What is Felt?
Felt is a man made fibre that can be produced from natural fibres (wool or animal fur) as well as from synthetic fibres.
Felt made from natural fibres is much more superior in quality and can be an absolute joy for hand stitching.
What can you make with Felt?
It is fantastic for making felt plushies, decorations, or even as a backing material for a textured embroidery design. Whenever I make a new design out of felt I always try and persuade people to opt for felt made from the more natural fibres as it is much nicer to work with and has a better finish.
Different Types of Felt
Acrylic -this has a very coarse feel and is best left for childrens crafts.
Wool Blended Felt – This is a blend between a manmade or partially manmade fibre and a natural fibre. It comes in different percentages which refers to the 100% natural fibre content e.g. 30% wool blend felt would be a mix of 30% natural fibre and the rest manmade. 100% Wool Felt – is entirely made from natural fibres most commonly wool or a softer merino wool.
The Benefits of Wool Felt compared to Synthetic Felt…
Wool and wool blended felt has the following traits which make it the better choice for hand sewing (the higher the wool felt content, the better the benefits are )…
- Softer
- Stronger
- Easier to work with
- Does not go bobbly and shiny
- Gives a Quality finish
The Cost Factor…
There is no getting away from the fact that 100% wool felt is more expensive than the other choices.
However, Wool blend felt (especially those with a 40% or more wool content) is still a lovely fibre to use and has all the benefits above.
The higher the quantity of wool in the felt the better (in my opinion) the result will be. There are many online retailers selling fabulous wool felt in the UK and abroad.
Here are some of my favourite suppliers…
Wool Felt Company This is my go to for 100% wool felt and most of my dog plushies are made from this. They have never lost the same quality look from when they were first made!
Cloudcraft This beautiful felt is 100% merino wool so lovely and soft. The colours are amazing and colour palettes are available if you are struggling to choose.
Minerva Crafts These mini rolls are a wool/viscose blend and come in nice complementary colourways.
For those in the US – Benzie Design Wool Felt is easily available and is apparently wonderful to use. The colors are amazing, I just wish I could get hold of it in the UK.
There are lots more choices online with fabulous colourways and plenty of choice.
My Felt sewing patterns have been delighting many stitchers for the past few years. All my patterns have been sewn in 100% wool felt which I got from The Wool Felt Company and I can honestly say they still look as good now as they did when I first made them even though they have had a lot of handling and photo shoots!
To make them even more irresistable to sew I have just designed them a whole new wardrobe out of felt!
There are coats, collars, bows, flowers, and all made in felt. A lot of these were made with a gorgeous merino wool felt from Cloud Craft. The colours from here are so lovely and the super soft feel was just perfect for the accessories.
If you would like to sew up a simple felt plushie you can see all my designs in my Etsy shop for Plushie Patterns. Along with the pattern you get a guide on making templates and transferring to your felt so you can’t go wrong.
Just make sure you use a good quality felt for the best results!
Take a look at these gorgeous felt makes I found around the web from some very talented designers… Click on the image to be taken to their shop…
Happy Stitching!
