Friday, January 20, 2012

Felting

I have been meaning to post these photos forever, but keep forgetting. As followers of my blog and facebook page know, I have been playing around with felting 100% wool blazers and sweaters to use in craft projects, such as felt wreaths, felt phone caddies, and pin cushions. When I felt the blazers I completely rip all the seams apart so that I am washing pieces of fabric. I can tell that the pieces shrink during the process, but it is hard to tell exactly how dramatic the size change is. Sweaters on the other hand I felt intact and then cut apart. Depending on the type of wool and how heavy the sweater is will affect how much they are going to shrink up. Sometime the change is huge and literally makes me laugh when I pull out a men's XL and it now looks like a child's sweater.

Here are some before and after photos to give you an idea.

Man's XL 100% wool sweater.

After washing the sweater in hot water through three cycles.

The dramatic change in size once the felting process occurs.
Edit

NOTE: I just want to warn you that felting in your washing machine is not supposed to be the greatest for the filter. It produces a huge amount of lint. If you can clean it out of the washing machine drum before it going through the rinse cycle and filter that would be better. If you run these in your dryer be sure to check the lint filter often on that too. You will completely fill it in no time. You can save this to use as stuffing too if you want. I stuffed a couple of pin cushions with it, but then got tired of collecting it.

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