I had a comment on last week's post asking how to felt sweaters. I was going to email Miss Lila but Blogger doesn't reveal email addresses. And perhaps others would like to know as well.
The way I make felt is super easy!
1. Go to garage sales and buy wool (or alpaca or cashmere--needs to be all or nearly all natural animal fibers) sweaters for as little money as possible. I rarely spend more than a buck. Keep an eye out for sweaters with a hole in them--people will sell these for practically nothing (or give it to you) and a hole or two won't hurt a thing. You can work around them.
2. Take your sweaters home and throw them in the washing machine with some detergent, and maybe a towel or two for roughage. Wash with hot water on a regular (not gentle) cycle.
3. Throw them in the dryer and dry on hot.
4. Remove from dryer. Voila, you have felt! Once in a while a sweater won't have felted enough and I'll put it through the process again. But it's a pretty reliable system and nearly always works.
I was cold this morning working on the computer (we haven't yet turned on any heat and even in SoCal it gets chilly) so I cut the sleeves off one of my stash of felted sweaters. With a slit for the thumb in the right spot, I now have fingerless mittens that took about two minutes to make. Next time I'll cut them longer though (guess that would be next time I have two minutes!).
If you need some inspiration for using your felt, there are fabulous pics over on Flickr. Here's what I got with a search for 'felted sweaters.' http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=felted%20sweaters&w=all
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Dear Queen,
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
I Googled "felting" and you wouldn't believe how much work they want you to do just to felt a sweater. I somehow just "knew" you would have a much simpler way to do it. LOL I was right. I can't wait to get to the thrift store and buy up some old sweaters. (Not too many yard sales in our area at the moment) I have 8 grandkids that I help homeschool (arts&crafts) They're going to make mittens and puppy dogs and all kinds of cool things this week thanks to you. Again, thank you so much. I LOVE your blog. I feel like I am right there with you in your car at each and every yard or sidewalk. Wish you lived closer. I would so go with you.
lilahuggins@gmail.com
Have a lovely day at the library. We always do. Me and the 8 grans!
Miss Lila in Atlanta
do you have any suggestions about how to felt if you don't have a dryer? we dry all our clothes on a clothesline..
ReplyDeleteHmmm, felting without a dryer, interesting question! I've never tried it, but a couple of thoughts...the point is to get the fibers to mesh together pretty tightly. Some sweaters do this really well just with a single washing, so they could just be laid out to dry (I'd use a rack). You might try washing more than once. Or, if I had a bunch of sweaters to do, I might make a trip to the laundromat and do them all at once and use the dryer there. Hope you'll experiment and let me know how it goes. You could be the internet's expert on it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion. I will now need to go and hit some op shops and find some real wool jumpers to felt. will get back to you on how it goes!
ReplyDeleteok one other question.. when you say: "2. Take your sweaters home and throw them in the washing machine with some detergent, and maybe a towel or two for roughage. Wash with hot water on a regular (not gentle) cycle."
ReplyDeletedo you mean put the detergent inside the washing machine with the sweaters? or just put the detergent in the normal place you put detergent in the washing machine?
In my washing machine you just put the soap in the bottom of the tub, so I'd guess wherever you normally put it. Just didn't want folks to wash them without detergent, I think it helps the felting process.
ReplyDeleteGood Mornin' from Atlanta,
ReplyDeleteJust one more day till Saturday!
I have been waiting with bated (is it baited or bated) breath to find out what you will find this Saturday.
I went to the thrift store yesterday and in two long racks of sweaters I only found two, thats two, 100% wool sweaters. bummer. When I got them home i looked at the one and saw it was 100% casmere. and it was beautiful. I hadn't really looked at it, just the tag. I gave it too my beautiful daughter when she came to pick up her children. She loved it! Only 50 cents as they were having a half price day. Wow, I wonder how much that sweater would have cost in the store?? What do you think? It also had gorgeous buttons from wrist to elbow. Wish I could have taken a picture. Well, I could of taken the picture but how how how do I get it online.
..............waiting...............waiting............waiting....... ....till Saturday........LOL
Thank you for this super tutorial! This is great!
ReplyDelete