Did you know that 85% of the world’s textiles go to waste despite the fact that they could be easily recycled? Think about that before tossing any of your shirts or knits, then turn them into something useful!
For example, I had this old white knitted scarf that I didn’t like at all. It was so outdated and hard to wear because it used to mess up my hair while wearing it. Still its texture was nice that I thought I should use it somehow. Which I did eventually by turning it into a pillow cover.
Here’s the short story of this knit and the four tassels that helped me change its purpose!
It took me less than 20 minutes to craft this pillow cover, since the tassels were already done. They were supposed to decorate a dark grey blanket, but the color combination didn’t look so good in the end, so I gave up attaching them, and decided to keep them for another project.
Beside the tassels and the knit, you need some yarn, a scissor and a crochet hook to craft this project.
If you still need help to craft the tassels, then follow these simple steps, as they are depicted in the images below:
- Use similar yarns in different colors to create one single thicker yarn,
- Fold the thick yarn 17 times, creating a 8 or 9-in base for your tassel,
- Tie a knot in the middle of the base then fold the two halves of it, to create your tassel,
- Use a wooden bead in the upper end to increase volume, and create a round termination of the tassel,
- Hide the bead among the yarns, then wrap another yarn around tassel 5-6 times, tie knot just beneath the bead, to secure the tassel.
- Trim the tassels evenly, for a neat appearance.
Now that you know how to craft tassels, let me tell you how to turn the scarf into a pillow cover. First, make sure that the scarf fits the size of the pillow (mine fit perfectly) as cutting the edges of a knit might lead it to unravel.
My knitted scarf was a pipe shaped one, so I only had to fix it on two sides of the pillow. Do you remember those awful knitted scarf that were in fashion years ago, and made you look like an old worm that was about to die anytime soon? Yeah, that was the type!
Use the crochet hook and the yarn to attach the sides of the knit, in order to turn it into a pillow case, then attach a tassel on each end of it.
Leave one side apart, so you could dress the pillow with the cover. Add the last two tassels at the corners before closing the gap, so you could take the cover off for washing without affecting them. dress the pillow, then seal this side too, using the crochet hook. That’s it!
This is the glamorous part of the story, because things are going to smoothly with this pillow in our real life. :)))
In the end, i leave you with a few more pics I took to illustrate that DIY projects that I totally love. I hope you like it as much as i do, and I hope you will find the inspiration to make your own pillow cases out of old knits.
