How to Make Clothes Out of Felt

Felt makes clothing as well as holiday decorations.

Felt has a nice feel to it and good durability. It's available in single sheets or by the yard. Purchasing your felt by the yard will make creating clothing much easier and practical. Wool blend and 100 percent wool felt cost more than polyester craft felt, but create a more breathable garment and many craft artisans recommend it for making clothing. Making your clothing from felt eliminates the need for hemming. Decorative stitching around necklines, sleeves, pant legs, and skirt hems adds a distinctive and original look to your garment.

Things You'll Need

• Felt
• Pattern
• Pins
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Decorative hole punch (optional)
• Needle

Instructions

1. Cut your clothing pattern apart and lay it out on the felt so all the pattern pieces lay the same direction. Discard neck facings or sleeve hole facings as unnecessary, unless you want to reinforce the fabric edges. Adjust lengths, waist height and other pattern adjustment markings to fit.

2. Pin the pattern places into place. Cut out the pattern pieces and transfer any markings that are on the pattern pieces to the felt.

3. Follow the pattern directions for assembly, except ignore directions for attaching facings, unless you want toe reinforce the edges. Don't hem the bottoms of skirts, shirts, sleeves or pants.

4. Use decorative options for finishing the hem, neckline, sleeves or pant legs. A few of your options for applying a decorative finish include punching holes in the felt with decorative hole punches found in the scrapbook section of your craft store, applying a transfer and embroidering or fabric painting the design, ironing on appliqués, or crocheting a decorative edge on the hemline or other open edge. Alternatively, you can use a sewing machine to sew a decorative pattern in a contrasting color around the unfinished edges. If you made a vest, for example, punch decorative holes one-half-inch deep into the neckline and around the hem edge and armhole or use a contracting color to hand or machine stitch the edges.

Tips & Warnings

• Wool felt comes in different thicknesses. Choose a depth that's suitable for the type of clothing and the season.

References

• FaveCrafts: 5 Types of Felt: Felt 101