Wool Felting in a Plastic Bag

So... Roc day (Distaff day, the day after epiphany) has come and gone. This is a special day for spinners, the time for the women to get back to work after the 12 days of Christmas have passed (the men get to wait until the Monday after epiphany. Hmm...). In celebration, I made a short (20 min.) video about how to make a felted woolen coaster inside a plastic zipper bag. An idea for a 'make & take project or a quickie workshop with kids or something like that. The video pretty well tells the whole story, but there may be a few things I can add here. 

~ I neglected to mention that the first layers of wool should be placed at 90 degree angles to each other. They will mesh best that way. For a third layer, I often place the wool at something like a 45 degree angle and it seems to mesh fine.

 

~ Many people say to use warm soapy water to felt. I find the warmth is not all that important. As far as soap, it should not be too frothy or the wool might just start slipping about. 

~ The blue bubble wrap I mention is some kind of industrial strength builders supply stuff, I think. You could also cut up a shipping envelope from something you received in the mail; they can be pretty sturdy.

 

~ I didn't really roll the pre-felt with a pool noodle 100 times. As it turned out, I probably only did it about 50 or so. It came together pretty quickly. And, since you want 'sticky outtie' bits of wool all around, you don't want to overfelt at that point. 

~ I mentioned that I would often use white wool when making the prefelt. The reason for that is because I feel it makes the colors on the outer design show up better and not get muddy looking. And it creates a buffer between the two outside designs too, so they won't interfere with each other.

~ The 'confetti' should really have a touch of wispy wool over it here and there just to be sure it will be well attached.

~ Don't be afraid to get a bit rough with this. It will help it felt better if it is tossed, pounded and pummeled a bit after eveything has been added.

Well, I've really got to watch the video again to see if there are other tips to add~ but in the meantime, I'm going to publish this wee blog post to make the video more 'find-able'.
Cheers~