains, any kind of fabric swatch or scrap - you name it - I have a box with 'stuff' in it waiting for a suitable project. Sometimes I wonder if I have a hoarding problem - but my husband has yet to arrange an intervention!!

This post is about a quilt I am creating out of recycled sweaters. 

For this project so far I have used 3 sweaters (they would be called jumpers in England!) A wool red fair isle sweater, a blue & white striped wool sweater and a small amount from a plain blue wool sweater. I washed the sweaters on the hottest setting possible in my washing machine and then tumble dryed them on hot. After that they were good and ruined for any possible wearing and quite felted!

 

I deconstructed the sweaters carefully and ironed each piece. Then I used 505 spray to stick them on scrap pieces of cotton. I was careful not to stretch out the pieces when laying them on the cotton. (This particular piece of garish green cow emblazoned scrap cotton was from a pillowcase I made my sister some years back - pillowcases make cute gifts and can be made out of all sorts of novelty prints.)

The cotton enabled me to cut perfect squares (2.5" each) and they have stayed in perfect squares while I have been laying out the design. I am going to keep the scrap cotton on the back of the squares when I sew the pieces together.

This is the beginning of my recycled sweater blanket. If you know what the design is going to be I've succeeded so far. Now to sew it all together! 

Ouch - I've spotted a mistake ... do you know what it is? 

Here is my design. Each square is 2.5". (I can e-mail you a larger excel file if you are interested.) It could be used as a patchwork design or base for a knitting design too.

Here we are - mistake all corrected and the first part of the blanket sewn together. 

 

I'm a lover of different textures - and I used every bit of each sweater - ribbing and all. 

The wool hasn't stretched or warped during the sewing due to the cotton on the back.  

 

Of course everyone likes to stand on things when Mummy is trying to photograph them. 

Looking forward to finishing this blanket/quilt. I will post once it is completed.