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ОглавлениеChoosing Material for Projects
The projects in this book can be made from wool sweaters or coats. They can be found and felted, but if you prefer a specific color or pattern, you can buy wool felt, polar fleece, or knit your own yardage. Here are your options.
Different thicknesses of felted knitted wool
Wool and Felting
Knitted Wool
Sweaters felt beautifully and are ideal for making animals. They yield thick wool because the process of knitting makes the fabric of the sweater thicker than woven fabric. Knitted fabric has more stretch built into it than woven fabric does. Some wool felts thinner and can be sewn on a sewing machine. Heavier knits remain thick after felting and must be sewn by hand. For example, cable sweaters most often felt up too thick to make animals. Instead, you can use them to make terrific tote bags or throw pillow covers.
Sweaters are knitted wool; a coat is woven wool
Woven Wool
Woven wool fabric felts, too, but won’t have the same amount of stretch and body as a knitted fabric. Animals made from felted woven wool can be sewn by machine and will be flatter. A coat is the only type of clothing made from woven wool that is thick enough for these projects. Winter coats are made with a great deal of fabric and the wool is much thicker. The challenge is to find a coat-weight wool in bright colors; that’s where the thrill of the hunt comes in. By contrast, men’s suits are too thin and have too many seams to yield large pieces for felting. More often than not, they have interfacing fused to the inside surfaces, which should be removed before felting. The amount of fabric harvested is too small an amount and too thin a weight to justify the work of felting.
When looking through clothing, check for interfacing fused to the back side of the wool. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be problematic to remove. Look under the lining for interfacing (see inset on here). If the lining isn’t loose—making it possible to see the back of the fabric—look for a rip in the lining to peak through. Sometimes it is possible to feel the presence of interfacing through the thin layer of lining. Should you choose a coat with fused interfacing, you can usually pull it off before felting. If some glue remains on the fabric, the side with dots of interfacing glue can be placed to the inside of your stuffed animal.
Wool blankets would seem to be a good source of project material; however, they usually felt up too thick to use for animals. If you’re looking for a specific color, you could purchase woven wool by the yard from a fabric or craft store. It is expensive but often a great way to find the color you want. Remember to look for coat-weight wool.
Nonwoven Wool
Available from a fabric or craft store, nonwoven wool has fibers that have been bonded and compressed by a machine. Most often, this kind of felt is not made of wool, although woolen craft felt is available. This fabric is not as soft as felted wool and has almost no stretch. Sew it with a sewing machine.
Polar Fleece
Available in many colors and patterns, polar fleece can be used and does not need to be felted. Polar fleece has a great deal of stretch. Choose the thickest weight of fleece you can find. Check that the cut edge is pleasing since the raw edges will show when your animal is complete. Sew animals of polar fleece on a sewing machine.
Hand-Knitted Wool
You can always make knitted wool yourself by knitting some yardage together with wool yarn. This will allow you to take advantage of the extensive color choices available. Knit twice the amount called for in the pattern—that way you will have plenty to work with after it shrinks in the felting process.
Where to Look for Wool
In your hunt for wool, search for 100% wool items. Many blends will work as well (80% wool and 20% other fibers) but 100% wool is best. Some wool, however, has been treated against shrinking during machine washing and will not felt correctly. It isn’t always possible to know ahead of time if a garment will felt. A “dry clean only" tag is a good indication that it might work. Alpaca and cashmere have much finer/smaller scales than wool does and so is much more difficult to felt. I’ve never been able to felt either one, even after washing it six or eight times.
Since wool garments are made to dry clean, you can’t be sure that the color is fast. Assume the dye may run and use a color fixative, like Retayne™, when you wash the garments.
Resale shops, thrift stores, and consignment shops are also good sources for wool.
Fabric stores can be good (if expensive) sources of coat-weight wool.
Search garage sales and bazaars at churches or other organizations.
EXAMPLES OF WHAT TO LOOK FOR ON THE LABEL
How Felting Works
It has happened to all of us. A beautiful wool sweater gets mixed into a load of wash. Even if the temperature setting was not on HOT, when we lift out the sweater at the end of the wash cycle, we see to our astonishment that it has shrunk to half its original size. And there is nothing we can do to reverse the damage.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FELTING
As long ago as 700 bc, Siberian nomads used felted wool to make tents, saddles, and clothing. Tradition has it that in the first century ad, St. Clement experienced a happy accident when he stuffed flax fibers into his sandals to make them more comfortable. Heat, pressure, and perspiration bound them permanently together into a pad—in other words, felt! He remains the patron saint of hat makers and adept felters to this day. “Fullers” made felted wool fabric in the Middle Ages using fuller’s earth, a clay that absorbed oils from woven wool cloth. They applied the clay and then stomped it into the cloth, cleansing and agitating the fibers. “Boiled” wool, used for making stiff Tyrolean jackets, came later.
That’s the distressing side of felting. Intentional felting is a much happier process. It takes a loose material that will fray when cut and turns it into a super-strong fabric that cuts neatly without fraying. The felted wool’s density means it has structure—ideal for making animal figures that can stand on their own four legs!
How felting works is pure magic resulting from the anatomy of each strand of wool. Wool is a protein fiber encased in tiny, overlapping scales. When exposed to hot water, the scales open. Agitate fiber against fiber and they latch onto each other. Once dry, the scales close, locking the fibers irreversibly. Wool will felt to thicknesses of 1/16" (1.6mm) to ⅜" (9.5mm).
How to Felt Wool
1. Before felting, cut off all buttons. Save them as options for joining the animal’s limbs to their bodies.
2. Remove all non-wool parts of the garment.
3. The collar and hem may be handstitched to the coat. They are easily cut away.
4. Pull off the interfacing. If it does not remove easily, you will have to cut it away. Expect to have less usable fabric as a result.
5. A harvested coat: the usable wool fabric is on the left, matching buttons are in the center, and on the right, the lining and interfacing that must be discarded.
6. Place items in pillow protector bags (to prevent any loose wool fibers from clogging the washing machine) and pin the zippers shut.
7. Wash similar color items in HOT water, using a mild detergent. Set a timer to reset the wash cycle. Ideally you should agitate the wool for 20 to 30 minutes. If you don’t have a lot of wool to felt, add old towels or clean rags to the load.
8. After washing, examine each item to check that it has shrunk. You may need to run the wool through two or three wash cycles.
9. Dry the wool items in the dryer on hot or warm temperature. After drying, harvest the wool fibers from the filter to use in stuffing the animals.
10. Cut apart the garments along the seam lines. Cut off the seam allowance entirely—it’s easier to press the wool without the bulge of the seam.
11. Press the wool flat with an iron set on the wool heat setting using steam.
THE RIGHT AND WRONG OF IT
Some knitted felt has a distinct right and wrong side. Even after felting you can see the knit and pearl stitches. Use the side you like the best on the outside.
