I was having a look round my garden last week to see if I could find things to felt with. One of the things I tried was dried bamboo leaves. I did a small sample with 3 leaves between 2 thin layers of 23 mic Merino, and was quite pleased with how it turned out. This morning, bored to tears by Christmas telly, I got my sewing machine out and did some simple stitching on the sample. I think it took longer to get the machine set up and put away than it did to sew, but it killed some time and I liked how it turned out 
-
- Back Side
-
- Front Side
-
- Held at the window
-
- Front side with stitching
Cool! Was it hard to stitch through the leaves? Glad you got your machine going
Thanks Ruth
No, it wasn’t hard at all, and they didn’t split like I thought they might.
I ahve doen some felting with skeleton leaves and I love the look!! Using your own leaves is very kool and I know that Bamaboo leaves are pretty tough. Another leaf hat would be interesting to work with would be eucalyptus- we had lots of these trees in our yard when we lived in SCA . I remember them being very leather like and I bet they hold up well. Love seeing these examples!!
Thanks Elizabeth
I had two Eucalyptus Gunnii that both survived really cold winters then died during summer, they would have been nice to use for felting and dyeing. I like skeleton leaves too
Very Clever Zed and they turned out really well
Thanks, Kaz
HI Zed, have you actually wet felted the leaves in or sewn only? I like the effect, I’ve been experimenting with eco dyeing with eucalyptus leaves but this is another option you have created. Great.
Thanks
Yeah, they’re felted in, between the 2 layers of merino. A bit like leaving a resist in because the leaves don’t have anything to grip to the wool, but I would have had to cut the wool to get them out. There was a bit of puckering, but not much, and they sewed really easily.