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Tips for Working With Wool Felt
What is Wool Felt?
Wool Felt is a blend of either 80%/20% or 70%/30% rayon/wool. Designed to resemble boiled wool, this product offers a more reasonably priced alternative.
How Do I Use Wool Felt?
Wool felt is being used for penny rugs, pillows, and as embellishments on quilts and garments. There are no raw edges to finish, so wool felt makes for quick and easy projects.
How Do I Prepare Wool Felt?
Wool Felt typically should be washed prior to use to create the “Boiled Wool” look. If you prefer the flat look that it has straight off the bolt, you can use the felt as-is. Keep in mind though, that you will not be able to wash your project later, as it will shrink substantially.
To Pre-wash Wool Felt:
Soak wool felt in a basin of very warm water. You can expect wool felt to bleed quite a bit, so wash colors separately.
Dry wool felt in a dryer with a fabric softener sheet until slightly damp. Dry similar colors together as they may rub off on each other in the dryer. (Although this is a fun way to get slightly marbled colors!)
Depending on fiber content, temperature of water and dryer, and length of time washed and dried, you can expect wool felt to shrink from 3”-5” in length and 2” -4” in width.
How Do I Begin My Project?
Trace shapes onto the smooth side of freezer paper. Loosely cut around traced pattern. Iron onto wool felt. The wax side of the freezer paper will stick temporarily to the wool, but will not leave a residue. Cut out shapes on traced line. Remove freezer paper. We do not recommend using fusible web. It will often make the pieces too stiff to stitch through.
Position shapes as desired on background. Baste in place with Roxanne’s Glue Baste It. You only need a VERY TINY drop of this water soluble glue.
Blanket or Primitive Stitch around shapes with Pearl Cotton or embroidery floss.
To transfer wording or designs for embroidery: Trace words onto coarse netting with a permanent black marker. Position netting over background. Retrace over words with marking tool (The Chaco-liner or White Marking Pen by Clover work very well). Lines will come through netting onto the background.
How Do I Care For My Project?
Due to color bleeding, dry cleaning your finished project is recommended. If embellishing a quilt or garment, you may have success laundering with products such as the Woolite Dye Magnet or Shout Color Catcher or other products designed to prevent bleeding of colors.
What Colors of Wool Felt are Available?
Prairie Point Junction stocks over 50 colors of wool felt. You can purchase a sample pack containing 6” squares of every color we carry. Samples are labeled for ordering reference Wool Felt can be purchase by the yard (36” wide), in 12” x 18” pieces, or in bundles of assorted colors. Check our website for pricing, patterns, and available colors.