Sticky Paws Blog

A little while back I blogged about a workshop I ran with my felting friends Miriam and Marina.  We made nuno resist felted waistcoats but had to finish them at home.  Marina sent me her waistcoat as she was disappointed with how the waistcoat had felted in places - there were several places where the black silk chiffon was showing through the felting.  I like it when the base fabric bubbles up through the top layer and in fact try to place my fibre to achieve this look, but I can appreciate how annoying it is when your felting hasn’t quite turned out as you expected.

I wasn’t really sure how I was going to cover the silk chiffon with more fibre as the waistcoat had been quite well felted, so I decided to needle felt more fibre to the chiffon using my Huskystar embellisher.  I then wetted the new fibre with soapy water and rubbed the ‘new’ areas with bubblewrap.  As the waistcoat had been thrown to harden it, I then slapped the ‘new’ areas against a work surface to try to emulate the ‘thrown’ felting.

Resist Felted Nuno Vest

Close Up

I was quite pleased how this process worked.  Once a piece of felt has been hardened it is quite difficult to correct any ‘mistakes’.  I would love to know any hints or tips you have for rescueing felt which hasn’t turned out quite as planned.  And please remember a ‘disaster’ to you may be fab to someone else.  I once took a scarf to a craft fair that I hated - it was the first item I sold!