Master class for beginners: wool felting, clothes. Detailed instructions, recommendations

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:47

Ancient crafts have always been of interest to lovers of creativity, thanks to the uniqueness of handmade products, such things have always been in demand. Felting wool, clothing, its exclusivity today represents a new trend in fashion. Modern needlewomen create not only clothes and all kinds of accessories from wool. Interesting, bright toys, elegant sweaters, scarves and coats come to life in their hands.

Felting, felting, stuffing is felting from wool. Clothes that have undergone this treatment are especially soft and dense.

Felted products are based on two methods: wet and dry. Craftswomen, using one method or another, describe it in detail using examples of things they have created.

Endless possibilities of felt

The revival of the felting technique especially appealed to today's fashionistas. Things made by felting from natural wool are not only fashionable, they are very warm. In addition to clothing itemstoday's craftswomen make everything out of wool. Any element of the interior, children's toys, everything is in the hands of needlewomen.

Felting wool, handmade clothes and many useful things made in this way are real art these days. At the same time, this is an interesting, simple and convenient creative creation of warm, unique wardrobe items.

For beginner craftswomen, it is recommended to choose wool with obvious properties of good adhesion of its villi to each other. In addition, this wool must be unspun. You can buy the unspun material you need for work in specialized stores or using catalogs and recommendations from online stores. As a rule, this purchase option guarantees the purity and quality of the goods.

Depending on the purpose, you need to choose coarse or fine wool. Coarse wool can be used for bags, slippers or home decor accessories.

Apparel and accessories for it, children's toys will require the use of semi-fine and fine structure of wool.

The portal "Fair of Masters" provides essential assistance to needlewomen: felting from wool, handmade clothes are presented there by master classes of experienced needlewomen with step-by-step execution of products.

Basis of wet felting wool

The essence of wet felting woolen fiber consists in wetting it with soapy water and then gently smoothing it in different directions. The finished product is a dense material - felt.

In wet felting, the necessary increase in the pattern of the product should be done, since wool shrinks up to 40%.

To obtain small bulky objects, a ball of wool is crushed in the hands. A flat web is obtained when wet felting of wool is used. Clothing and accessories, representing the lace fantasy of the craftswoman, can only be made by long rolling of the workpiece or by smoothing it with the effort of the hands. Only this way allows you to get a bright thing with all sorts of color transitions.

Necessary and auxiliary tools and materials

The main material for felting is unspun wool. For felting, different types of material are used. Depending on the planned product, you need to purchase one of several types of wool fiber:

• The coarsest wool, the so-called combed.
• Semi-fine wool.
• Very thin.
• A flat work surface with defined dimensions.
• Pimpled plastic wrap.
• Dense mesh (mosquito).
• Soap in water.
• Water.
• Atomizer.
• Finishings for finishing the product.

Wet felting technique

The effort of the needlewoman's hands is the main tool in the processing of amazing material, called "wet felting from wool", clothes, as a result of using this procedure, allow you to realize the most incredible ideas. The main scheme for the implementation of this technology:

• Formationfibrous web of a certain orientation, that is, the layout of the wool.
• The procedure for obtaining the base for felting (prefelt), processing the original material pre-moistened with a special composition into a single needle-punched fabric.
• Shrinking the prefelt by performing special processing techniques, resulting in an increase in strength, highlighting the texture of the material.
• Removal of the wetting agent. Layout schemes largely determine the future range of products.

Steps of work

The modern felting process has many techniques. Wet felting wool clothes, a master class of one of the options, is presented in the following steps.

• Layers of wool are spread on the oilcloth with marking the dimensions of the product with a thin layer of overlap. The layout of the wool is carried out in a checkerboard pattern: horizontally, then in the transverse direction. It is necessary to control the thickness of the layer, in all areas it should be the same. In addition, felt shrinkage should be taken into account by increasing the initial wool thickness by 2-3 times.
• Moisten the spread wool with a spray bottle with water.
• The moistened workpiece should be covered with mesh material. It is convenient to use a mosquito net for this purpose. The layout is carefully moistened with soapy water through a mosquito net, avoiding displacement of the pattern.
• Gently press the finished product with your hands to the oilcloth, achieving good impregnation of the base with soapy water, remove excess solution with a towel.
• Felting process, namely intense smoothing and frictioneach section. Continue felting, carefully rubbing each section, gradually removing the mesh, turning the fabric over.
• The canvas is considered ready if, when pulling it up, the layer is completely removed without separating the strips.
• Rinse the resulting felt in cool water until the soap suds are completely removed.
• Lay out the canvas and dry it flat.

Wet felting wool finished. The product or canvas can be considered finished.

Dry felting option

The essence of the technique is the entanglement and compaction of wool fibers with special notched needles. Felting begins with the processing of the fibers with the thickest needle. In the process of compacting the felt web, the needle is replaced with a thinner one.

Those who begin to felt the first product, you need to remember that the wool in the process of work changes in volume in the direction of decreasing by almost three times. Therefore, for felting, a beginner felter needs to take wool in a much larger volume.

The difference between wet and dry felting is to replace the soap solution with special needles, which perform the procedure for felting wool. Dry felting from wool is not recommended for beginners: clothes and things require the use of a flat felt cloth. Experienced craftswomen use this type of felting to make voluminous accessories, jewelry and toys.

Many craftswomen have turned felting into an opportunity to have in their wardrobe not only warm cozy clothes,but also accessories. In addition, for some, felting began to provide a good income for the family budget.

Tools and supplies

Dry method of folding woolen fibers is unique and has its own characteristics. For dry felting, special tools will be required, with the help of which the procedure for dumping the wool fiber is performed. These include:

• Special needle felting needles of different sizes, made of high quality hardened steel, with high strength, sharp notches and durability. Needles, in the process of working with wool, thanks to the practical notches located in their lower part, the fibrous mass is well captured and pushed into the depth of the layer. This operation ensures that the fluffy layers are tangled, shedding and compacting them.
• Even smooth work surface.
• Foam or rubber backing.
• Finishings for decorating the finished product.

Steps of dry felting

Creating beautiful voluminous things will require a detailed study of such techniques as dry felting from wool. Clothes, a master class for making them - all this is described in detail by experienced felters. With their help, it is possible to manufacture products of any complexity.

Preparation is at the heart of all work. Before starting felting, you should make a sketch or pattern of the future product:

• Wool, distributed according to the prepared pattern, must be pierced often and a lot with a serrated needle tofelting, achieving felting and compaction of the material.
• The resulting felt web must be constantly rotated, achieving uniform density, repeatedly processing each section with a needle.
• In the process of work, you can add new pieces of wool, creating a planned composition and achieving its compliance with the pattern.

In the production of any things and toys, you can combine dry and wet felting, adding finishing elements such as lace, ruffles, beads, beads, braid and ribbons. This creates additional opportunities for obtaining unique, creative items.

Dry felting requires a lot of time. However, after spending a little time studying the master class of a couple of small toys, you can start making a larger item. The work will be crowned with success.

Advice for beginner craftswomen

Each product made from wool fiber has certain nuances that require further refinement and correction. During operation, sometimes things require repair, so the craftswomen share their experience:

• For products that combine two technologies, some rules should be applied: the semi-finished product must be absolutely dry. This will prevent it from deforming, tearing or breaking.
• Dry felting is better to start with blanks of fibers of greater thickness: carding, combed tape. Fine wool to use for finishingproducts.
• A thin needle must be pierced very often, to a shallow depth. Deep piercing will leave an ugly mark on the surface of the product, rare punctures will create bumps on the surface of the felt.
• Replace hands in wet felting with a bamboo mat, on which the workpiece is laid out. The rug is twisted into a roll and rolled in different directions, achieving a dense pile of wool.
• In the arsenal of tools and accessories there will be no extra towels to collect excess soapy water.
• Plastic bags will be required for additional protection of the work surface, as well as for use as gaskets between the elements of the product. This measure will prevent them from sticking together.

Felting is a very interesting, fascinating type of needlework, which is currently popular. Unique, warm, cozy clothes are very comfortable to wear, care for them does not require special procedures, as they practically do not get dirty. An ordinary brush for clothes is enough to clean it. Heavy soiling is easily removed by washing and rinsing in cool water.