Yes this is a day early. If you get inspired by these awesome arm warmers, I want you to be able to go get supplies TODAY and make them TOMORROW in time for any last-minute Christmas shenanigans. Or, you know, they’d make a nice DIY Saturday AM to cozy up your arms for Christmas Eve. Your call.
My friend Tracy is an avid thrifter (surprised?) but also much more of a DIY badass than I am. We went to a holiday party at the house of a mutual friend last weekend and instead of merely thrifting an ugly Christmas sweater to wear (or completely missing that part of the invitation and showing up in regular clothes…whoops, that was me), she thrifted two ugly Christmas sweaters and MADE ARM WARMERS OUT OF THEM. WITH SAFETY PINS.
It’s like an ugly Christmas sweater had little arm-warming babies with a punk rocker. Check this out: 
She basically measured the width of her forearm, doubled it, and cut a piece that size from the parts of each sweater she liked. Then she cut thumb holes (the best) and instead of sewing, she thought “Why not use this pile of safety pins I have lying around?” Why not, indeed.
If you were looking to make them last awhile, you could sew instead of pinning and reinforce the thumb holes with hand stitching. BAM.
If you and yours are looking for an easy, thriftable, warm, no-sew, and (most importantly) rad Christmas project, get amongst it. Thanks, Tracy, for sharing!
What are your favorite holiday-related things to thrift? Scroll down to comment!
Thrift a large or extra-large size Christmas-patterned (or any other pattern) WOOL pullover sweater; wash and dry it with VERY HOT water in the washer and HIGH HEAT in the dryer. It will come out way smaller and nicely felted. Stitch by hand or machine across the bottom to form a bag, tie or sew the arms together for handles; now the neckline becomes the opening for your new TOTE BAG! If the sweaters you find are acrylic but thick and heavy enough, you can make the tote without felting it.
Carol, very cool idea! Thanks for sharing. I love the feel of felted wool and can imagine some pretty rad bags depending on the sweater you started with – nordic patterns, argyle, etc.