Manual labor is always an individuality and a guarantee of the exclusivity of a thing. Today, needlework is becoming more popular, and everyone embodies his fantasies as he can. Most often, craftswomen take up sewing, and the best material for this is felt, or, as it is also called, felt.
In order for a product from this fabric to turn out to be of high quality and be able to serve the owner for a long time, you should know how to glue felt to felt or other material. Of course, before this, it is useful for beginner needlewomen to understand the varieties and features of this material.
Felt Features
Today, felt is made from various materials, which ultimately affects its use. The main property of this fabric is the ability to separate pieces of fabric. Felt is perfectly cut with scissors, forming smooth edges, and also just tears with your hands, which allows you to create a thinned fluffy outline of the flaps. How to glue the felt depends solely on the further purpose of the product. For convenience, the material has both front sides, keeps its shape perfectly, bends and is quite pleasant to the touch.
It is important to know that felt can be made from natural wool and synthetic materials. The latest fabrics will be more loose, which makes them relevant only in the manufacture of clothing items, for example. In general, where you do not need to keep in shape.
Acrylic Fabrics
Material of non-natural origin is made on the basis of polyester or acrylic. The thickness of the web and density can be different in both cases.
Acrylic felt is characterized by a characteristic creaking during bending and poor flexibility. It costs very cheaply, and the choice of colors is simply amazing. It is when working with this type of fabric that the question most often arises of how to glue the part onto felt, because because of the increased stiffness it is often used in the manufacture of various supports, baskets or the design of paintings and photographs.
Polyester Felt
Polyester felt has absolutely identical strength properties, only this material is also characterized by softness. This synthetic material is very popular among needlewomen for its positive qualities:
- does not fade;
- does not wear out;
- wide color gamut;
- holds shape;
- affordable price;
- pleasant to the touch.
Very often it is polyester felt that is used to make soft toys. The explanation is also a small transparency of the material, which is fully compensated by the application of several layers of fabric, which is exactly what is practiced in sewing various figures.
The most high-quality and demanded among the craftswomen is considered to be synthetic Korean felt made of polyester.
Natural material
Interestingly, pure wool or half-wool felt is in little demand among needlewomen. In this case, you can stick felt to felt in any way. But what did this kind of fabric not please the craftswomen? The main reasons are:
- high cost of fabric;
- a small selection of colors;
- sits when washing;
- can be wiped to holes;
- often a large number of "spools" appear;
- big thickness.
It is very difficult to sew several layers of such material with ordinary threads, but due to the fact that it keeps its shape perfectly, it is often used to make flowers from felt. How to glue the fabric in this case is described in detail below.
By the way, if when buying on the product label it is indicated that the felt is made of wool, this fabric can contain it only in a certain amount and in fact it is half-woolen. The remainder of the fabrication material is always synthetic. It is such a combination of natural and artificial that is considered ideal for tailoring various products, since the final product always combines all the positive qualities of a woolen fur and synthetic.
Compromise solution
Wool felt is very soft, easily takes the desired shape, holds it well and is offered in specialized stores in a huge color palette. Among the advantages is the low price, of course, when compared with all-natural felt.
Among the disadvantages of the fabric is the noticeable appearance of wrinkles after crushing, but only in very large items. Small parts always quickly return to their original shape. To give the material maximum rigidity, it can be treated with a special composition. By the way, the fabric has the property of "clawing."
Viscose Felt
This variety should be considered separately, since its characteristics combine many of the qualities of all the fabrics listed above. It is he who is most often used for appliqués on clothes and toys, so when working with him the question arises than how to glue felt to felt. Instructions on this subject are below.
The popularity of its fabric explains the unique ability to pass air and at the same time absorb moisture. Such characteristics make the material ideal for decorating wardrobe items.
In addition, felt is pleasant to the touch, plastic and durable, but prone to wrinkles, which needlewomen should consider.
So, after the ideal variety of material for working on a specific work of creativity is selected, we should proceed to answer the main question.
How to glue felt to felt
For the high-quality performance of applications from fabric, in particular felt, needlewomen can use many improvised and specialized tools. Of course, not every glue is able to reliably fasten parts, so you should take care of acquiring the necessary funds before starting work.
So, what can be glued felt to felt? Initially, PVA glue was often used for this, since it could be purchased almost everywhere and at a low cost. With the growing popularity of this variety of needlework, specialized textile adhesives also appeared on sale. Also, for reliable bonding of parts made of felt, hot melt glue with a gun or some Moment varieties are often used. Each remedy should be considered in more detail.
PVA glue
In this case, the novice craftswoman needs to know that it is impossible to use the usual clerical variety of this tool to connect fabric parts. Do not stick together felt and similar wallpaper PVA. Is it possible to glue felt with PVA glue in general? The answer is yes, but for effectiveness you should use only a product with a certain marking "M" or "MB". Such compounds are considered universal and can be used when connecting fabric parts, however, after washing they can easily disconnect.
Glue gun
If the question of how to glue felt to felt so that it can be washed is as acute as possible, and in the future the product will be used often, then the needlewoman is recommended to pay attention to hot glue. It is applied using a special gun, which melts the core with glue and allows you to control its application to the parts. This tool has found its application in many areas, even in repair.
Hardened glue sticks are available in stores with various parameters. It is important when buying to pay attention to the fact that its melting temperature is not higher than that indicated by the maximum in the gun itself. Rods can melt at 100-150 degrees.
Before gluing felt to felt, you should also pay attention to the color of the gun shaft itself. Craftswomen are offered special multi-colored compositions so that the connecting elements do not stand out against the general background. Such rods must be opaque. If the adhesive in the solid state has at least a slightly translucent structure, then its composition will already indicate a certain marking. In this case, to connect parts from felt it is better to purchase universal, completely transparent rods. After hardening on the product, such glue will acquire a translucent film.
Gun selection
In order for the work to bring only pleasure, it is necessary to choose the right tools for it. The glue gun is an electrical appliance that runs on a network and heats the glue sticks inside. The liquid product flows from the “barrel” of the device when you press a special trigger. To work with felt, it is best to purchase pistols with a diameter of the working rod of 7-8 mm, this will be enough.
The possible length of the rod is also an option for selection, and the uptime of your product depends on it, because it may be necessary to get distracted by replacing the rods.
When buying a tool, you should pay attention to its maximum operating temperature. For standard rods, it is enough to increase the temperature to 105 degrees, but the higher the temperature, the faster the rate of its melting and all work, respectively.
Well and, of course, convenience. For maximum comfort during operation, use a trigger device. Its mechanism can be slider or swivel (found most often).
Specialized tools
With the growing interest in needlework in specialized stores, new tools began to appear that facilitate the manual work of many craftswomen. Among them are specialized textile adhesives. They do not contain toxic substances at all, do not leave traces on the tissues and are excellent for gluing small parts thanks to the convenient nozzle-dispenser of bottles. The disadvantage of such compositions is that they are easily washed off with water, which means that things made with their help cannot be washed.
How to glue felt to felt so that the product can ultimately be easily washed? To do this, you can use such a variation of the popular universal adhesive as “Crystal Moment”. This product is toxic, and it should be used only in ventilated areas with extreme caution. The glue itself is quite liquid, all actions must be carried out as accurately as possible. For the rest, he copes with the connection of felt with each other.
For maximum results, apply the product along the contour of the part, wait a bit until the glue brightens and apply another layer on top, then fasten the part in the right place.
Work rules
When choosing any means, before gluing felt to felt, carefully prepare the material. PVA glue must be premixed, when working with a gun, check its technical condition, and when connecting parts using “Moment”, open the window for ventilation. In any case, before gluing the “finishing” parts, the properties of the glue on unnecessary scraps should be checked.
It is important to apply any glue sparingly so that its liquid structure cannot completely impregnate the fabric. Otherwise, traces of glue will appear on the front side of the parts. If this still happened, then you can correct the situation by re-applying a duplicate to the damaged fabric. It is important to stick the second layer of fabric only along the contour of the part.