How to Felt Fabric

You can make felt fabric out of wool roving.

When you are crafting with wool felt fabric, it is expensive to purchase premade wool sheets to use in your projects. Instead, you can save money by making the felt fabric at home using the basic materials, such as wool batting and roving. This allows you to create a larger amount of more colorful wool felt than you would get with commercially produced wool felt.

Things You'll Need

• Wool batting
• Wool roving
• Jelly-roll tray
• Oil soap
• Bamboo mat
• Towel
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Fill a jelly-roll tray with very hot water.

2. Pour 2 Tbsp. oil soap into the water; mix well.

3. Drape layers of wool batting and wool roving over the hot, soapy water. The batting will be more dense and rough, while the roving will be soft and smooth. You will want a thick layer of wool in the pan.

4. Tap the wool with the tips of your fingers repeatedly. This will compact the wool into the hot, soapy water, effectively felting (matting) the fibers of the wool together. Continue tapping the wool for at least 15 minutes.

5. Tun the wool over and lay it flat in the pan. Tap the other side of the wool, as you did before, for another 15 minutes.

6. Place the sheet of wool on the bamboo mat and lay the mat on a towel. Roll up the mat tightly, which will squeeze out the water without destroying the shape of the wool sheet.

7. Lay the wool out flay to dry completely on the towel.

8. Trim the edges of the wool fabric with scissors to make the edges clean and sharp.

References

• I am a professional artist and crafter, and this article is written from personal experience.