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 !

Thrift Store Find - Tennis Glass

Thrift Store Find - Tennis Glass

I have to cheat a bit, I did find this in a thriftstore but it was a while ago. I spent the weekend sailing and capsizing (not on purpose) in a 2 man catamarran which pretty much wiped me out. Add to that the extremely happy and vocal group camped next to us, who proceeded to play badminton at 6am and you can factor in sleep deprivation too. Who knew sailing was so hardcore ? Not me, bruised knees and elbows are among the injury count. All of this is my way of saying I had no time to shop.

This item is a gem, it can hold two cans worth of drink + ice and its stylish, well I think so at least. I stumbled on it at a Goodwill and despite there only being one had to have it. On the annoying front I've had to send my 6 week old camera back to Canon for repair, it just decided to have a lens error and that was that, but I'm hopeful that I will get it back soon so its back to the trusty Nikon. Enjoy.