Add Surface Decoration to Felt

Decorate Wool Fabrics Before Felting, Simple Feltmaking Technique

Oct 1, 2008

Felting is a great way to recycle and repurpose woolen fabrics. Items that are going to be felted can be decorated with wool embroidery, scraps of fabric and much more!

Recycling and repurposing wool items by felting them is a wonderful way of creating felt fabric cheaply. This also gives a new lease of life to an item that would otherwise be discarded. Items that are going to be wet felted can be decorated before the felting process takes place. There are many different ways of doing this and the finished effects can be very striking. This can be a great way to add interest or decoration to a simple sweater or plain wool blanket that is to be felted and used in other projects.

The finished effects can vary between the decoration blending with the background, through to the decorations distorting and creating interesting and unusual results. The results will vary depending on the type of materials and the techniques used.

Woolen Yarn

Decoration can be sewn onto the surface of an item using woolen yarn. The yarn will shrink and blend into the background producing subtle results. It is important to use pure new wool yarn, not "machine washable" woolen yarn or other yarns that have been preshrunk, as these will not shrink and felt. It is also best to use color fast yarns to avoid the dye running and giving "muddy" results.

Silk and Cotton Yarns

Fibers such as silk and cotton will not felt. Therefore a stitched design created with these yarns will bunch and pucker during the felting process, giving a raised and interesting finish. It is important not to use too fine yarns, however, as very fine yarns might get absorbed into the background and the finished effect won't be so dramatic.

Lace and Ribbon

Small pieces of lace and ribbon can be used as surface design. These work best when they are firmly needle felted into position before the whole garment is wet felted. The needle felting fixes the layers into place and the wet felting shrinks and bonds the layers together.

Beads

Beads can be sewn into a woolen garment before the felting process begins. Small beads will blend into the background and larger beads will stand proud. It is important that the beads used will not be damaged by the felting process and that they are attached firmly to the garment.

Other Fabrics

Pieces of silk fabric, such as parts of a discarded silk scarf, can be attached to an item using the needle felting technique before felting. Cotton muslin or other open weave fabrics also work well.

Felting is an exciting craft – yet it can also be very unpredictable! Exploring the combination of different materials or developing different techniques and ideas can produce extraordinary results.