Felting
Felting comes in many forms and fashions but basically it is the matting together of fibers, usually wool, to form an object or flat piece of non-woven material. Felting does not involve knitting, weaving or crocheting. The process is started with loose wool or other fibers that felt, not yarn. The basic types of felting are wet felting, needle (or dry) felting, and nuno (or laminate) felting.
Felting is very versatile and there is really no wrong or right way to felt. The different types of felting can be combined and don’t feel you have to felt in a certain way. Experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you. The explanations that are given here are the ways that we tend to felt but if you find something that works better for you, go for it. We love to hear about a new felting tip or a new way to use a tool so do feel free to leave a comment about how you like to felt.
I read a lot of old technical books most more than 100 years old. In some of them I have found making felt from feathers by cutting the spine out of the center and using the rest for felting material. I have wanted to see this type of felt but can find no modern examples.
How interesting. I have not heard of felting with feathers. I didn’t realize that feathers would felt. I have not seen any modern examples either. My suggestion would be to try it yourself and see if it works. We’d love to hear about it if you do.
I have a question- I hope this is an appropriate place to pose felting questions. I made a beautiful shawl from 2 old wool (woven) skirts. I am struggling on how to bind the edges. I tried the standard rolled edge but I thought it was too bulky and Zig zagging was inelegant.
I’m so I love with the fabric that I’m being very particular about the edges.
I thought maybe steam ironing the edges would felt them and make them unravelable- I’m not convinced that it worked…
Next I was going to try adding a little soap and rubbing? May I ask for anyone’s thoughts or suggestions, I feel a bit stuck😊.
And yeah I wanted to wear this beautiful thing for Christmas- no pressure of course, only for me. :))
Hi Sara, what you are trying to do is full the wool woven fabric. You will definitely need some agitation to get the edges fulled as steam ironing will not do the trick by itself. So you could steam the edges and then either rub a felting tool over them (or use a top from an old tupperware), or you could pound them with a tool such as a meat tenderizer or you could try rubbing with your hands. Keep doing this until the edges won’t fray. I hope that helps.