I bought this vintage boiled wool sweater jacket on eBay for $7.50 ($17 total with shipping). It came with some holes and was missing its buttons, but I liked the princess seam shaping in front and back. A quick search on the brand name indicates it was made in Hong Kong, probably in the 1980's. Another indication of how durable wool can be. I bought some vintage buttons on eBay as well.
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| Sweater listing |
When it arrived, I gave it a good soaking in Woolite to clean it, and laid flat to dry. Next, I tackled the holes. Gray is my favorite color, so I had yarn and wool roving in close colors. I untwisted wool yarn so I was working with just one ply, darned the bigger holes, then needle felted over them. Smaller holes I fixed with needle felting. The sleeves were ridiculously long. I cut off 4 inches saving the knit bands, tapered the bottoms of the sleeves, and reattached the bands with a zigzag stitch. After a good steaming, you can't tell they were shortened. I defuzzed the jacket with my sweater shaver.
I searched for a simplified view of the Minneapolis skyline and cast it onto the TV so I could adjust the image size then trace it. I did the same with another simplified skyline I found online so I had enough skyline detail to go around the bottom of the jacket.
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Casting skyline image to TV
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| Tracing onto tissue paper |
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| Traced Mpls skyline |
I used the traced patterns to cut out the wool felt (purchased on Etsy) then needle felted it onto the bottom of the jacket.
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| Cutting the felt |
