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How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters! | JenuineMom.comsnowflake-sweater-coat-title2

I made an autumn-colored sweater coat back in September. I adored it, but it wasn’t quite warm enough once those wintry winds began to blow. So I made a winter-themed coat that’s warmer, fuller, and furrier. I call it my Snowflake Sweater Coat and it’s so much fun to wear!

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Snowflake Winter Coat Details:

This sweater coat is the same essential design as my autumn coat, with a few changes. Like the autumn coat, it’s made of felted wool sweaters from the Salvation Army — I bought them during one of their occasional 50% off sales and paid only about $30 for all the sweaters used in the coat (the sheepskin fur hood added another $40). The pieces were served together using Katwise’s tutorial. If you’d like to make one yourself, start with my autumn sweater coat post, where I go through the process step-by-step. Here’s what’s different about my snowflake coat:

1. Warmer Coat
The first change I made to this sweater coat is to have TWO sweaters for the bodice to make sure I’m warm enough. Thankfully, I did not attach the second one, as I’ve discovered I do not need it unless it’s very cold. So the second sweater is a removable layer now.

How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

2. Fuller Skirt

The skirt of the sweater coat is a full circle. I thought the extra material might help to trap more heat, and it definitely does. It’s also very twirly and swishy.

How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

3. Embroidered Snowflakes

When I came up with the idea for the sweater coat, Greg suggested I add snowflakes to the bottom hem. I used the Dreaming of a White Christmas snowflake pack from EmbLibrary, alternating each snowflake design. I think they turned out very nicely.

How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

4. Fur-Lined Hood

I made a shorter hood than the one on my autumn sweater coat, and then lined it with sheepskin that I’d gotten from IKEA a while back (Rens). The hood took the longest to make because of all the leather hand sewing that was involved. It’s a rather large hood, but that’s what I thought looked best with the coat. I feel a little swanky wearing it.

How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

5. Pockets

Part of the old wool I upcycled for the sweater coat was a navy blue wool coat that I found at my Salvation Army along with the other sweaters. I used it mostly for the waist, ties, and background for the embroidered snowflakes. It had pockets, as most coats do, so I cut out the section with the pockets to use as one of my skirt pieces, leaving the pockets in place. Instant pockets!

How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

6. Tighter Cuffs

My autumn sweater coat has fairly loose cuffs, as I was worried about making them too tight for layering. Turns out sweaters stretches a lot and that wasn’t an issue, so I made the cuffs on the winter coat much snugger and I like them much better.

How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

I had intended to add a zipper to this coat, thinking that would be warmer. But I haven’t actually needed it yet, so the zipper is not yet installed. I may leave it out — we’ll see how things go this winter.

Making this sweater coat took about 5 hours for the main coat (bodice, skirt, cuffs) and another 7 hours for the hood (!). Kinda crazy, but once I started the hood, I didn’t want to stop. If you didn’t have a crazy real fur lined hood, it would take less than an hour to make the hood. Why did my hood take so long? The hood had to be patterned (I wanted it to lie perfectly, or as near to it as I could). The sheepskin fur lining had to be cut and sewn together with sinew (remember, it’s leather with the fur left on). Then I had to attach a twill strip to each raw edge and then sew it down again (I used this technique). Finally, the fur lining had to be sewn to the sweater hood, and then the assembled hood to the coat. Oh, and I made the little pouf from sheepskin as well. The hood was a challenge, but so worth it in the end.

Free Sweater Coat Worksheet by JenuineMom.comIf you want to make your own sweater coat, I created a worksheet to help you pick the colors and style that you’d like best. You’ll find it in my resource library—just subscribe (free!) to get the password.

Let me know if you have any questions — I am happy to help if you want to make your own sweater coat. Be sure to read the tutorial on how to make one here on my blog, too!

Love,

JenuineMom.com

P.S. If you’re interested in sweater upcycling, check out my sweater hat upcycle, sweater gloves upcycle, sweater scarf upcycle, and full tutorial on a sweater coat upcycle.

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How I Made My Snowflake Sweater Coat from Upcycled Sweaters | JenuineMom.com

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18 Comments

  1. Another lovely job dear, well done! I absolutely love your snowflakes, and that was a super smart idea to keep the pockets from the wool coat and add them in. I’ll have to remember that when I get around to making me a coat. 🙂 PS your blog subscription widget is in a very weird place center of my screen and stays there, so I’ve had to look around it to read the blog. Just a little housekeeping item I’m sure. 🙂

    1. Thank you, Angela! I recently modified my blog so it would have a wider window (it was super narrow before) and I’m betting that’s the problem. I’ll work on it — thank you!

  2. Beautiful, beautiful sweater coat! I’m really wanting to try to make this. It’s so unique!!

    Thank you xxx

  3. The coat is so beautiful and I hope you know now that you can sew leather on your machine. Hand sewing isn’t necessary at all I sew leather with my regular machine all the time..

    1. Thank you, Delores! I have sewn leather on my machine before, but this hood needed to be hand sewn just by its very nature. It was extremely thick and my machine wouldn’t cut it. Thank you so much for your kind words!

  4. I love your coats! I want to make one so badly but I am deathly allergic to wool. I need to find an alternative. I know cotton won’t felt, but cheap polar fleece gets a felt like texture after a few washes. I know they are not ideal but I HAVE to make this! Any thoughts which would sew better for this project?

    1. You could still use cotton, even though it doesn’t felt. My sister has a mostly cotton one and it looks great. I’d recommend cotton over fleece. 🙂

  5. I love your creative spirit, both coats are gorgeous. I’m just starting to upcycle sweaters. I don’t know if I will ever get to the coat because I don’t have a serger yet. Maybe after I sell my loom and other equipment from past hobbies, I’ll take the plunge.

  6. OMG; your sweater coat is absolutely amazing; I LOVE that you up-cycled all the material instead of just buying it new!
    You are an inspiration!

  7. You are simply incredible! You never fail to amaze me!!! I HAVE to make this coat for myself!! I absolutely LOVE it!!! Thank you so much for your generosity in always sharing everything you make and how to make it!!

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