Create your own jacket that keeps you cozy and warm even on the gloomiest days. My particularity is to felt all in one piece and shape the work to the body.
Requirements
Skills
You need enough experience to figure out how to prepare the pattern and how to spread the wool around your pattern. Honestly, it took me three times to get it right :).
Material
- Roughly 200 g merino wool for size S
- Zipper
- A big surface to mess on
- Bamboo mats
- I don't know how to call that little bottle I use. It has sort of a shower head top and its original purpose is for ironing.
- A pot for water
- Soap
- Lots of hot water
How To
Modeling the jacket
Write down the measures that the finished product should have. According to your experience figure out the size of your pattern and use bubble foil to create it.
Use colors of your choice to model the jacket around the pattern. I used three thin layers of merino wool. In the corner between neck and shoulders fuzz the merino wool in all directions but don't layer up too much. This corner is sensitive to getting holes during felting but may irritate your skin if it gets too stiff after all.
The size of the pattern and tickness of the material are subject to both your personal experience and preference.
Prepare your Work Space
Place the work on another sheet of bubble foil or other plastic to support flipping over the work once it is wet and heavy.
I put pool foil on my table for protection. Along the rim of the table I placed towels that are rolled up alongside. I call this the big 'baby changing table'.
Felting the Surface
Wet the upper side with hot water. Gently felt the whole surface with soapy hands applying more and more pressure until you get the impression that the surface stays together. Don't work too hard along the edges yet! Flip over the work, tear off the extra foil that assisted you so far and repeat the last step, again, being easy on the edges.
Water temperature: I use close to boiling water, but be cautious not to burn your hands, they are your most precious tool. Rather adjust the water temperature to what you can personally handle, by means of your physical tolerance and your ability to think of letting the sprinkled surface cool down before digging in.
Always work with lots of soap on your hands. Here the pot comes into play.
Felting the edges
Now that both sides are felted to some degree you need to focus on the edges. Be cautious, this is the part where you can screw up badly leading into unwanted holes.
Close to either of the edges with a flat hand move your forearm inside, lift carefully and pull towards the middle of the work. Pay attention to not apply uneven forces. You will see a wrinkle along the line that used to be at the edge. On both sides gently felt away from the wrinkle until it disappeared. After the wrinkle is gone felt gently with increasing pressure where the wrinkle used to be until it has the same sturdiness as the big surfaces.
What can go wrong:
- You may cause holes by applying too much force locally.
- Remaining wrinkles may cause holes.
Fix:
If you do see occasional holes don't panic. Firstly, they may disappear later on. Secondly, if you are not that much of an experienced felter yet, you seem to be quite ambitious and likely to accept painful training lessons.
The corner between neck and shoulders
The corner between neck and shoulders is very sensitive to getting holes. Spread it on your working surface and gently felt until it reaches the same sturdiness as the rest. If you happen to see a hole appearing gently massage towards it evenly from all directions. If it is not too large, it should disappear as the jacket shrinks.
Shrinking
At this point you should have a oversized jacket in front of you, with a fragile surface that does keep together though, ideally without holes. Remove the bubble foil pattern.
Roll up the work in a big towel and roll with initially gentle and then increasing pressure. Unroll and repeat by rolling up in the perpendicular direction. In the beginning keep switching directions very frequently and make sure that the front and back don't start to felt!
At any time you can switch from using the towel to using the bamboo mat at your preference. I prefer switching to the bamboo mat rather early.
Shaping
Now it is definitely time to start using the bamboo mat which allows you to better adjust for local pressure and shrinking direction.
My recommendation is to start with the neck. Make it shorter and narrower.
I love to have my neck tight, but not everybody feels comfortable about that. Shrink the front more than the back. I cut a bamboo mat matching the final width of the neck so I can't shrink it too much.
If the edge of your neck does not turn out nicely and you don't like the handcrafted look, you can always cheat with scissors.
Next angle the shoulders. To do so, roll diagonally.
If the neck and shoulder parts approach your expectations, start working on the overall length and width of the jacket. To do so you can optionally move to a sink and squeeze the jacket under running hot water, this is how I particularly made the waist.
You may end up switching back and forth between the different procedures or stick with your personal preference. Don't forget to occasionally control the size with a measurement tape, and more frequently as you approach the end.
Arm holes
Cut the arm hole. If you feel uncomfortable about this part, do it incrementally after you attached the zipper.
Finish
Wash thoroughly by hand. Using vinegar neutralizes the soap in the fiber and gives back the natural flexibility. Hang to dry.
Zipper
Cut open in the center. To ensure a straight line I stitched on a thread first. Fasten the zipper provisionally, then sew it on for real.
I preferred to not stitch all the way through the felt but rather stay inside the felt to show no seams. This certainly is more tedious but therefore your stitches must not be that even and it looks great too. I figured it takes at least three seams to make the zipper hold tight and evenly, so I sewed twice along the ribbon and once across. At this point you might as well visit your sewing machine :).
Well done!
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