Felting and Fiber Studio

The next part of my pileus hat project for the Celtic Art 2nd Quarter challenge was to add the prefelt design to the hat.

Here I have just laid out the two layers of cut out prefelt to make sure they were still going to fit. I was a bit concerned that the hat might have shrunk too much but it was fine.

I separated the two layers of cut design and pinned one in place. I then basted the prefelt in place as I didn’t want it to shift. I was originally planning on using lace weight wool to stitch the prefelt in place since it would just disappear but then I read the label and it was superwash. I was afraid I would end up with loops of wool thread on the design since it wouldn’t shrink down. So I ended up using an old purple polyester thread that I had on hand.

Once I got one side stitched on, I lined up the second piece of the design, pinned it in place and basted the second side.

Here it is after basting both sides. The center is where the ends of the two designs come together. Once felted, I don’t think you’ll be able to tell that it was in two pieces to start with.

Then I began the felting of the prefelt design into the hat with gentle rubbing and cool, soapy water. It felted in quite easily and didn’t shift at all so I was glad I had taken the time to baste everything down.

Once the prefelt was felted in and well attached, I began fulling the hat. Again by rubbing and a bit of rolling on itself. At the very end I did a bit of throwing too.

And here’s the hat after being fulled. You can still see the design but it is definitely subtle.

I stuffed the tip with plastic bags and put it on my hat form to dry. It is a goofy looking hat when on and I’m sure you’re sorry that I didn’t take a photo of it on my head. Hubby said it looked like a dunce cap. I decided to add stem stitch with the wool superwash lace weight thread.

I added stem stitch right around the edge of the Celtic design.

Here’s the hat completely finished.

Here’s a closer view of the design. Click on any photo to see it closer. I like the white on white design although it’s hard to see in the photos. Not sure I’ll ever wear this hat but it was a fun challenge.

Last week I showed you the beginnings of my second quarter challenge project here. The next step was to make the pileus hat to the prefelt stage.

This is the resist all set up and ready for wool.

I added two layers of wool on each side that were fairly heavy.

Then I wet it down, flipped over etc. to add all the layers of wool.

Once the resist was covered, it was time to begin rubbing. I could have rolled at this point but I don’t do much rolling any more. I did stick with cold water as I didn’t want the wool to felt too quickly. I only needed to get it so it was holding together.

So I rubbed and felted by hand working the edges carefully for a nice smooth felt.

Then I cut the resist out. The felt is still very soft and needed gentle handling.

After cutting, I refolded the hat in the opposite direction to check the edge and sure enough the corners needed to be trimmed. The indent in the center of this photo is the far edges on the photo above it. Since the resist curved up there, the cut wasn’t even all the way around.

So I just cut it off to make it more even. So I have the basic hat shape in prefelt form ready to apply the prefelt design. I will show you that on my next post.