How I made my dryer balls

I had been seeing more and more about wool dryer balls online. I really wanted to try some, but spending an extra $30.00 for 4 of them, just wasn't practical for me (and for my budget!). I decided to look into making my own. I searched online and found a few  tutorials on making dryer balls out of skeins of yarn, but I didn't have any wool yarn and purchasing some was just not going to make it cost effective to make them.  So, I started thinking...yeah, dangerous I know :D   I knew I had some wool sweaters laying about the house, some that I had picked up second hand and one that was felted on accident by my sweet husband.  I considered trying to take them apart and using the yard to  make the balls, but once it is felted, a sweater isn't likely to unravel so well...So, eventually my thoughts came around to cutting the felted sweater into thin strips and winding it tightly into a ball, then cutting and sewing a cover out of the same sweater.

I started to work on it one evening and even had help from my husband (he cut the strips for me).  Here are a few pictures.....

I started with one long strip and wound it up as if I were winding a core for a ball of yarn (around two of my fingers and then into a tight little ball), When I got to the end of the strip, I would tuck it securely under a piece of the already wound strip on the ball. Once it was about 9-10 inches in diameter, I cut out some petal shaped pieces from the sweater sleeves (this sweater was too itchy for longies) and sewed them together to form a cover. Pretty simple....and free :D

I suppose I could have shaved that poor linty sweater, but it isn't as if it is going anywhere but the inside of my dryer....

And, here are the three I have covered. I have two more waiting for me to have a free and safe moment to pull out the needle and thread!