Wednesday 16 April 2014

Felting vintage wool

Good morning all

Today I thought I would talk to you about felting.  In some of my new designs I am using different mediums to make textured work.  I thought some felt would be good in some of my designs.

I do buy some felt for things that I make but not work that I sell.  Why? because the work that I sell has to be vintage fabrics, buttons, linens etc.  So what I tend to do is find vintage old sweaters (1950's) and then I set about felting the wool for my use in some pictures and little quilts.

Firstly when I was looking into the origins of felting I found some amazing stories and thought I would share one with you.....

One story is involving Noah's ark.  The sheep on the ark shed wool and being that it fell on the floor it was trampled under foot and also they had urinated on it and trampled and so the process went on.  When Noah finally found dry land and let the animals off the ark he found a felted rug left behind!!... I must say it must have smelt a bit!!.... but a lovely little story.

When you felt with wool fibres you need a rolling mat and soap and water and plenty of space on a kitchen table...You place fibres in different directions on the mat and wet the wool and rub with soap and massage the fibres.  You can keep adding different colour wool and massaging it until it binds together.  You have to rinse it well and let it dry and this can be cut and used for crafting.

With old jumpers I tend to boil wash them in the washing machine to shrink them and combine the fibres and then tumble dry on hot...... this does the trick for pieces of patterned felt for my use.  That way I have felt that is more that 50 years old to add.  You can also do this with vintage wool blankets as well.

You can successfully cut felted bits of blanket and jumpers and use the water and soap procedure rubbing and pulling and stretching to ad ere bits of wool and blankets together, this makes for interesting textures to cut and craft with.

I always use a good soap and normally either a lavender or rose scent....... just because it pleases me!!

When you have a piece of felt that is dry you can add it to work or make flowers with it to add to things or you can, if you make a large piece make it into a cushion or bag......


bundles of felted wool........

Happy Stitching!

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