Sew Basics: Felting Wool

Last week I happened upon the mother-load of wool sweaters at my local thrift store - only $1 per piece!  I'm always hunting for 100% wool for felting, but it's sort of hard to come by these days, so I definitely felt like I hit the jackpot last week!!  I love felted wool, but haven't done a ton with it.  So this last week, I spent the day over at my mother in-laws felting all my wool finds from the thrift store (she has a super-awesome washer and dryer).

Felting wool is very simple.  In order for the wool to felt, you need 100% wool (or close to it).  If the sweater or garment has acrylic in it, it will not felt.  Additionally, most natural animal fibers will felt well - try searching for alpaca, mohair, cashmere, just to name a few.  Check the garment label for fiber composition.

Felting is caused by heat agitation and can take a regular knitted sweater and turn it into a solid piece of wool felt - very cool!  So here's how The Cottage Mama felts wool........

Gather your wool for felting.  As you can see here, I have many different pieces - sweaters, pants, blankets, blazers, skirts, ect......you can felt just about anything as long as it is 100% wool, natural animal fibers, or a combination of the two.

Place your wool for felting into you washing machine.  You may want to put your wool inside a delicate washing bag or a zippered pillowcase as it does tend to produce a lot of lint.  It's up to you.

I set my mother-in-laws washing machine on "sanitary" because that is the highest temperature and longest agitation.  Set your washing machine to the highest temp. setting - extra hot/cold or hot/cold for the longest length of time.  I do not add soap.

After the wool has cycled through the washing machine, place it in the dryer and dry the wool on the hottest setting possible.  Generally this is the cotton setting.

Once dry, remove from the dryer and see if the felting is to your liking.  Felting has occurred if your garments have shrunk a considerable amount and the stitching is less noticeable.  On some garments you will not be able to see the stitching at all and on others it will just be less noticeable.  Some items will felt better than others.  You can always run your wool through another washing and drying cycle if you aren't satisfied with the felting on the first try.

The sweater above is one that felted really well.  This started out as an x-large woman's sweater, but once felted, you can no longer see the individual knitting stitches and it would not even fit my 2-year old.  Felted sweaters tend to get thicker and a bit more stiff after felting as well.

Once wool is felted, it becomes an entirely different piece of material to work with.  I almost equate it to working with fleece (but much cooler).  As you probably know, fleece will not fray on the raw edges so you don't really need to hem garments or worry about finish edges.  Wool felt is the same way - once felted, the fibers are bonded together and will rarely fray.

This weekend we had some fall fun at the pumpkin patch and I made my daughter, Savannah Rose, a felted wool sweater coat to keep her toasty in the cool autumn air.  This sweater coat was made entirely from thrift store items - total coat $4.00!  Here is the design I came up with.....

For this sweater coat, I used three different wool sweaters and one piece of felted wool suiting.  I left the bottom edge of the coat and the sleeves unfinished.

The back panel was the piece of felted wool suiting.  I cut leaves out of the other three sweaters and stitched them onto the back.  I used a straight stitch around each leave.  I also cut two elbow patches and stitched them with a straight-stitch as well.

For the front button closure, I simply cut a slit into the wool flap - no button hole!  I added some basic embroidery stitching and finished it off with a little mushroom button.

I cut a peter-pan collar from the wool suiting and left all of the edges raw.

I added some simple embroidery stitches onto some of the sweater leaves as well.

I love the earthiness of this coat - perfect for fall!

It was a gorgeous fall weekend. This is definitely my favorite time of year in the Midwest.

Sometimes it just feels so good to scoop up those fall leaves and throw them all over your head!

I think Miss Savannah likes the little fall coat her mama made for her!

Happy Felting!

Cottage Mama's Note:  Stay tuned for a felted wool project tutorial coming later this week!

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Sew Basics: Prepping Fabric

This past Saturday I found myself with a little time to myself while out running an errand and I decided to pop into my local thrift store to see if I could find any treasure.  And sure enough, $8.00 later, I had struck gold (well for someone who loves sewing!).  So here's what I found......

I found a set of vintage floral sheets (set included a flat sheet and two standard pillowcases), a couple embroidery hoops (you can never have enough of those), and three large pieces of fabric.

One of the fabrics was 1.5 yards of a linen/cotton blend that was sold for .75 cents and included a matching zipper - treasure for sure!  Another piece was a neutral quilted piece of fabric.  And finally, my favorite was this giant piece of wool suiting (which can be VERY expensive at retail prices).  These three fabrics just have my creative wheels turning for fall........I'm seeing a fall coat tutorial coming!

As with any new fabric, it is very important to prep your fabric before sewing with it.  When it comes to thrift-store finds you may not know the true composition of each fabric - therefore washing can become a little tricky. 

But for me, for .75 cents, I'm happy to give washing and drying a go - if it doesn't turn out, no worries.  But I have to say, if I sewed something that took a lot of time and energy and then went to wash it, I would be VERY sad if it didn't turn out.  So, my point is ALWAYS wash your fabric before you use it.

Knit fabrics can shrink a considerable amount (yes, I learned this the hard way).  You may find after working with specific fabric manufacturers that some fabric shrinks more than others.  Also, if you are sewing children's clothing, it is very important to wash your fabric so it doesn't irritate your little ones skin.

Before throwing my fabric in the wash, I like to serge the raw edge.  If you don't have a serger, you can try doing a tight zig-zag stitch on the edge with a regular sewing machine to achieve the same effect.

By serging the raw edge, you eliminate all of the fraying that can occur in the washing machine.   Your fabric will come out looking the same way it went in.  This is definitely not something you must do, but I have found it to make life a little easier.

I made sure to serge the raw edges of all the fabric pieces that I brought home from the thrift store.

Most fabrics are pretty good about not spreading dye from one fabric to another as long as you group like colors together.  But if you have a fabric that has a lot of white with some other more bold colors, I suggest throwing in one of these Shout Color Catchers.  It's basically just a sheet you put in your wash and it will catch any loose dye that may come from your fabric.  They are a truly great invention!!

Here are my fabrics all ready to be washed.  I usually wash on cold and tumble dry.  Because I do a lot of children's clothing I like to pre-wash using Dreft just to make sure my garments don't irritate any little ones skin.

Not bad for $8.00, right?  Can't wait to play with these fun fabrics.  Oh and by the way, I've got some fun ideas for the vintage sheets as well!

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Sew Basics: Applique

Applique is a great way to add detail to your favorite sewing project.  I define applique as a piece of fabric sewn on top of another piece of fabric (though some might consider embroidered patches as applique as well).  You can add applique to quilts, shirts, blankets, onesies, bibs, burp clothes and the list goes on and on.  Applique is very simple and is a great project for the beginning sewer.   

Here are the supplies needed for basic applique:

Double-Sided Fusible Interfacing
(such as Wonder-Under or Steam-A-Seam Lite - these are the two I use)
Scissors
Pencil (if drawing your applique)
Sewing Machine
Thread
Iron
Ironing Board

To demonstrate the applique technique, I will walk you through a couple items I made recently for my etsy shop, The Cottage Mama - an appliqued "tie" shirt and a basic square applique "Little Red Riding Hood" onesie.

First you need to cut out your pattern.  You can be as detailed or as basic as you like.  For basic applique, as seen above, cut your pattern out of fabric AND cut the same pattern out of your fusible interfacing.  If your design is very detailed, I might recommend fusing your interfacing onto a larger piece of fabric first and then cutting out your pattern (it will just make your life easier that way).

Double-sided fusible interfacing will have a paper backing on both sides.  For the next step you need to remove ONE side of the paper backing.

Next place your fabric (right-side up) on top of the side of interfacing WITHOUT the paper backing.  This is the side that you just removed the paper backing from in the previous step.  Use a hot iron and iron the fabric to the interfacing. 

Now your interfacing is fused to your fabric applique pieces.  One side is fabric and the other side will feel like paper (because it still has the paper backing on).

Remove the paper backing from the wrong-side of the fabric.  You will notice that there is a thin layer of interfacing that is now fused to the fabric.

Place your applique piece where you would like it to be position, in this case, on the front and center of a onesie.

For the tie, there are two pieces, so place the first piece in position and then the second.

At this point you can play around with your applique pieces and move them around until you get them positioned just right.

Once you have them positioned, use your hot iron to fuse the applique to your other piece of fabric (again, in this case a onesie and a t-shirt).  After ironing, your applique will pretty much be secured in place.

I prefer to take it a step further and stitch around the applique piece.  For the tie, I did a very tight zig-zag stitch (almost resembling a satin stitch).  To do this, set your machine on a regular zig-zag stitch and reduce the stitch-length almost as low as it will go (I set mine on .3).  It's always good to do a test run before actually stitching on your applique (trust me, I learned this the hard way).

If you have trouble getting your machine to feed the fabric on such a low stitch-length, try setting it a little higher and try again.  Like I said, always test it out to see if the stitch meets your expectations.

I like to set my stitch-width to 3.0 or 2.5 for this type of applique, but again, that is all personal preference.  Make sure to stitch along the very edge of the applique piece.  This will ensure a clean line and no fraying after washing.

For the Little Red Riding Hood Onesie I used a longer stitch-length as I wanted to be able to see the zig-zags.  I also used a little bit narrower stitch-width as well.

After stitching around the applique, I added additional detail by doing some hand embroidery on the trees as well as around the border of the applique.  I think this attention to detail makes this onesie truly special!

I just love the simplicity of this appliqued onesie.  I used a Japanese import (linen/cotton blend) fabric for the main applique.  The onesie is made from organic cotton and recycled polyester and is amazingly soft.

Here are a few other examples of some past applique techniques:

I don't know if you remember my Dress Shirt Sleep Sack Tutorial, but here I used a basic flower applique.

I used fusible interfacing and applied it to a large floral fabric (Church Flowers from "Nicey Jane" by Heather Bailey).  After applying the interfacing I cut more detail around the flower.  I found it much easier to cut once I already had the interfacing applied.

Then I ironed my applique piece onto the sleep sack.  To stitch this applique, I simply used a straight-stitch around the border.

For my Sleepover Pillowcase Tutorial, I applied fusible interfacing to a large square of fabric.  I then hand-drew these letters for the monogram and cut them out.  Then I removed the final paper-backing, ironed them on the edge of the pillowcase, and used a zig-zag stitch to finish the applique.

Here is a onesie from my etsy shop.  On this "tie" onesie I used a straight-stitch to finish the applique.  In this case, I thought a slightly frayed edge would be really hip and cute for a little boy.  If you do not like the frayed look, then I would not recommend using a straight-stitch.  I apply Fray-Check to the edge of all of my straight-stitch appliques.  I think this helps make the edge fray slightly, but not look sloppy.

And finally, this is Savannah's "S" pillow that I made for her big girl room.  I used a heavier interfacing for the "S" because I wanted it to stand out a bit more.  The fabric used here is Heather Bailey's "Freshcut".  For most applique work, I use Wonder-Under or Steam-a-seam Lite, but there are some instances that I just like an interfacing with a little more body.

Cottage Mama's Note:  If you have any questions in regards to my "Sew Basics" series, please don't hesitate to email (thecottagemama@gmail.com) or comment and I'm happy to help. Pin It