Synthetic Fibres and Fabrics
A couple of felt pieces I chose to make into things for etsy recently were both made using nylon fibres. This first piece has crimped nylon fibre which I dyed myself, blended with merino tops. The felt had a really nice feel to it, thick and kind of spongy but still light, and the nylon gave it a nice texture and sheen, a kind of wet look.
It was the perfect length for making into a notebook cover, and I got to keep the natural edges again too.
I decided to use the orangey yellow side as the front cover:
The other piece was one I made a while ago with trilobal nylon. It comes as rainbow tops and I carefully separated out some of the colours and blended them with merino. The result was hard to capture on camera but it gives a nice texture and shine to it, and when the light catches it, it really sparkles. The piece was big enough to make two camera or gadget cases out of. I’m just finishing a slightly larger one than this, but this is the first one I made:
I hadn’t realised how small my new camera was until I used some props for demonstrating the size of the cases, apparently mine is about the size of a pack of cards, it makes the new iPods look huge 🙂 I used a standard sized camera to test the ‘fit’ here:
I was really pleased with the way the flowery camera cases came out. These were made from a piece of nuno felt I made with a polyester scarf on the top and muslin underneath.
And because I keep moving all my sewing stuff from upstairs to downstairs and back in a shoe box, I thought I’d make myself a little case to keep my glasses safe. It was made from a piece of felt I made ‘just for fun’ last year and has as many different fabrics and embellishment fibres on there as I could find room for!
15 thoughts on “Synthetic Fibres and Fabrics”
It’s interesting how the synthetic fibers give a different look. All your pieces are wonderful and the eye glass case looks like it will come in handy 🙂
Thanks, Ruth 🙂
I keep looking at the rest of the felt and thinking about making a little sewing case 🙂
very interesting techniques….your stitching is so even and neat, ali
Thanks a lot, Ali 🙂
Zed,
What do the nylon fibers themselves look like? Is it the same thing as “Angelina Fiber?”
Terri
The superbright trilobal does have a sparkle, but it isn’t the same feel as Angelina, it’s much finer, softer and less ‘rigid’.
Our Man Made fibers page has nylon and Angelina on
http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/other-fibers/man-made-fibers/
Sometimes the white nylon is given fancy names and sold expensively, but it is very inexpensive, about £2.25 ($3.42) per 100g. And the crimped nylon is even cheaper (£1.25/$1.90 per 100g)
Your things are always nicely finished Zed. I really have to get out my synthetic fibers and do some experimenting.
Thanks, Ann 🙂
Yeah, I keep wanting to get mine out again, try some different blends.
OOO i still have a bit of that trilobil left that you sent me sent , it really is a gorgeous fibre isnt it. Your cases are perfect and as usual your stitching is so nice and neat 🙂
Thanks, Kaz 🙂
Yeah, it’s really nice 🙂 I’d forgotten that I bought some of the plain white tops to dye myself, I might have to plan to do that soon.
Very nice as usual, Zed. Do you have a certain combination for the nylon and merino 50/50? What kind of dye did you use and did you dye the nylon and merino together?
Thanks, Marilyn 🙂
I didn’t work out the ratio of merino to nylon, just did it by eye and feel. I dyed the nylon separately and blended it with commercially dyed merino. I used the same acid dyes that I use for wool and silk. There’s a tutorial for it here: http://feltingandfiberstudio.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/direct-dyeing1.pdf
there’s info for dyeing small amounts.
Thanks Zed. Great information!
you’re welcome 🙂
I’ve only just spotted this post – do I need to go to specsavers?
I love the glasses case and it’s embellished beautifully.
(Annie once commented that I’d know when I’d finished embellishing a piece of felt – it would be when I couldn’t fit anything else on!)
The star of the post is the rainbow notebook – it’s such a happy piece.