Felt Your Sweater!: A Felted Wool Tutorial
Wherever you might normally stand on the felt controversy, I think that we can all get behind the claim that felted wool?
Is awesome.
Felted wool has all the benefits of wool for crafting–it’s sturdy, can be shaped, holds a dimensional structure well, is durable, and has an appealing texture–and has the eco-friendly attributes of being natural and second-hand. As part of my green crafting manifesto, I do not buy new things, nor do I intentionally buy products exploitative of the world’s creatures (please, don’t ask me about glue!), and yet when I buy a wool sweater from the Goodwill Outlet Store, I don’t have to worry about whether or not the wool has an organic certification, or about the high price of organic wool. I just think, “Yay, recycling!”
And yet, the wool sweater you take home from the thrift store requires some work before it becomes that versatile wool felt. Here’s exactly the work you need to do:
- » See also: A Review of Refashioned Bags: Upcycle Anything into High-Style Handbags
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1. For your wool sweater to felt evenly, you first must cut it apart at the seams (completely cutting away the seam–sometimes they can be thick) and cut off any ribbing or reinforced seams. You can still felt and use the ribbing, but it will felt differently from the rest of the sweater.
2. Set aside any parts of your sweater that you might want to incorporate into a project without felting–pockets, for instance, or buttoned cuffs. Also cut off any snaps and buttons to reuse in another project.
3. Machine-wash your pile of wool. The best results come from heat (choose a hot setting), agitation (choose a setting appropriate for heavily soiled clothes), and a little detergent (if I’m felting a sweater that’s already slightly felted–perhaps it made its way to the Goodwill Outlet Store because its original owner accidentally washed it–I often skip adding extra detergent, but I do have a high-efficiency washer).
4. If your wool comes out of the washing machine felted to your satisfaction, you may line dry it. Otherwise, dry your wool in your dryer, on a warm or hot setting.
5. If your wool comes out of the dryer felted to your satisfaction, you’re all set! Otherwise, you can repeat the washing and drying steps to continue felting your wool.
Now that you’re finished, make cupcakes!
This is such great information, I’ll be linking. Isn’t the thrift store the GREATEST craft shop ever?!?!
[...] some of you may not actually have experience felting sweaters. So, some tips along with the nice tutorial on how to felt sweaters from Crafting a Green [...]
I know! Estate sales and garage sales are also pretty tops on my list, too.
I should have mentioned that when you throw your wet wool into the dryer to felt, you can also throw in a couple of tennis balls to add some extra agitation–that helps with the felting.
I have been collecting sweaters to make into the backing of a baby quilt. I only bought 100% wool sweaters (from thrift stores) but none of them ever felted in the washer. It was only then that I realized that I have reversed water pipes and when I thought that I was washing them with hot water, it was freezing. I hate to think of all those “cold” water washes.
As a side note, if you don’t have tennis balls, the cups that you use to measure liquid detergent work well in the dryer for agitation (nope, they won’t melt).
No way! And how about all the times you thought you were saving money by washing everything on cold and the water was probably boiling!
I accidentally partly felted a REALLY expensive organic wool mattress cover by putting it on the “air dry” setting in my dryer. It will likely take a couple of years of therapy before I can forgive myself for that one.
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