How to Start Wet Felting on a Budget

Want to wet felt but you don't have any of the proper tools? Here's what you can use that's already in your house!

First of all, what is wet felting? Felting is the tangling, matting and compressing of fibers, and wet felting uses soap, agitation and hot water to accomplish this. Wool is special because there are extremely small scales on wool that lock tightly together and shrink when agitated with soap and water, turning individual fibers into a solid fabric.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Wool roving: You'll need to buy some wool roving to wet felt with, but that's all you'll need to buy.

Soap: I like using hand soap (liquid or bar soap) because my hands don't dry out as much as with dish soap, but you could use dish soap if you like. People say the best thing is olive oil bar soap if you want to be fancy.

Bubble wrap: Or a plastic bag, or a plastic shower loofa, or a piece of tulle. I personally like the piece of tulle the best.

A trash bag: to protect your work surface. if you have a large baking tray with a lip or want to do this in a bathtub or outside that works too. I often put down a trash bag on a carpet. Sometimes my mother hates me. (I'm kidding, I'm kidding)

A large bowl: to hold your hot water

Cardboard: if you want to make a resist (this is for a hollow wet felting project, such as mittens or a bag.)

A cup: to pour water over your project.

How to wet felt:

First, protect a surface with a large trash bag. Get your wool roving and lay out your design. Lay out 2-3 layers of wool, with each layer of fibers going in a different direction. Remember that the wool will shrink quite a bit, VERY approximately 30%. How much will depend on what kind of wool you're using, how the fibers are layed out, the number of layers, how hot the water is and how much you felt it. Fill your bowl with hot tap water, and use a small cup to pour some water over your project. You want it to be soaked through, but not sitting in water. Next, put some soap on the fibers. You don't want there to be too much, but you want enough that you can agitate the fibers without moving them too much. Lay a piece of tulle/bubble wrap/plastic in between your project and your hands to help keep the fibers in place even more, then start to agitate the fibers. You're going to spend more time at the beginning and feel like nothing is happening for 10-15 min, then after the fibers start to fuse together and become stronger you can start to apply more pressure very gradually. If it starts to disturb the fibers or pill, you're applying too much pressure. Rub it until it seems like a strong fabric.

That's it!

Sometimes the kind of wool you have doesn't wet felt well. Only some kinds/breeds of wool wet felt well. I know merino wet felts very easily, but I haven't tried a lot of other breeds yet. Once I tried to wet felt a glove for an hour before I realized it really wasn't felting at all. I'm not sure what was going on. If it hasn't started to felt together at least a bit in the first 15min, it may or may not work.

Let me know if you have any questions :)