Felt Making

Hi all,

So recently I took part in a day workshop making felt. It was quite labour intensive but I really enjoyed it. I made a big piece of felt (which I am yet to do something with), some felted beads, and a weird shaped felted bag thing... enjoy...

To do the felting we laid down an old towel onto the table, then put a similar sized piece of bubble wrap over the top (with the bubbles facing up) I then laid down pieces of wool tops, in relatively thin layer alternating the direction of the layers as I built them up.

I added a few bits of yarn and muslin for added textural interest.  

I then laid a piece of cheap netting over the top, and with washing up liquid, warm water, and a fair amount of elbow grease I felted the fibres together. It did take a while to fully felt. I also used a rolling pin and rolled the felt around it whilst rolling at the same time, just to increase the amount of friction the felt was being attacked by.

So this is what it turned out like. Keep in mind when you are felting that the size of your piece is going to shrink as the fibres contract and lock together.

Here are the little (well not that little) felt beads that I made. Building up the layers on a small ball of wool tops, until the ball is stable. I am going to stitch into them with a metallic thread to make them look a bit more pretty.

And then here is the 'interesting bag' that I created. I basically made it by making a single layer of felt, then laying down a cut out piece of bubble wrap (the size of the bag I wanted) then building up on either side of the bubble wrap. When I got the the thickness of felt I wanted cut the parcel shape open and removed the cut piece of bubble wrap. I then attempted to shape it into this rather attractive bag shape.

I think I might shove it into the washing machine, to see what happens when it shrinks (an irreversible process!!!)

So, that is what happened on my day of felting (along with getting very sore arm muscles!)

xox Niamh xox