Day 18 - Fun with Felting

Have you ever accidentally washed a sweater only to have it come out of the dryer shrunken and unrecognizable? That is felting in a nutshell.

I've seen a few projects using felted wool and thought it would be fun to try them. Only I don't have any wool sweaters I'm willing to give up. I could make a trip to the local thrift store for some. They should be on sale now. But again, I'm a little impatient and when I want to try something I don't really want to have to wait.

I was thinking that my new hat could use a bit of flair and thought why not make a felted flower? I didn't really have the time to go to a couple of thrift stores and find the right sweater to use. I wanted someting now. I had a moth-eaten cashmere sweater that I couldn't bear to throw away. I was never going to wear it again. Why not give it a second life? Would it work?

So I went on line to find instructions on how to felt cashmere. It seemed easy enough - put the sweater in a pillow case or bag and throw it in the wash with a couple pairs of jeans. Done and done.

The only problem is I didn't pin the bag closed and the sweater came out of the bag. What used to be a light pink sweater now was a bit darker having come in contact with the jeans. But also the results weren't what I was expecting. The fibers didn't really mesh like I thought they would. So I turned back to the internet and found out that cashmee doesn't really felt all that well.

So its back to the drawing board for the flower. I can try to re-felt the sweater or I can sew the edges of the flower to keep it from freying. Or I can try option C, whatever that is.