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There are lots of potential ways to mend holes in sweaters, but if you’re trying to fix a wool sweater, one of the quickest and most durable ways is to mend holes in a sweater with needle felting.
What is Needle Felting?
Needle felting is a craft by which unspun wool fibers (also known as roving) are fused together by piercing the wool multiple times with a sharp needle.
You can use a single needle made for this purpose or a needle felting tool that has several needles built into a case. That’s what I’m showing in this tutorial for mending holes in a sweater with needle felting. I like the security of having the needles in a sheath that keeps my fingers away from them.
Needle felting can be used as a surface decoration on a felted project or made into three-dimensional objects.
In the case of using needle felting to cover holes in sweaters, it’s being used like a suture to close up the hole and cover it with the new wool. You can make this treatment more or less visible based on the color of the sweater, the color of the roving and how much you use to cover the hole (as well as the size of the hole).
Needle Felting Supplies
I already mentioned that you’ll need a needle felting needle or tool to do the poking that’s involved. You’ll also need a foam block, felting mat or a stiff-bristled brush sold for the purpose of using with needle felting.
These tools are meant to protect your work surface so you don’t poke through the project and into the table. This also keeps your needles from getting dull or broken hitting something hard while you work.
You’ll also need the roving you want to use to fix your sweater. All that I have came from long-ago purchases when I thought I was going to get into spinning (for better or worse that hasn’t taken off for me yet). You can also buy different colored roving online from various sources.
When mending holes in a sweater with needle felting you’ll also need a small pair of scissors.
Preparing the Roving
Pull or cut a small amount of roving from the batch you have to get ready to needle felt your sweater.
My sweater was attacked by some kind of insect years ago and has a ton of holes, but you’ll be surprised how little wool you need to take care of most holes.
Tear or cut a little piece of roving that’s big enough to more than cover the hole you want to cover.
Place the sweater wrong/inside up on your brush or block and cover the hole with the roving.
How to Mend Holes in a Sweater with Needle Felting
Use your needle or needles and press all the way through the roving and the fabric of the sweater. You’ll want to punch all the way around the roving and across the hole in the sweater and make sure the needle is going straight up and down through the fabric.
You’re basically just sticking the fibers to the sweater at this point more than patching the hole.
When you flip the sweater so the right/front side is up, you’ll see all the fibers are sticking out on this side.
You can fold the fibers into the space you’re trying to cover by hand or just use the needles to guide the wool where you need it to go.
Repeat the process of flipping the sweater over and felting some more as many times as you feel you need to in order to cover the hole well and have a smooth look on the outside. You can go pretty fast but it does take several passes on each side to get the hole secure and the fibers sitting down nicely.
Repeat for as many holes as you have.
Needle Felting on Sweater Tips
The main thing to remember when trying to mend holes in a sweater, no matter what method you are using, is just to take your time. This is not a super fast process but it’s also not difficult, and it is sturdy and durable and should keep your sweater looking good for a long time to come.
I tried to pick wool that looks similar to the color of my sweater, but you can also make your mends with a contrasting color if you like.
You can even deliberately shape the patches to make a heart, a teardrop, star or other small shape if you want. You could even try needle felting an already shaped patch cut out of wool felt on top of the hole. Just make sure your patch is big enough to cover the hole completely and that you felt all the way around and across to make sure the stitches below the patch are secure.
Because that’s really the goal here: you want to mend the sweater hole and make sure that the sweater won’t unravel from that point.
Need to mend holes in a sweater that’s not wool? Check out how to mend knit fabrics with hand sewing.
Have you ever tried to mend holes in a sweater with needle felting? I’d love to hear about it!
