Eye Glasses Holder
Sounds like a quick and easy project, right? I thought so too. This is a case for my glasses to go in when I’m in bed. It will hang off the little bookcase beside my bed. Probably better than on the edge of the bed where they sit now.
I picked up some very pretty little batts at a local fibre shop. It is a combination of Canadian Ramboullet and Merino. It is sold as a wet felting wool, among other things. . The colours I picked were mottled and it is quite a short fibre. I did not do a sample as this is such a small project it is the sample. The batt is 50 grams and I don’t think I used half of it.
The other factor in doing this now was I knew I was going to the store to pick up wool for my workshop on the weekend and could pick up more if I liked it. I thought this small project would be just the thing.
This is the shape of the resist. I will fold the long part over to make a loop and use a button to hold it in place.
I split the bat so I could keep it thinner and still have it go in 2 directions. I am not used to using batts but they are a fast way to do simple layouts. After the first layer, I added some offcuts of cotton batting I thought might make an interesting raised texture. I wet it all out. It took a little more soap than expected to wet it out. I think there is some lanolin still in it but it is not greasy feeling.
I rubbed it for a while. it did get a skin but wasn’t starting to tighten up. I did a bit more and switched to rolling. I did that for a long time, flipping and changing direction, rolling on a ribbed mat all the usual stuff but no shrinkage. This was after about an hour rolling. You can see that it hasn’t shrunk at all
Next was heading home to the kitchen to rinse with hot water and get tough with it. I scrunched and rolled it in my hands and threw it in the sink. Maybe a little bit of shrinkage. It is definitely felt. It is holding together and I have removed the resist and the insides are not trying to stick to each other.
So what next? Time to do some laundry. I put it in a small delicates bag and tossed it in with a load of laundry, and then into the dryer. No pictures of that, I was too frustrated by then. I was also thinking that I would take it out and it would be 3 sizes too small.
This is the result, a very small amount of shrinkage, mostly in height. This is actually after it was dry and I had turned it inside out and then back because I forgot to take a picture.
I turned it inside out which made it stand open more so that is better for the purpose. I had to smooth out the edge divot from turning it inside out . the felt is quite thick.
It will work for the purpose. My glasses ended up a little too far down in the holder so I stuffed a little wool roll in the bottom so my glasses are easier to get hold of. It’s not a big difference but I can grab them a bit better. more wool may be added.
I just need to add the button and I am good to go.
I did let the store know that the wool is not good for wet felting. They said the mill is trying different ratios of the wools to find what works best. I suggested it would be good to make socks that would be fine in the washer and it is still good for needle felting.
Spring is here, My hubby has veggie growing fever. He has half my table as one of the few cat-free areas. Why do cats like to lay on top of seedlings?
