Wool Felt

Wool Felt is a non-woven textile. There is no thread or weaving involved in production. It originates as wool roving and by adding heat, moisture and agitation, the roving compacts and matts together tightly to form what we refer to as pure wool felt.

You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.

Wool felt blends are also made using the process described above but with a combination of wool fibers and those from another material. The most common combination is wool and rayon, a non-synthetic man-made fiber derived from wood pulp. Rayon's properties are similar to those of cotton and linen, making it an excellent choice for wool blends.

Felted Wool

Felted Wool is a woven textile. There is thread and weaving involved. Like wool felt, it originates as wool roving, but the roving is spun into thread after being cleaned and carded. This thread is then woven into wool cloth, which is washed in hot water and dried on high heat to emulate the &#;add heat, moisture and agitation&#; process used to make wool felt. This process turns wool fabric into felted wool.

Felted wool contracts into a thicker 'puffier' texture than the original cloth. This puffiness translates into &#;soft and fluffy,&#; which is why we love it! The results you achieve when felting wool will vary depending on the weave of the fabric, the wool content (whether or not it is 100% pure wool) and wash/dry temperatures.

Wool roving is also spun into yarn, which is used for knitting wool sweaters and accessories such as scarves and mittens. You can &#;felt&#; these knitted items as well but regardless of your wash/dry temperatures, they will not compact as tightly as wool fabric woven from thread. Wool yarn is considerably thicker than wool thread and knitting is much less taut than weaving. Homemade felt from a knitted garment has a much looser, bulkier texture and is more likely to fray.

Both are Wonderful!

Each of these two textiles are dreamy to work with. I love wool felt because it is soft yet strong and durable for making softies. It is available in a myriad of rich, vibrant colors that are lightfast and uniform throughout. It doesn't fray or pill and hand-sews like butter.

Felted wool offers endless possibilities when it comes to color and is available in richly textured patterns and plaids. It is fabulous for soft appliqué projects and making softie clothes with a hint of drape.

Happy Sewing!
Annette

 

Additional resources:
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Ultimate Guide to 310gsm Fluorescent Yellow Fabric
10 Questions You Should Know about Interlock Knitted Fabric

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Jiatong.

The difference between Craft Felt & Wool Felt

When I am asked if I use craft felt in any of my classes, I like to let my students know what the differences are between craft felt and wool felt. For starters, craft felt is created with manmade fibers, mostly plastic and synthetic fibers, which have been needled and/or heat processed to cause the fibers to adhere to one another. Wool felt is made primarily or entirely from natural animal fibers, mostly, sheep wool. 

Wool felt is more expensive than craft felt, and for good reason: animals require care and feeding in order to produce their wool over and over again throughout the life of the animal. Most wool producing animals (sheep, alpacas, llamas, etc.) are sheared once or twice a year, to keep the animal comfortable and healthy. Wool is a sustainable resource for this reason. 

When it comes to using a felted base for needle felting, I think that wool felt allows for the addition of fibers to be more cohesive, easier to adhere those additions without distortion, and gives a final feel to the project that feels more complete. That doesn&#;t mean that you can&#;t use craft felt as a base-it&#;s merely a preference of mine, your mileage may vary, as it were.

If you have a chance to play with both craft felt and wool felt for an experiment, I suggest you give it a try so that you can decide for yourself which you prefer. Wool felt can be purchased at a number of places, a couple of my favorites are these:

Weir Crafts

National Nonwoves (on amazon)

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Links in this post may contain affiliate links. I only share things I love with you, but I do receive a small commision if your purchase through my links!

Links in this post may contain affiliate links. I only share things I love with you, but I do receive a small commision if your purchase through my links!