Ancient crafts have always been interesting to lovers of creativity, thanks to the uniqueness of products created by hand, such things have always been in demand. Felting, clothing, its exclusivity today is a new trend in fashion. Modern needlewomen create from wool not only clothes and all kinds of accessories. Interesting, vibrant toys, elegant sweaters, scarves and coats come to life in their hands.
Felting, felting, stuffing is felting from wool. Clothing that has undergone such processing is particularly soft and dense.
Two methods are involved in creating felted products: wet and dry. Craftswomen, using one method or another, describe it in detail using examples of the things they created.
The endless possibilities of felt
The revival of the technique of felting was especially liked by current fashionistas. Things made by felting from natural wool are not only fashionable, they are very warm. In addition to items of clothing, current craftswomen fel everything from wool. Any element of the interior, children's toys, everything to the needlewomen.
Felting from wool, handmade clothes and many useful things made in this way are nowadays true art. At the same time, this is an interesting, simple and convenient creative creation of warm, unique elements of the wardrobe.
For beginners, it is recommended to choose wool with obvious properties of good adhesion of its villi to each other. In addition, this coat must be spun. You can buy the material you need for work in specialized stores or using catalogs and recommendations of online stores. As a rule, this acquisition option guarantees the purity and quality of the goods.
Depending on the purpose, you need to choose coarse or thin coat. For bags, slippers or home accessories, you can use coarse wool.
Garments and accessories, children's toys will require the use of a semi-thin and fine wool structure.
The “Fair of Masters” portal provides significant assistance to needlewomen: felting from wool, handmade clothes are presented there by master classes of experienced needlewomen with step-by-step execution of products.
The basis of wet felting
The essence of wet felting of wool fiber consists in wetting it with a soap solution, followed by smoothing it gently in different directions. The finished product is a dense material - felt.
In wet felting, the necessary increase in the pattern of the product should be done, since the wool shrinks up to 40%.
To obtain small voluminous objects, a ball of wool is crushed in the hands. A flat cloth is obtained when wet felting is used. Clothing and accessories representing the craftswoman’s delicate fantasy can only be accomplished by long rolling the workpiece or smoothing it with the effort of the hands. Only this way allows you to get a bright thing with all kinds of color transitions.
Necessary and auxiliary tools and materials
The main material for felting is spun wool. For felting, different types of material are used. Depending on the planned product, you need to purchase one of several types of wool fiber:
- The coarsest coat, the so-called combed.
- Semi-fine wool.
- Very thin.
- Smooth work surface with defined dimensions.
- Polyethylene film with a pimple finish.
- Mesh with a dense structure (mosquito).
- Aqueous soap solution.
- Water.
- Spray gun.
- Accessories for finishing the product.
The technique of wet felting
The effort of the needlewoman’s hands is the main tool in processing amazing material, called “wet felting from wool”, clothes, as a result of using this procedure, allow you to realize the most incredible ideas. The basic implementation scheme of this technology:
- The formation of a fibrous web of a certain orientation, that is, the layout of the wool.
- The procedure for obtaining the basis for felting (prefelt), processing the original material, previously moistened with a special composition of the material, into a single needle-punched fabric.
- Preflat sitting by performing special processing techniques, as a result of which an increase in strength is achieved, the texture of the material is highlighted.
- Removal of the wetting component. Layout schemes largely determine the future range of products.
Work stages
The modern felting process has many techniques. Wet felting of clothes made of wool, a master class of one of the options, is represented by the following steps.
- Layers of wool are spread on an oilcloth with a marking of the dimensions of the product with a thin layer of overlap. The wool layout is staggered: horizontally, then in the transverse direction. It is necessary to control the thickness of the layer, in all areas it should be the same. In addition, the shrinkage of the felt should be taken into account, increasing the initial thickness of the coat by 2–3 times.
- Moisten the decomposed wool from the spray bottle with water.
- The wetted workpiece should be covered with mesh material. It is convenient to use a mosquito net for this purpose . The layout is carefully moistened with soapy water through a mosquito net, avoiding the displacement of the pattern.
- Gently press the processed product with your hands to the oilcloth, achieving good impregnation of the base with soap and water, remove excess solution with a towel.
- The process of felting, namely, intensive smoothing and friction of each section. Continue felting, carefully rubbing each section, gradually removing the mesh, turning the canvas.
- The canvas is considered ready if, when pulling it upward, the formation is completely removed without separating the strips.
- Rinse the resulting felt in cool water until the soapy foam is completely removed.
- Unfold and dry the canvas in a straightened horizontal state.
Wet felting is finished. The product or canvas can be considered finished.
Dry wool stall option
The essence of the method consists in tangling and compaction of wool fibers with special needles with notches. Felting starts with treating the fibers with the thickest needle. In the process of compaction of the felt fabric, the needle is replaced with a thinner one.
Those who begin to roll the first product, you need to remember that the wool in the process changes in volume in the direction of reduction by almost three times. Therefore, for felting, a beginner feller needs to take wool in a much larger volume.
The difference between wet and dry felting consists in replacing the soap solution with special needles, which perform the procedure for stalling wool. Dry felting from wool is not recommended for beginners: clothes and things require the use of a flat felt cloth. Experienced craftswomen use this type of felting for the manufacture of voluminous accessories, jewelry and toys.
Many craftswomen turned the felting into an opportunity to have in their wardrobe not only warm, cozy clothes, but also accessories for them. In addition, for some, felting began to provide good income to the family budget.
Tools and accessories
The dry folding technique for wool fibers is unique and has its own characteristics. For dry felting you will need special tools with which to perform the process of stalling wool fiber. These include:
- Special needles of different sizes for dry felting, made of high-quality hardened steel, with high strength, sharpness of notches and durability. Needles, in the process of working with wool, thanks to practical notches located in their lower part, the pulp is well captured and pushed into the depth of the layer. This operation provides tangled fluffy layers, dumping and compacting them.
- Smooth smooth work surface.
- Foam or rubber backing.
- Accessories for decorating the finished product.
Stages of dry felting
Creating beautiful voluminous things will require a detailed study of techniques such as dry felting from wool. Clothing, a master class of its manufacture - all this is described in detail by experienced fellers. With their help, the manufacture of products of any complexity is available.
Preliminary preparation is the basis of all work. Before starting felting, you should make a sketch or pattern of the future product:
- Wool, distributed according to the prepared pattern, it is often necessary to pierce a lot with a serrated needle for felting, achieving stalling and compaction of the material.
- The resulting felt fabric must be constantly rotated, achieving uniform density, repeatedly processing each section with a needle.
- In the process, you can add new pieces of wool, creating the planned composition and achieving its conformity to the pattern.
In the production of any things and toys you can combine dry and wet felting, adding trim elements such as lace, ruffles, beads, beads, braid and ribbons. This creates additional opportunities for obtaining unique, creative items.
Dry felting is time consuming. However, having spent a little time on studying the master class of a pair of small toys, you can begin to manufacture a larger thing. Work will succeed.
Tips for beginners
Each product made of wool fiber has certain nuances that require additional refinement and correction. In the process of operation, sometimes things need repair, so the craftswomen share their experience:
- For products in the manufacture of which two technologies are combined, some rules should be applied: the semi-finished product must be absolutely dry. This will avoid its deformation, rush and breaking.
- It is better to start felting with prefabricated fibers of a greater thickness: carding, combed tape. Use fine wool to finish the product.
- A thin needle must be pierced very often, to a shallow depth. Deep piercing will leave an ugly mark on the surface of the product, rare punctures will create tubercles on the surface of the felt.
- To replace hands in wet felting will help a bamboo mat, on which the blank is laid out. The rug is twisted into a roll and rolled in different directions, achieving dense stalling of wool.
- In the arsenal of tools and accessories, towels will not be superfluous to collect excess soapy water.
- Plastic bags are required for additional protection of the work surface, as well as for use as spacers between the elements of the product. This measure will avoid their adhesion to each other.
Felting is a very interesting, fascinating type of needlework, which is very popular today. Unique, warm, comfortable clothes are very comfortable to wear, care for them does not require special procedures, since they practically do not get dirty. A regular clothes brush is enough to clean it. By washing and rinsing in cool water, more severe contaminants are easily removed.