Upcycled Tennis Racket Cover Tutorial

Wimbledon's here so it's only fitting that I should post this tennis jacket tutorial. It is fairly easy to do and requires 1 felted wool jumper. I chose one that had a zipper and incorporated that into the design.

One bright red sweater.

First of all put your tennis racket inside your sweater to make sure you have enough fabric.

Using your tennis racket, place on piece of paper and trace around the head and part of the handle. (Just the parts that you will be covering) Cut this out and you have your pattern.

Pin your pattern to the sweater and race your pattern onto the reverse side of your sweater using a fabric marker or chalk and cut out. Repeat so that you have two sides.

Once you have your two sides pin right side facing inwards. Trim excess so they are the same.

I loosely basted the two pieces together and then used a serger to sew around the edges, avoiding the zipper which had to be hand stitched. You can also use a zig zag stitch on a regular sewing machine too.

I look like a ham

The finished cover, even has a usuable pocket for a ball or two. If your sweater doesn't have a zipper  you could make a velcro fastening instead. You could also applique initials on it. It got some good feedback from the tennis folks I play with and certainly screams handmade !