Knitting Pattern for Reusable Swiffer Cover

One of the handiest cleaning tools to come along in recent history (in my humble opinion) is the Swiffer, those rather ordinary looking floor sweepers that can make a quick clean up of a hard surface floor so much easier.  Swiffers are made so that their disposable cloths can be wrapped around the mop for easy dusting.

OR – you can just make your own Swiffer cover!

Now wait a minute you might be thinking, aren’t those Swiffer cleaning cloths that you buy electrostatic so that the dust and fuzz just jump right on them? Why would you make your own?

Yes, it’s true that the store bought dry Swiffer cloths do work very well. BUT, I’ve also found that my homemade knit Swiffer covers seem to work in the same electrostatic type of way if I use a nice fuzzy yarn.  I can’t give you the exact science on the subject of electrostatics, although I tried to do some quick research and found this article  and this article quite interesting, and learned that softness and split fibers might have something to do with it.  This might be why the soft fuzzy yarns seems to attract the dust and hairs, and in fact may explain why stray hairs can stick on a sweater you’re wearing too. It’s rather annoying when your stray hairs stick on your sweaters . . . but very helpful when they’re sticking to a homemade Swiffer cover!

I’ts nice that homemade Swiffer covers are reusable too so they save money and keep more disposables from the landfills. And I’ve always been pleased at how nicely these knit homemade Swiffer covers wash up. (In fact a few weeks ago I shared a picture of washing my homemade Swiffer cover with my copycat Molly Suds homemade laundry soap).

So yes, there are indeed some good reasons to make your own Swiffer covers – they’re fast and fun to make, they work well, they’re easy to wash and dry, and save money too because they’re reusable rather than disposable.

How To Knit A Homemade Swiffer Cover

My first tries at knitting a swiffer cover were using another pattern and cotton yarn like Sugar ‘N Cream. However as time has gone by, I ended up creating my own pattern and always using the fuzzy yarn.

At the time of this writing I’m using and loving the Bernat Pipsqueak yarn for this pattern.  I’ve also made these with the Red Heart Buttercup yarn.  These types of yarn are usually found with the baby yarns in the stores.

I’ve found that a finished piece that’s 8½” x 10½” works the best. Once you have your knitted piece, it’s just a matter of folding the long sides towards the middle, sewing the ends together, and then sewing the edges together toward the middle for about 2″ on each end. This leaves you with an opening of about 6″ so you can slip your Swiffer inside.

These fuzzy yarns are pretty forgiving too when it comes to seaming your piece which is always a great bonus for any knitting project. Also there’s really no right side or wrong side to your finished piece, another very helpful benefit of this type of yarn.

My gauge for this project is about 2½ stitches per inch. If you knit a little tighter or looser, simply cast on more or less stitches as needed to get a piece that’s about 8½” wide.

Here are the complete (and quite brief!) instructions:

Homemade Swiffer Cover Knitting Pattern

Click here for printable pattern

Supplies:

• Soft fuzzy yarn labeled size 5 Bulky (such as Bernat Pipsqueak or Red Heart Buttercup)
• US size 9 Needles
• Large eye blunt needle for sewing seams

Cast on 22 stitches

Knit in garter stitch (knit every row) until piece measures 10½”.

Bind off VERY LOOSELY.  Finished piece should be about 8½”x 10½”.

To create the Swiffer cover, fold the long edges towards the middle. Sew each of the ends of the piece together. Then sew the long edges together for about 2″ toward the middle on each side. This should leave you with an opening of about 6″ in the middle for inserting your Swiffer.