How to make felt

How to felt your own clothing, or pretty much anything using nothing other than wool, water, warmth and a little elbow grease.

Tools you will need:

An old wooden blind

Dust sheets

Washing up liquid

old milk carton with small holes in the lid.

A towel

Spread out the dust sheet on your blind.

Next pull your wool apart into thin strands of around 6 inches and layout horizontally overlapping like tiles.

Lay out a second layer vertically in the same manner.

Continue alternating until required amount of layers is done. (few layers = thin felt, more layers = thicker lumpy felt.)

Scarves require 2-3 layers, bags or shoes require around 5 layers.

You can decorate your felt using the following methods:

Add strands of yarn (ideally natural fibbers or if synthetic you can attach by trapping with a thin layer of wool.)

Layout layers of different coloured wool

To make 3D items like bags/jackets add a layer of dust sheet after wetting down and then lay wool over the top joining at the edges (and wet down top layer) so two layers don't felt together.

Add soft prefelt (semi felted pieces)

For a textured finish, during the felting process gently agitate the felt in your hands between rolling.

Wetting down.

Mix up a warm weak soapy mixture of washing up liquid in your milk bottle. 

Sprinkle a good layer over laid out fibres.

Cover with dust sheet.

Press the fibre down and rub working in the soapy mixture and removing any air bubbles.

Felting.

Roll up the felt in the blind and roll back and forwards applying pressure. Do this around a hundred times then un roll.

Turn the felt a quarter turn clockwise and re roll 100 times again.

Keep doing this around 4 times and check to see how the felt is holding together.

Turn the felt over and do the process again.

Keep reshaping the felt to make sure it hasn't lost its shape.

Rinse in warm water then roll into a ball and throw the felt against a table to firm and shrink it.

Finally roll the felt in a towel and roll to remove excess moisture. Shape the felt and leave to dry in a warm place.

Notes:

Felt shrinks about a 1/3 when making so layout your wool about 3 times of what you want it to be.

As you get further through the process increase the temperature of the water to speed up the process.

It is advised to rinse with a weak vinegar solution to neutralise the ph of the wool.

This is a simple explanation, so if you need more depth feel free to email me with any questions: in.wonderland@live.co.uk

Picture of the process http://www.feltbetter.com/feltMaking.asp