Felt!

Right, It's been a while but we've been very busy bunnies here at Hoo Ha! Lots of things going on, Making, Designing and Laughing. All in preparation for the fashion show where our very own furry Hoo Ha will make its debut. We can't wait!

But before this could ever happen, the felt panels needed to be made.

Here we go...

 

Four layers of dry wool tops, layered in a crisscross fashion.

Make sure that the area you are working in is clinically clean, any grease or fat getting on your materials will make you sad! After you have cleaned up, lay down some news paper and one layer of bubble wrap. Because we are using a base material to felt on too (You can felt on to most open weave fabrics) you lay that down making sure it is flat and then you can layer your wool fibres on to it. One layer crisscrossing the next. It depends on how thick you want it as to how many layers you put down.

Put some netting over so that when you start rubbing the wool around it holds its shape.

Next put some netting over the top to secure the shape of the wool you've laid out, put a good ole pair of Marigolds on and sprinkle enough boiling water and washing up liquid over the top to make it look like this...

Yummy, soggy wool tops :)

Next lay another piece of bubble wrap over the top and start rubbing for your life! It will take about five minutes of rubbing it all over to bind the wool together enough to remove the netting. You have to do this other wise the wool tops will start felting to it and you don't want that! Once you have remover the netting sprinkle another lot of boiling water and washing up liquid on to your felt. Re cover with bubble wrap and rub hard for another five Min's. Add more boiling water and detergent and repeat. For a square about 30cm to 30cm it will take approximately 45mins to felt, but it all depends on how hard you rub!

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Hoo Ha, rubbing for Cornwall!

And there you have it, Wet felting. What a joy! We will post some images of the pieces when they are dry :)