QM Tips

Tips & Techniques

 Felting or Fulling Woven Wool

by Jannette Stewart

Remember the time you opened your washer and found your favorite wool garment reduced to child size? Wasn't hard to do, was it? Welcome to felting, or fulling, a process of reducing and matting wool fibers.

Felted 100% wool works beautifully for quilts in both piecing and applique. It does not ravel, is soft and dense, and felting wool is so easy to do!

Finding the Goods

Some fabric stores carry felted wool on the bolt, but collecting and processing the wool can be as much as fun as sewing with it.

Used woolen items can be found for very little money at thrift stores. The best values for your time and money are 100% wool blankets and large-size skirts. Wool coats are also good as long as the fabrics are not too thick. (The small amount of usable fabric from most jackets is not worth your time, and sweater thicknesses are so varied, you may wish to avoid them.)

Choose garments that are 100% wool or blends of 80% wool and 20% nylon or polyester. Avoid worsted wools; they tend to ravel, even when felted. (You can recognize worsted wool because it feels hard and flat. It is used most often for suits.) Also stay away from loosely woven wool fabric because it may not shrink up in the washing and drying process.