Recycled Sweater Flower Brooch

Recycled sweaters are one of my favorite "fibers" to work with, and I'm always looking for new and creative uses for them, especially wool.  Wool is so versatile - so why throw a sweater away because it doesn't fit, or shrunk in the wash, or got a moth hole in storage?  Make something else with it!

For this recycled sweater flower brooch, I chose leftover sweater scraps in 4 different colors - grey, red, yellow and green.  Thinner, already felted sweaters work the best for this project, if you'd like a more "stacked" petals look.  A thicker sweater will require fewer petal stacks for the same thickness.

Choosing grey and red for the petals, I cut one red petal set and one grey, tracing around the edge of a plastic party cup for the initial basic size, then cutting into it to create the petals.  I left the center intact.  I followed the same system for the following layers, downsizing the petal sets slightly by tracing around a smaller cup, and then a medicine lid.

For the leaf, I cut a simple teardrop shape out of the green sweater.

The flower center is three tiny strips cut from the yellow sweater, then folded in half.

Once all the wool was cut, I stacked everything so it was pleasing to the eye, and stitched everything together straight up the middle from the back.  I stitched on a safety pin to the back, and it was ready to wear!

I've gotten lots of compliments on mine - feel free to give it a go and sport your own!