Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Knitted Reusable Duster Covers

I found these great re-usable Swiffer covers here.  I decided to make some.

I love my Swiffer sweeper.   I have many, many hardwood floors to keep clean and Swiffers are a quick way to dust.  What I don't love is the price of the disposable cloths that I need to continue to buy;  they are expensive.   So I knit myself the cover that the blogger in the above link recommended (actually I knit three of them).

Do I like them?  I DO!  A LOT!!!  They picked up a great deal of dust from my hardwood floors.  I like that I can shake them off and launder them and I really, really like that they are inexpensive to make.  Actually, they were almost free for me to make because I had a huge cone of cotton yarn sitting in the cupboard in my sewing room.  I think I bought it to make dishcloths years ago.  I have been using it as string for I don't know how long, so it was nice to have a use for some of it.

I did my knitting in the car while my husband was driving so I made three covers.  They knit up very quickly.  Since I used 100% cotton yarn, I washed my covers in hot water before sewing them at the ends and testing if they fit the Swiffer, just in case they shrunk and I couldn't get them over my Swiffer.  They did shrink but not significantly.  In fact, I sewed my ends over 2 1/2 " instead of the 2" overhang that the pattern suggested.15" was more than sufficient width for my Swiffer, but then I have owned it since they came out with them, so maybe the newer ones are not as wide.
 I folded the right sides together and stitched the ends along the sides on 4 surfaces with a back stitch.
Here is a cover after I turned it right side out.
   I used a neat and tight back stitch to stitch the end pockets.

Here's what my seam using the back stitch looks like on my Swiffer cover.
I will be making a few more of these covers so I can throw dirty ones in the laundry basket and still be able to dust daily if I need to.

They did a good job on my floors and I am pleased that I won't have to buy the disposable covers any more.

7 comments:

  1. Bonnie, I truly love this idea. Thank you so much for sharing and giving us all the details. Besides being washable...they look darn cute. Anything to lightened the drudgery of cleaning!!!

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  2. Clever AND beautiful! Nice work, Bonnie!

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  3. i love these too Bonnie, I have knitted several. I also make them for my wood floor mop cover. Love it !! I like your pattern and I need to knit up some more...thanks.

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  4. Very clever! I don't use a swiffer, but something similar. I've been tempted to make knitted covers, but so far, the terrycloth covers that came with my sweepy thing are in good shape (probably because I'm lazy and use the vacuum LOL!)

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  5. What a wonderful idea, Bonnie. Thanks for sharing. Anything to tame the hardwood dust-bunny brigade! Nice job on the neck rolls, by the way. Such a polished look and I admire the thrift. Keep up the good work!

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  6. You are so creative and this is such a great way to save some bucks and stay green. :)

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  7. Perfect! Gets the job done and saves a ton of money in the process! You're a one-woman show, Bonnie:)

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