Adding Fibres to Handmade Felt

March 25, 2016 · 6 Comments

Adding Fibres to Handmade Felt

I love making felt!

It is easy to do, you can get pleasing results easily and it’s a lovely, tactile thing to work with.

Making felt doesn’t require expensive speciallist equipment. Some wool rovings, a bamboo mat (like the table mats people had in the 80s), soap and hot water, a foam tube, a piece of fabric (old net curtain is perfect) and maybe some bubble wrap are all you need. There are kits available to buy on Amazon (affiliate link) or you can source the stuff yourself.

Adding fibres to handmade felt is also easy and it’s a nice way to add some interest to a piece of handmade felt.

Making Felt

I have posted about this before, so this isn’t a massively detailed tutorial. If you want one of those, please take a look at this post here.

Felt is made in 3 layers. For the first layer, the rovings are placed in one direction. For the second layer, they are placed in the other direction. For the top layer, the rovings need to be in the same direction as the first layer.

The first 2 layers are usually white. The third layer makes the picture, so you can add whichever colours you like!

When layering up the rovings, pull small amounts off and spread them out onto the bamboo mat.

Last time I made felt, the layers were quite thick and I had difficulty actually getting the wool to felt. It took a long time and lots of effort. It’s much easier if the layers are thin!

So only pull off a small amount, not more than 10 cm in length, and spread it right out so that it is very thin. It will still make a sufficiently sturdy fabric even though it is thin.

Adding Fibres

All kinds of things can be added to the top layer as part of the feting process.

I used some curly locks from Teesdale sheep, fibres upcycled from sari fabric and angelina fibres (affiliate links).

The curly locks probably would felt eventually, but the sari silk and the angelina fibres would not.

So after adding the fibres to the top layer, it is necessary to cover them with a thin layer of wool so that they stay put when it’s all felted together. I thought perhaps this would mean that they wouldn’t show properly when the felt was finished, but all it needs is a very thin layer. Just a tiny bit is enough.

Once the fibres are covered, then you can begin felting them.

The Felting Process

This can take a little while!

Cover your project with the piece of net curtain. Then you need to soak it with warm water. A towel under the bamboo mat is a good idea! Rub a piece of soap all over it until it is all soapy.

Next, rub it with your fingers in a circular motion until the fibres start to felt together. This will probably take a few minutes.

Once it starts to feel like the bits of it are not going to move around too much, it’s time to get rolling!

If you have some bubble wrap, put some between your felt and the bamboo mat and over the top of the net curtain. If not it doesn’t matter, it just speeds things up a bit.

Wrap it all round the foam tube and roll backwards and forwards. You might want to count to 50 (or 100) or time yourself. Turn it round and go again. Keep turning it so that you roll it in all 4 directions.

When it starts to felt it will shrink, so if you haven’t timed yourself, don’t worry. You will be able to see which bits you need to have a go at a bit more.

The fibres will have felted when they don’t move about when you rub them with a finger. It will also have shrunk a bit and it will look dimpled.

Finishing Off the Felting

Once you are nearly there with it, you can put the felt in hot water to help to finish the process. Putting some vinegar in it will help to remove the traces of soap. I wouldn’t recommend using malt vinegar or balsamic though! I use the same white vinegar in a squirty bottle that I use for cleaning.

Once you’ve rinsed it, pop it somewhere to dry. The felt dries out surprisingly quickly. I put mine on the radiator and it was dry within about 15 minutes.

Displaying Your Felted Picture

I attached the finished rainbow to a piece of hessian.

To do this, use some invisible thread and sew a few stitches through the back of the felt into the hessian.

I wanted to put the finished rainbow in a frame but I didn’t want to loose the woolly effect of the felt, so I removed the glass.

I’m happy with how it turned out!

Tips

Thinner layers make the felting process easier.
Warm water really helps things along. If your felt starts to feel cold, put some more warm water on it.
Soap also helps so don’t be afraid to rub on plenty!
If you don’t manage to get it finished in one go, don’t worry. You can come back to it later with more soap and warm water and start again where you left off.

Why I Made This

A few weeks ago our pastor set us all the challenge of creating something to represent the Bible and why it is special.

The most important thing to me about the Bible is that it is a book showing that God keeps his promises. And the sign that God keeps his promises is the rainbow.

So I decided to make a rainbow.

Obviously I didn’t want it to look like a child had made it! So I focused on making the most beautiful rainbow that I could, and felt was the obvious medium to choose. I decided that adding fibres to handmade felt would make it even more beautiful.

If you liked this post, you might also like these:

Fenland Landscape

Autumn Felted Picture

Autumn Felted Coasters

Linking up here.

Making Artists’ Trading Cards

April 29, 2015 · 6 Comments

Over the last few days I have been using my watching-tv-hands-needing-something-to-do-time to make some artists’ trading cards. These are for a swap being organised by Vicky at Lucy Blossom Crafts.

As I have never made ATCs before, and being anxious to get it right, I checked the internet to find out exactly what I was supposed to do. It would seem that pretty much anything goes! The only rules are that they must be about the size of a business card and they are always swapped, never sold.

Lots of talented people out there are doing amazing drawings on theirs. I am not good at drawing. However, as it seems that I can do whatever I like here, I have decided to use textiles as this is something I can do!

These are the ones I’ve made so far.

For these two, I covered each half of the card in different fabric and I hid the join with a piece of ribbon. On the bottom half I sewed a button in the middle. I did this before sticking the fabric down!

To stick the fabric to the card, I used double sided tape. As I was concerned that the ends of the ribbon would look messy, I stuck those underneath. The business cards I used were purple and the fabric was quite thin and the purple showed through. So I stuck the fabric to the white side, then using double sided tape I stuck two cards together. This had the additional benefit of sandwiching the messy ends of the ribbon.

For this one I wove ribbon together. It was a lot fiddlier than I was expecting it to be! Using double sided tape I taped the vertical ribbons down at the back, then I stuck each horizontal ribbon at the back as I worked with it. The ribbons kept coming unstuck! It was a relief when I had finished it and I could permanently stick down the ribbon ends by sticking another card to the back.

I decided to make some felted ones too. Usually felt shrinks a lot during the process of it being made, but I bought some more roving recently and it doesn’t seem to shrink as much. Perhaps it is the breed of sheep. Anyway, the pieces of finished felt were larger than I was expecting, so I was able to make two atcs from each piece.

These are landscapes. The red sequins are poppies. It is not quite poppy time here yet but it will be in a month or two! The writing is from the Bible:

For lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come. (Song of Solomon 2:11-12)

I just thought it was nice for spring time.

For the flowery felted atcs, I added shades of pink and blue to the background of the felt. To make the circles, I twisted some of the roving around a finger before adding it to the top layer. I used sequins, beads and embroidery to make the flowers.

I was planning to put one verse on the landscapes and one verse on the flowery ones, but there wasn’t enough room! The writing was as small as I could embroider it while keeping the letters readable, so I added half a verse to each instead.

As to what to write on the back, the consensus in internetland seems to be that you put your name, email address, website, and whether it is OOAK, one of a series, or one if a limited number.

I’m looking forward to seeing what other people have made!

A Felted Fenland Landscape

April 25, 2015 · 16 Comments

One of the reasons I wanted to take up wet felting was because I felt (haha!) that the fenland landscape round here would lend itself well to the process. Because it is so flat around here, you can see for miles, and the fields give a kind of striped effect.

As the process of wet felting involves layering the wool up and down and side to side, the side to side layer would allow me to create that stripy effect easily.

I tried with with a picture of the beach at Hunstanton. It’s been nearly two years and I still haven’t finished it! Deciding to embroider it by hand was possibly a bad idea as it takes ages. The stripiness has worked well here.

This picture I made back in the autumn. As I was going for leaves here, it was more blotchy than stripy. Doing most of the embroidery with the sewing machine meant that I actually finished it! You can read about it here: An Autumn Felted Picture and An Autumn Felted Picture Part 2.

We live in such a beautiful place it was hard to choose somewhere as a starting point for a fenland landscape! I decided in the end on Tydd Gote wind farm.

I know that many people do not like wind farms and find the turbines unsightly. I however really like them! During the Middle Ages the landscape would have been dotted with windmills that powered the pumps that drained the fens of water. The windmills have mostly gone now and, although the turbines are not draining the fens, nevertheless I like to think of them as a modern day equivalent! They are harnessing the energy of the wind in the same kind of way.

How To Make a Felted Fenland Landscape

1. Using white wool roving, I made the first layer. As the third picture layer would need to be a side to side layer, I started laying the tufts from left to right rather than up and down. I pulled off tufts of wool about 10 cm long and spread them out a bit before placing them on the bubble wrap and the bamboo mat. The bits all needed to overlap a bit.

2. To make the second layer, I did exactly the same but instead of the tufts going side to side, I put them going up and down.

3. The third layer was the picture layer. I started with the sky, then layered up different shades of green for the fields. I combined some of the shades to give the impression of one side being slightly darker.

4. Before adding the turbines, I wanted to felt the background a bit first, so I covered the picture with the sheer fabric and rubbed it all over with warm soapy water. I rolled it all up with the piece of foam tubing and rolled it backwards and forwards a few times.

5. Once the fibres had started to felt together, I added the turbines. I used a longer piece of wool for the main bit and shorter lengths for the blades. Then I continued felting until the fibres were all stuck together.

6. The turbines looked a little bit indistinct, so using a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine I sewed around them. I used white for the front of the turbines and grey for the back.

I can’t decide if it needs something else. What do you think?

I love working with felt. The process is very satisfying and even if you are not artistic in the traditional sense (I can’t draw at all!), it is easy to get pleasing results.

If you would like a more detailed tutorial on how to make felt, I’ve included one here.

An Autumn Felted Picture Part 2

October 9, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Last week I decided it was time to start autumning things up a bit and also time to have another go at wet felting, so I embarked on an autumn felted picture. I used the woolly tufts that were in suitably autumnal colours and this was the result!

I was happy! Wet felting is a wonderfully therapeutic sort of crafting and it’s so easy to get artistic looking results even if you got a G in your GCSE Art. Instructions for how I made it can be found here.

I had already decided to embroider it, but as I still haven’t finished a seaside felted picture I started making a year ago, I opted for machine embroidery instead.

Having a good look at it, I could already see a number of shapes that looked like leaves, and the more I looked, the more I could see! It was like looking for shapes in the clouds!

Machine embroidery was not something I had tried before, but thanks to the wonder that is the internet, I found several tutorials and felt confident enough to have a go.

It appears that machine embroidery is just like normal sewing on a sewing machine, but as you have to lower the feed dogs (those bumpy teeth things underneath where the presser foot is), you have to yank the fabric about yourself.

I had a little go. It was not good. I was nervous about pulling at the felt in case it distorted, or worse, fell apart. The felt survived, but after a few minutes I decided to raise the feed dogs and just sew like normal.

Using a longish stitch, I sewed around the vague leaf shapes and added a few more vague leaf shapes even where there were none obvious to fill up some of the gaps.

For a little bit of variety, I hand sewed a central vein thing on the centre of each leaf using chain stitch. Thankfully chain stitch is relatively quick! The vein added some sense of solid shape to the leaves.

I’m pleased with the finished picture, although Husband says it looks like an animal that has been run over 27 times. Hmm. Well I like it I’m going to hang it on the wall anyway!

An Autumn Felted Picture

October 3, 2014 · 4 Comments

It’s October! Yay! Definitely officially autumn! Although it does not really feel like autumn at the moment as it’s so warm and the leaves are still more green than anything.

I like autumn. Being uncomfortably hot is as bad as being too cold in my opinion. Sunny autumn days, even if you need a jumper (or a coat) are lovely, warm enough to still enjoy being outside but without breaking out in a sweat if you so much as move. Gorgeous colours, woodsmoke, tractors pulling trucks full of potatoes and carrots, not to mention some peace now that most of my boys are back at school.

Autumn lends itself perfectly to seasonal themed crafts, so yesterday while Boy 4 was napping, I decided to wet felt an autumn picture.

I have only tried this once before. I made a picture of the seaside. Unfortunately it has been on the unfinished projects pile for the best part of a year because I decided to hand embroider it and it is taking ages.

Felting is great. It’s very easy, it’s lovely to work with and it’s perfectly possible to get good results even if you got a G in your GCSE Art <hand up>. I chose autumnal colours from the wool tufts I already had.

Here are the instructions for Stage 1 of my autumn felted picture. For Stage 2 I am intending to embroider it using machine embroidery this time, so hopefully I will actually finish it!

To make a felted picture, you need some unspun wool (usually merino but other sorts of wool work too), a bamboo mat or a towel, some bubble wrap, a piece of gauze/ old net curtain/ piece of sheer fabric, some soapy water and a piece of foam tubing or something else tube shaped and squidgy.

Put the bubble wrap on the bamboo mat or towel.

Pull or cut short lengths from your wool tufts. I pulled out pieces about 10 cm long. Place the pieces on the bubble wrap horizontally, spreading the fibres out as you go. Cover the piece of bubble wrap.

For the second layer, do the same, but instead of laying the fibres side to side, lay them up and down.

For the third layer, do the same as for the first layer.

The fourth layer will be the last layer, so arrange your bits however you want them. Bear in mind that distinctive shapes will probably be lost (but can be redefined with some careful embroidery), and the finished picture will be up to a third smaller due to shrinkage during the felting process.

When you are happy with the fourth layer, cover it with your piece of sheer fabric and gently sponge the warm soapy water on to it. The whole thing needs to be wet.

Using either a cloth or your fingers, gently rub the fibres for a few minutes. Agitating them is what will cause them to felt together. The warm soapy water speeds up the process.

Take your foam rolling pin and wrap the whole sandwich, gauze, fibres for felting, bubble wrap and bamboo mat or towel, round the rolling pin. Roll backwards and forwards 50 times.

Unroll it, turn it 90 degrees and roll it up again. Roll it backwards and forwards 50 times.

Repeat this a few times. The fibres have felted when they don’t come apart when you rub them. If you get a bit bored with the rolling, as long as the fibres are stuck together you could put it in some hot water.

The felt I have made is probably not very strong but should be fine for embroidery. If I was making something other than a picture, like a bag, I would need it to be stronger and more felted.

Here is the finished result. I’m very happy!