Recycling natural wool - as felt

by Rona
(from Greenfootsteps)

I'm only just getting going on this. I had a pure wool jacket that I was quite fond of and it was gradually shrinking. Perhaps I wasn't quite careful enough when I washed it - or maybe I put on a few pounds! It also developed one or two frayed edges where it had had a satin-trimmed edge.

I washed it a couple of times in a hot wash (60 degrees, I think) and then used the resultant material as felt. So far I've made a table mat with one piece, topped with a piece of left-over cotton.

Felt makes a great insulator and you can use it for no end of craft tasks. I've been meaning to make some heavy duty door stops. It might come in for that. You can also use it for finger puppets for kids. You could probably use it for creating strips for a rag rug, too. I'm sure there are plenty more ways you could use felt, if you let your imagination fly. I sometimes make felt from scratch - which is fun but a bit time consuming. Using up old cardies and sweaters to make felt is a lot faster but of course you are stuck with the original shade of the garment.