Decor

On 02:00

Do you save your old sweaters that are too worn for the donation bin? I do and have a tub that I've been saving to use for craft projects or making pillows one day. That one day is today but instead of pillows, I turned three into festive recycled sweater ornaments and they are so easy to make!

3 Unique Festive Recycled Sweater Ornaments

I have a lot of the red and grey sweater leftover so I think I'll make that pillow after all. It'll look lovely in the living room with the ornaments. But more about that project another day.

Welcome to Day 6 of the Fourth Annual 12 Days of Christmas Series!

DIY Christmas Ideas and Recipes you can use this year! DIY Christmas Decor and Games Ideas #12daysofChristmas

DIY Christmas Ideas and Recipes you can use this year! DIY Christmas Decor and Games Ideas #12daysofChristmas

We have teamed up with 50 plus bloggers to bring you a oodles of DIY Ideas and Recipes to make your holiday season merrier. There are 12 different posts in the series and we have spread them out over a four week period with three posts per week. Now is the time to subscribe!

GO HERE for the complete list of Dates and Topics plus a collection of most popular holiday ideas including ornaments, games, recipes and more from all 50 plus talented bloggers!

It's Day 6 and we are sharing DIY Ornament Ideas!

Here is a recap of the previous days if you missed any:
Day One: DIY Wreath Ideas (I didn't participate)
Day Two: DIY Gift Ideas - A DIY Basket For That Special Holiday Hostess Gift
Day Three: DIY Christmas Countdown Calendar - Christmas Countdown Santa Cottage
Day Four: DIY Kid's Crafts - Easy Snowflake Craft To Make With Your Grandkids
Day Five: Holiday Party Food - Favorite Spicy Christmas Ornament Cheeseball

These are the garments used to make the recycled sweater ornaments.

Festive Recycled Sweater Ornament Garments

I've included affiliate links for your convenience so you can see what products I used or recommend to make these ornaments. See my disclosure policy.

To make these ornaments you will need:

Red Knit Sweater (salvaged)
Grey Wool Felted Sweater (salvaged)
Plaid Scarf With Tassels (salvaged)
6-inch Embroidery Hoops
Natural Jute Twine
3/8-inch Plaid Tartan Ribbon
Faux Flocked Evergreen Spray
Faux Red Berries
Sewing Scissors
Hot Glue Gun

Ornament 1 - Red Knit Sweater Ornament

Ornament 2 - Plaid Sweater Ornament

Festive Recycled Plaid Sweater Ornaments

Ornament 3 - Red & Grey Felted Sweater Ornament

Festive Recycled Red And Grey Sweater Ornament

These are the items used to embellish the sweater ornaments.

Festive Recycled Sweater Ornament Embellishments

The instructions to make all three ornaments are pretty much the same except for minor adjustments to both the plaid and red & grey ornaments. We'll discuss those later in the post but these are the instructions for the basic assembly of the ornaments.

Sweater Ornament Instructions

Cut salvaged sweaters in squares about 1-inch larger than the embroidery hoop.
Lay the fabric, good side facing up, over the inner ring of the embroidery hoop.
Line up the pattern so it's straight.
Fit the outer hoop over the inner ring.
Pull the fabric taut.
Tighten the embroidery hoop screw.
Pull the excess fabric over and tuck it into the inside of the hoop.
Run a bead of hot glue to secure in place.
Trim the excess fabric.
Tie jute twine around the embroidery hoop screw to form a 4-6 inch hanger.

Red and Grey Felted Sweater Ornament Instructions

The only difference with this ornament is that I added eyelet trim from the felted wool sweater to form a pocket on the bottom half of the ornament.

Recycled Grey Eyelet Felted Sweater Ornament

Tuck a sprig of faux flocked evergreen with small pine cone inside the eyelet pocket and hot glue in place.

Festive Felted Sweater Ornament Evergreen Sprig

Make a small bow with 3/8-inch plaid ribbon and hot glue on the top of the ornament.

Festive Felted Sweater Ornament Plaid Ribbon

Plaid Sweater Ornament Instructions

When using a wool scarf for this ornament, use a section of fabric with the fringe.

We want them to hang on the bottom of the ornament (pictured below).

Recycled Plaid Sweater Ornament Embroidery Hoop

When trimming the extra fabric around the embroidery hoop, keep the fringe that was cut off on both sides.

Recycled Plaid Sweater Ornament Salvaged Fringe

Glue the salvaged fringe to the back of the embroidery hoop. This adds a nice fringe detail to the plaid ornament.

Recycled Plaid Sweater Ornament With Fringe

Hot glue a sprig of faux flocked evergreens to the top of the ornament with three red berries.

That's it! They are so quick and easy to make and I had all three finished within 15 minutes. They don't have to be hung on the Christmas tree. I made six and have them hanging on three tall grapevine screens on a wall in my living room. They look lovely!

3 Festive Recycled Sweater Ornament Ideas

Scroll down for many more DIY Ornament Ideas for your holiday season!

An InLinkz Link-up

I share my projects at these inspiring link parties.

On 01:00

Meet Holly, she showed up on our doorstep looking like she was on her last leg. Despite her obvious imperfections, all I could see was her beautiful craftsmanship and how she deserved new life breathed into her. I was happy to take on the challenge and considering it was the start of the Christmas season, I decided to give this lovely antique empire dresser a holiday-inspired makeover.

Red is my favorite color and so you can imagine how excited I get during the holidays when I can go crazy with it. With our last Furniture Fixer Upper challenge of the year falling just before the holidays, I knew red would be a fitting color for this makeover.

Holiday-Inspired Red Antique Empire Dresser Makeover

Antique Empire Red Dresser

If you are new here, Furniture Fixer Uppers is a group of six talented furniture painting friends who come together on the fourth Thursday of every month to breath new life into six pieces of furniture. I've included links to the other five makeovers at the bottom of this post. Last month I used a napkin to transform an old Serpentine Dresser that had also seen it's better days.

I always have music playing in the workshop while I work. Because I'm in full holiday mode over here, Holly and I enjoyed many hours listening to period Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite during this makeover.

Inspired by the music, I lined the drawers with musical note wrapping paper. I left the drawers unpainted because I think the old wood with all its timeworn scratches and dents tell a story.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Musical Note Lined Drawers

Before I show you what it looks like now, let's take a look at this wonderful 5-drawer antique empire dresser before the makeover. Missing wood knobs, one keyhole escutcheon is missing, damaged veneer, and lots of knicks and scratches.

And here is the empire dresser after the makeover, painted red and aged with dark wax.

Red Painted Antique Empire Dresser Makeover

My guess on the age of this antique empire dresser

Take a look at the back of the dresser. Judging by the square nails my guess is it dates between 1840-1850. Unfortunately, there is no furniture makers stamp and I couldn't find another dresser just like it during my online research.

The craftsmanship of this nineteenth-century empire dresser

Before we take a closer look at all the damage I want to show you some of the craftsmanship. I've never worked on a piece this old before so I'm taken by all the details like these hand-carved dovetail joints on the drawers.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Dovetail Joints

And the wood keyhole escutcheons.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Wood Keyhole Escutcheon

Here is a look at the top of the dresser with all it's knicks and scratches and this interesting diamond. Not sure if it's an inlay repair or carved into the wood.

This post contains affiliate links so you can see what products I used or recommend for this project. At no cost to you, we receive a small commission if you make a purchase.

Repairs to the nineteenth-century empire dresser

The two small drawers on the top of the dresser had a slight curve from buckling over time and the trim was coming apart. Wood glue was brushed into the dovetail joints and trim and clamped in an attempt to straighten them. Because of the curvature, bar clamps wouldn't hold and so heavy duty ratchet straps came to the rescue to hold things nice and tight while the glue cured.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Drawer Repairs

While that was curing it was a good time to fill all the places where there was missing veneer, like the skirt. I use a strong non-shrinking filler compound.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Damaged Skirt

There were a few corners both on the top and base that were pretty beat up.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Damaged Corner

Once the glue was cured on the top drawers it was time to fill the missing keyhole escutcheon and the missing wooden knob screw holes.

Red Antique Empire Dreser Filling Missing Escutcheons

Instructions for the empire dresser makeover

Time for the fun part, to make Holly all pretty again. I did not feel guilty painting the dresser because it was beyond restoration. I knew I would have major paint bleed where the tannins in the wood bleed through the paint if I opened the pores of the wood with a light sanding. Instead, I primed the dresser to give the paint some bite with one coat of primer.

I'm on a mission to use up the paint in the workshop and had just enough Emperor's Silk Annie Sloan Chalk Paint left in the can for three coats.

To deepen the paint color and give the dresser an aged appearance, I used black wax applied with a round brush, removing the excess with a lint-free rag. I applied more wax along the edges of the dresser, around the drawer fronts, and the carved details. In places where I added too much dark wax, I would dab a little clear wax onto my rag and lightly rub it off.

In my stash, I had a set of clear diamond-shaped glass knobs and two lovely embossed glass knobs with ceramic backplates.

I painted the backplates with white chalk paint and it's hard to see in the photo below but I rubbed silver gilding wax along the edges.

I'm quite smitten with this antique empire dresser, hence the reason I named it. I really want to keep Holly and I'm doing everything in my power to find a place for her in our home.

Update January 2019

For several weeks after finishing this makeover I deliberated over whether I made the right decision painting the backplates white. I decided to paint them red like the dresser with dark wax nestled in all the lovely details. I'm so much happier with it now.

Red Antique Empire Dresser Painted Red Backplate

Did I tell you that red is my favorite color? I know I did, just testing you. If you love red painted furniture too, then you may enjoy these French Tilt Top Table and Red Antique Bookcase makeovers. I decoupaged a shopping bag onto this Red Tiered Corner Table. Did you know you can paint fabric? Check out my Red Painted Fabric Arm Chair makeover.

If you have any questions about this makeover, please leave them in the comment section below or press the Contact Me button at the top of the blog to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!